A Food Foursome...

As I said, over the long holiday weekend, I had several opportunities to eat/dine at some local places. Thursday provided a chance to have a long planned lunch at Courtney’s. My friend had indicated a hankering for fried oysters, and since it was closer for him, we decided that Courtney’s was the proper venue. I survived the post Veteran’s day parade gridlock in Leonardtown, and managed to get there a little before my friend, so I went in. There were several tables occupied, and the venerable Tom was waiting on them in his own order. When he got to my table I said that my friend was running behind, but wanted fried oysters and wanted to make sure they were available, and ordered a Miller Light (hey, it’s just right). He checked with the kitchen and returned and said that there were indeed some left but would reserve a couple of baskets worth for us. After a few sips, my friend arrived and found the table. It turns out that he had been a regular over the years, and although he had not been there recently, he was remembered. My friend being very civilized ordered a glass of Merlot and we settled in for some good conversation. As is customary here at Courtney’s dishes trickled out of the kitchen, first to this table, then that, then the other, and after another bottle of Miller (with the internal rifling) our baskets finally arrived. The oysters were just barely coated with a light batter, more blond than brown, but the oysters they enrobed were plump and flavorful. The fries, which were probably Sysco, were sort of just right, and we had an enjoyable meal, punctuated by interesting political conversation with Tommy. It’s an institution folks, be sure to enjoy it while it’s still there. Nothing is forever…

That same evening, MFO and I journeyed over the bridge to the Ruddy Duck to hear a long time friend from the golden years of the Dry Dock perform. We arrived as the setup was in progress to a rather packed bar area with several revelers there for the football (first Thursday night Pro game), hockey, and some second rate college football game. With help from the “maître de”, we secured a table generally in front of the performing duo. We were shortly approached by the server, and geez, I still don’t like the “hi I’m and I’ll be….” crap, but there it was. Friendly and well meaning, but just take my order please. Despite being in a brew pub we succumbed to the two dollar wine deal and had glasses of the house chardonnay, probably equitably priced. Anyway we ordered a starter of “Chipas a la Carlos”, those little Argentinean cheese balls, and a burger for MFO and a “mucho meat” pizza for myself. Meanwhile the music began, and I wish I could have been in a quieter venue. They had a great repertoire, Bob Dylan, Sweet Baby James, John Prine, and other music we could relate to, but the general din made it hard to listen to. They also had a nice selection of instruments, flute, soprano sax, and mouth harp along with the guitar. I really don’t know their stage names but Kathy and her partner put on a nice show. As for the food, the little cheese balls are always good, and I think the pizza there is among the best to be found around here, and MFO’s burger was, well, if you order medium rare for a processed patty, it isn’t so much done on the outside. The Ruddy Duck is a good gathering place, it’s loud, but maybe okay for that kind of venue.. It seems to be popular…and for a wine guy, their beers are really good.

Saturday night, after we enjoyed the gallery show at Carmen’s, we stumbled across the parking lot and entered DiGiovanni’s, our first visit under the new regime. An immediate positive reaction was that the entrance is now into a little ante room, not straight into the dining space which is a welcome change. Other than that, not much is different from our previous visits. The layout is unfortunate, but that’s the hand they’re dealt. It’s sort of backward of what you would wish, with the necessaries (bathrooms) near the kitchen, making you feel sort of uncomfortable using them, and the “walk in” refrigerator at the opposite end of the bar, away from the kitchen. That results in the kitchen staff continually traversing the length of the bar, “scuse, me, pardon me” returning with ingredients. Not the prettiest of pictures. Anyway we settled in at the bar, figuring we would only have appetizers. There was a bit of skirmishing over what we wanted, but finally we had menus, wine list, and the “events” list before us. I levied the drink test, and MFO selected a glass of Vouvray from the voluminous “by the glass” wine list. Happy to say the drink test passed with flying colors and a full pour of wine for MFO, although my cocktail was sort of diminutive. Sip, sip, “another please”. The menu contained the usual array of neo Italian dishes, but we decided that small plates were called for, so ordered the “antipasto mista – possibly for two”, the Calamari with marinara, and the baked mushroom with crab meat and “monalisa” sauce. Meanwhile the service staff congregated at the end of the bar, carrying on their own social life conversations which we didn’t care to share; “so like, I went, and he, so like….”. Given all of this, I didn’t have very high expectations for the food, but I was pleasantly surprised by the antipasto plate, it was nicely presented, the ingredients were fresh, with the tomatoes as good as could be expected this time of year, layered with a passable fresh mozzarella and balsamic drizzle, and freshly cut charcouterie. The Calamari was not quite up to par, smallish rings of slightly tough stuff, and the sauce was sort of medicinal. MFO’s mushroom was topped with acceptable crab stuffing, but the mushroom itself was sort of flat and not very appetizing. The accompanying sauce was better than mine. All in all, it was acceptable food, but not memorable. We were eventually joined by some friends who were “regulars” and of course they had a great time. Maybe repeat business would engender a little better experience, but for instance the bartender dividing her time between bartending and dessert preparation is distracting. We will/would go back, but won’t be in a hurry to do so. We never did see the white coated "chef" that was featured in the advertisement guised as a review in the "around town" section of the local newspaper a little while ago..


And lastly, although this is more “doing” than “dining” we finished the weekend by attending the fall meeting of the St. Mary’s Historical Society, held at the Rivers Edge Conference Center. I learned that you don’t call it “The O-Club” anymore, as the nice young man at the gate corrected me. Anyway, it is a nice new building with a different but still nice water view and housed the Society group just fine. With the demise of the J. T. Daugherty center outside the gate, this remains one of the few options, but it’s inside the gate with all the attendant hassles of gaining entrance. The brunch was a buffet, and it was quite an improvement over my last experience with the buffet at the old place. Usual stuff, scrambled eggs, bacon (which nobody can screw up), nice potatoes, some wild rice, pork with dressing, and a seafood stew/newburg dish which I thought didn’t work, and salad. A nice array of choices, and as I said improved over previous experiences. The program for the meeting was a look at “reading” the landscape at Historic St. Mary’s city, looking at what you could learn from the depressions, mounds and stuff. You always learn something.

So we pretty much had a tasting menu of restaurants, from the classic waterfront “crab house” to better dining. And not one of them was a chain..thank god… and for each we were appropriately

DFD