I went there New Years day for Lunch and it was great. Awesome food and better yet great service!!

Good for them and I wish the new owners well. And yet... this is the latest old-timer bar to go upscale.

I fear a generation of inexpensive, unpretentious, unpurposefull places are going the way of the dodo leaving two extremes in their wake: post-frat beer pong emporiums or burgundy & leather finished wine bars with the latest take on $12 mac and cheese.

Sigh.

We went to dinner there about a month ago and had a wonderful evening. The service was friendly and attentive. They seemed genuinely proud of the restaurant and wanted you to have a good time. The positive service made a big difference in our experience since we felt the food was underwhelming. We felt the same about the mac and cheese as the reviewer. The duck was salty and some potatoes that came with another dish were too salty to eat. The vegetarian pasta dish had obviously fresh pasta but it all seemed to be one big clump. The seasonal veggies included carrots which I thought was kind of odd. The beef carpaccio appetizer had beef sliced so thin it was impressive but it almost fell apart when you tried to pick it up with a fork. We are still trying to figure out the idea of caramelized potatoes. I suppose based on the prices our food expectations were very high so we felt let down in that department but the dining experience there was positive. We ate upstairs in the large room and was getting a bit loud as we were leaving due to a large party. We ended up going to the bar for after dinner drinks because we really enjoyed the place. I'd say it's worth visiting but lower your food expectations. Maybe a simpler menu would be a better move for them.

Louche?

I had to look that up. Knowing gorelick's City Paper background, I thought it was French for A Very Bad Word.

Eve -

I don't think it's the first time he's used that word. I seem to remember seeing it in another review, a long, long time ago.

A Good Word Is Hard to Find.

I tried Googling +gorelick +louche, but only came up with the Miss Irene's review (along with hundreds and hundreds of articles that I hadn't written but that were about me)

I'm not saying I haven't used it before though in a review; it is a word I like.

Mr. Gorelick,

If you look up the City Paper Best of Baltimore 2003 and look under the write-up for Best Indian, you'll see what I'm talking about. Of course, it could have been written by any number of the large staff of reviewers who participated in that issue but I thought it sounded like your voice. I wonder if you remember?

(disclosure: I used to be part owner of Banjara as well as The Ambassador Dining Room which is why I pay such close attention to these things. Believe me, we got a kick out of "impossibly louche").

Hi El, this was one of the deletes I think. I wrote that my wife took me to Miss Irene's for my birthday in February and the food was very good, as was the service. Kind of pricy but the place looked really nice.

Thanks for re-posting, and again, sorry. EL

Ms Lee, your ownership in the Ambassador didn't perhaps go back the the pre-Indian days, did it?

RtSO, no, the space had been vacant for many months when my then husband and I acquired it. The original proprietor was long gone. I understand the place was quite the old Baltimore icon in its heyday. We had to kind of talk the landlord into the whole idea of indian food. He didn't say it but I'm sure he was thinking, as he graciously handed over the keys -- there goes the neighborhood.

Thanks. I was hoping for some recepies. The old Ambassador was a Baltimore icon. Great Maryland seafood and wonderful sweet breads. The house salad dressing was also wonderful.

Ms. L...Rusty from Miss Irene's here. It is great to see that we are still on your radar and that you are continuing to remind people about us. We have been very pleased with the reviews we have been receiving; the positive things said about us have confirmed that we are on the right path, the negatives have given us a daily reminder that there is still "tweeking" to be done. Not a day goes by when we don't stop at the end of work and discuss what worked and what didn't. We are getting there!
There is a particular "intangible" at Miss Irene's that Mr. Gorelick could not be aware of. I am pleased and proud to say that we have the most remarkable clientele I've had the pleasure to serve. When Lynn writes, "The service was friendly and attentive. They seemed genuinely proud of the restaurant and wanted you to have a good time. The positive service made a big difference in our experience", I want to give her a hug. We are fortunate to have a large number of guests who return week after week and become a part of our lives. Our "regulars" give us such confidence in what we are doing. Still hoping you will come and see for yourself sometime soon.