Unexpected Pleasures...

Don’t get your hopes up. Remember this is about food, , and also the feeder is getting up there in years.

Pleasure One: Friday I was privileged to have a quick tour of the “new” Port of Leonardtown Winery (which will be documented in an upcoming post), and then we decided to take lunch at Thompson’s Corner Kafe. (I have no idea why they decided to put the “K” on corner (or they could have done Korner Kafe) but that’s not the point). I had several stringer reports with advice of “you gotta go there!” to which I thought yeah, yeah, just another diner. Then, MFO brought home the remnants of a lunch she had there recently; a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and by golly the ham had been carved off the bone - it wasn’t luncheon meat! Okay, you got it. This place IS worth checking out.

So, after seeing the winery we drove behind Bell’s, er, I mean Winegardners motors to an unassuming little building that once housed “Sis’s Hideaway Bar” an historical African American bar. Kevin Thompson’s (of Seafood/Catering fame) has taken it over and remodeled it and opened the “Kafe” mainly for lunch although they do serve dinner on the weekends. Upon entering, I immediately thought “Hey, I like this place!”. The same feeling you get when you walk in St. James Pub. Done in knotty pine paneling with high ceilings and stuff on the walls it somehow reminded me of a “lodge” atmosphere. There is a little knee wall that separates the largish space so that it feels a little more private, and there are many tables and booths (here they’re booths, not banquettes). On the wall to the right as you walk in there are some historical photos, but without any documentation (have to get MFO on that!), and a cold case with oysters and crabmeat for sale. Oysters were $10 the pint. Behind that, there is a “bar” for ordering that is a replica (?) of a boat. Pretty cute. There is a menu, but mostly things are on “white boards” (also reminiscent of St. James Pub), and since it’s the Thompsons, it leans heavily toward seafood. On the day we were there, there were crabcake, rockfish, and oyster sandwiches featured, along with other things that escape me at the moment. You tell the nice lady what you would like, she asks if you would like a drink, and if so, there’s a dispenser on the other wall reminiscent of McDonalds. I did see some wine bottles, but no beer taps. On such a cold, windy day an order of oyster sandwich and oyster stew combo sounded good, so I ordered that ($13.99), and my companion helpfully ordered the (??!!??) “stuffed ham soup” and we got a couple of cokes and sat down. Soon a plate arrived (they do deliver to your table) with an open hamburger bun piled with (~10) hot fried oysters, and a bag of (frito lay) chips. Just the thing. There was also two little tubs of “Kens cocktail sauce”, just as you would expect. I wondered about the stew and soup but the oysters were quite inviting so we shared a couple of them. In another couple of minutes we were presented with (Styrofoam) cups of the oyster stew and the stuffed ham soup and a quizzical look because another “oyster sandwich” on the tray. We mentioned we only ordered one, but he said “well, have another and enjoy!”. We did. Oh, the oyster stew was piping hot, and just a little kick, and you had to work to get a spoonful that didn’t include an oyster. The stuffed ham soup had all the right stuff (pun?), and also was very tasty

It’s obvious that the feeder has missed the boat here, it’s a great luncheon place, and the number of “locals” we saw testifies to that fact. The printed menu leans almost entirely to seafood, with the only non-seafood selections a hamburger, grilled chicken breast, or chicken salad sandwiches. All the dinners are seafood with the classic fried or boiled Combos, crabcake, fried scallop, oyster, fish, shrimp, clam baskets are all you can get. Prices for the luncheons on Friday were a bit hefty but so were the portions. Great food, nice place, a “northern” version of St. James. Just right.

Second Pleasure: we had decided to attend a production Friday night of the Port Tobacco players in LaPlata entitled “Once on This Island”. The daughter of one of our neighbors was performing in it so we thought we’d do “theater” coupled with a dinner at Casey Jones (officially The Crossing at Casey Jones). We hadn’t been there for quite a while, mostly out of the distance factor, and so we thought this would make a nice evening. So, with a weather eye we started out and arrived at LaPlata 15 minutes ahead of our 6:30 reservation, but the host said no problem and we were led to the dining area. As you remember, the restaurant is nicely divided by partial walls and partitions on different elevations, making each room nicely private. The warm stone walls are set off by the linens and carpet, giving a comforting feeling. The wine cabinet has art pieces on it. We were seated in a booth that was a room away from the "open" kitchen, but I had a line of sight for viewing. All evening I never saw anything but quiet attention to the food, no histrionics, just doing their job. Water was immediately brought to the table, and after a little bit, the server (dressed in a muted burgundy shirt and slacks as was the entire staff), and said Hi, would you care for anything besides water to drink? I decided to re-apply the drink test, but MFO wanted a glass of wine so started thumbing through the (quite extensive) wine list. He said “I can maybe help you if you wish, would you like white or red?” White. “We have several what did you have in mind?” I guess Chardonnay. “do you like oaked or unoaked?”. How many times have you heard that in a restaurant? He then said, “while I’m here would you like to hear the specials or wait?” Now is fine. They had a Red Spruce Cheddar appetizer with onions and fruit compote, a Kobe beef served over garlicked mashed potatoes, and a Seared Ahi tuna (that was swimming a day ago) dusted with Fennel Powder with fingerling potatoes. Out of curiosity, I asked the price of the Kobe dish. He apologized and said 28 bucks. Alert readers will be as surprised and pleased as I was. He then went off for the drinks. Plusses for service. The drink was perfectly prepared, in a nice size glass allowing for room over the cocktail and ice without being rim full, and MFO enjoyed her wine after it cooled a bit. After a bit of lingering and calming, we looked at the menu and wine list. In the interest of your time and my fingers, we’ll contract a bit here.

Both the wine list and menu have a great selection of dishes, food all described without too much verbiage (espresso-crusted long island duck breast with cinnamon seared foie gras, sautéed polenta andbraised fennel & onions, drizzled with a blackberry coulis), and prices were extremely reasonable. I believe there was only one option over thirty. Appetizers were equally intriguing. The wine list was organized by “weight”, from light to heavy and “ripeness”. It’s a great read, with wines from places I had later to go look up. Priorat, Kremstal, Les Mesnils? Again, prices were extremely reasonable. You could find a pretty good bottle for whatever you wanted to spend. We had settled on our food (after a second correctly prepared Dry Manhatten) and we decided that we’d go for the specials, and thought a Chambolle Musigny would be a nice accompaniment to the food. Order was the du jour Tomato Bisque topped with a “Grilled cheese sandwich” and their version of a Caesar salad (grilled hearts of romaine lettuce lightly brushed with olive oil, drizzled with our chef’s homemade Caesar dressing and served with a parmesan tuile and fresh croutons); and both the “specials”. The server came back and said the wine lady thought our choice was appropriate, but unfortunately the Burgundy was not avaible and suggested the bottle of Lane Tanner that accompanied him. He said let’s open it and see what you think and if it’s not right we’ll try something else. One alert reader who is a pinotphile will recognize that Lane Tanner Pinot is no slouch. It was lovely and only 33 dollars in the restaurant.

I could fill another page with the description of the food, but each course provided the “wow!” experience. I had expected good food, but what we had was just outstanding. The fingerling potatoes with my tuna I would have gladly eaten on their own, just right texture, and full of flavor. The tuna was just seared on the margins, cold in the middle with a lovely translucent red center and the fennel dust added just a tickle on the tounge. What a dish. The Kobe reminded us of what beef can be. Oh, and with the cork and carry law, we brought Lane home with us.

A great meal, totally unexpected pleasure. I hate the word “destination”, but boy, if you don’t mind a little drive (with maybe the wine in the trunk) I hope you wouldn’t be disappointed. They are worth it.

We finished the evening with a nice production of the play and thought our neighbor did an outstanding job..Nice evening. too bad there's nothing to do..

and you can be we were

DFD and DFT