Golly, I'm the first to comment. Where is your sandbox today?
I think this is a great idea, although you may never get ten people to agree on the crab cake issue. i personally had a good one at Pappas' following your revue of the place.

AT&T and phone bills? Oh, dear, my condolences. I hope data wasn't involved. That gets messy.

You know, we've never discussed napkin quality, and it really is a very important part of the whole dining experience. Paper or cloth, size, how it is folded...all quite critical.

I think the "best crab cake" might stir up so passions, everyone thinks they have the best place. For years I thought Angelina's was the best, but now who knows?

I would be interested to hear what the quintessential Baltimore restaurant is considered to be today after places like Hausner's have closed.

You just don't realize how special some Baltimore restaurants are until you don't live in the area any longer. Right now I'd even kill to go to a White Coffee Pot.

I like the quintessential Baltimore restaurant idea.

Most online polls lack a "none of the above" or "other" option.

Lissa, I don't care how a cloth napkin is folded, but paper napkins shouldn't be allowed unless there's a dispenser full of them on the table.

All this stuff is learn by doing. So it wasn't until I did it that I realized the answers would appear in reverse order. I started to do "other" and then realized it would appear at the top, which would have looked really dumb. So I didn't. EL

The problem with dispensers, Hal, is only little paper napkins fit into them. They also tend to be overfilled to the point where you can't get a napkin out.

Lissa, all of that is true, but it's still better than having just one woefully inadequate paper napkin.

Cotton or polyester?

I voted for crab cakes even though I'm rather done with the subject. I just know with this group an open ended discussion is a bad idea. We all know why top 10s suck and out of a 50/50 dislike for both subjects I went with the crab cake thing cause I know it'll be a lively discussion.

Of course on any given day, ants, entrails, poetry, pop culture or just about any other subject could become quite lively too...

Joyce, why is an open ended discussion a bad idea? Well, whatever we discuss, it might be more interesting in the evening.

Oh, no, not polyester, Gabriel Oak. Not even in Hampden.

Polyester is lousy for napkins, cotton is much better (although maybe harder to wash stains out of).

Although I wonder if some of this micro-fiber polyester stuff they make running clothes out of nowadays might make good napkin material. I'm not going to sacrifice any of my obnoxiously expensive running clothes to find out.

napkins shmapkins. i prefer curtains to absorb my sneezes, drool and misplaced foodbits. some restaurants really slack on the linen service. don't make me name any names.

Napkins? You people don't have sleeves?

No one really wants to "discuss" crab cakes; most people have very strong opinions on the subject and that does not lead to a discussion so much as it leads to people just declaring which is best in ther opinion.

Napkins is great discussion topic, there are so many angles.

Ever get in a situation where you are given one white cloth napkin when a large pile of paper napkins would be more appropriate (e.g., old bay steamed shrimp; a really messy bacon cheeseburger; ribs...)

I guess it's a little late to ask this, but are we allowed to vote more than once?

Go for it. EL

The problem with the 'quintesential Baltimore restaurant' is that you/we end up talking about places that are now closed (i.e. Hausner's). Don't get me wrong, as much as I LOVED Hausner's, it's still closed...

You are quite right. I am still open to a topic, or as Bacon Girl suggested, topics. I would do napkins, but unfortunately I think commenters have pretty much covered the subject already. Except, of course, for the whole black or white napkin thing. EL

Oh, I say we go for the Quintessential Baltimore Restaurant, but is it one that Locals prefer or one that best represents Baltimore to the visiting public? Let's not discuss the long or newly departed, ie, Haussner's, Marconi's, Martick's, Love's, Jimmy Woo's. Miller Brothers. or The Oriole Cafeteria. And please don't forget the Tea Room at Hutzler's downtown or the Penguin Room at Hochschild, Kohn in Eastpoint.
See, I really do have a great memory , and I'm only 60 years young.
Let's decide where, as Locals, we would go for the Beat Local offerings, Crab cakes, Sour beef, Shrimp salad, you name it.
I really like Perring Place and now that I'm old enough, I get it. I agree with an earlier posting that they are WAY beyond a need to redecorate, however.
Come on Sandbox, let's hear what you say.

Beat Local offerings

Red Emma's

Point to Laura Lee.

I don't know, Laura Lee. Red Emma's isn't much of a live music venue, they usually farm those out to 2600.

For local music and food, I'd have to suggest Lexington Market.

Lissa, "beat" made me think of poetry, not music.

That's what I was thinking, Hal. Actually, I haven't ever been to Red Emma's but I always imagined they would have a fair selection of Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac.

Shame on you, Hal. And you are a musician!

It is more fun to misunderstand sometimes. Besides, my poetry doesn't have a beat.

Besides, my poetry doesn't have a beat.

Just wear a beret while reading it, accompanied by a bad bongo player.

My adolescent angst is far too delicate for bongos, Hal. I fear I'd fail at being a beat.

...angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient
heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the
machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high
sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and
saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene-
ment roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool
eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy
among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy &
publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn-
ing their money in wastebaskets and listening
to the Terror through the wall,...

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix..."

Patti Smith reads it better than he ever did.

Was Ginsberg really writing about Dining@Large?

Filbert, were you referring to "the best minds of my generation" or the "destroyed by madness"?

MDtopdad, I agree about Perring Place, but then we're almost the same age. And, even with a large crowd (like our choir's end-of-season dinner), the servers are invariably amiable, the food is good, and the prices are right. What's not to like?

I love Lexington Market, but the ambiance ain't the greatest. But then, when you can get the world's best crabcake at Faidley's, the rest is just window dressing.