Check Regi's on Light Street just south of the Inner Harbor. Price is right. No private room but there is a smaller dining room behind the bar where you should have some privacy unless the place is jammed. Ask for such a table. The bar is not noisy.

i second regi's. the capital grille will slightly push the $250 mark but is smack dab downtown, has very private rooms and has great food.

Steve, your act is getting old. You asked the same question back in August, and got a number of replies. Are you just going to regurgitate the same question every few months, or are you ever actually going to try some of the places that were suggested to you?

I thought that request sonded a bit familiar.

However, hmpstd, EL did state that she was answering "backed-up e-mails", so it's possible that SHE forgot that there was already a blog post about the same email, and it's not a duplicate request.

To be quite honest, your self-appointed role of tough guy blog cop is getting old.

Tough guy blog cop? hmpstd is just our detail-oriented researcher, who sometimes helps out in the memory department.

He's the only one who can find anything around here. Remember that, if you loose your car keys.

Kooper's Tavern in the Upstairs Dining Room. A quiet and small room, casual bar and nice menu selection.

I also thought that EL had forgotten the former post, or maybe just wanted to bring it up again for discussion under the heading of casual business dinner. As she and the e-mailer noted, it was "a good future topic".

I am curious, hmpstd, as to why you would assume Steve had resubmitted his question.

You are absolutely right, I forgot I had done a post on it. It did sound familiar, but then so does the one asking for a place for a wedding reception, and the graduation party...And I did check with Steve, who said I had never answered him. But it didn't occur to me I might I've done a post and not sent him the link. Not to worry. I have 1000 more of these requests waiting in the wings. EL

Regi's is an excellent choice for a casual dinner meeting,the large round table in the back behind the bar sits 6 comfortably, as I recall. It might be hard to accomplish a meeting though on a Friday or Saturday evening. The food is always great and the service, Especially Brad, is remarkable

You are pretty tough on Steve, hmpstead. Given EL's explanation, how about a grin of chagrin and an apology?

Oh well, I don't think Steve reads the blog anyway, or he would have said I answered his question in August. EL

My apologies all around. Unfortunately, the blog has in the past been subject to multiple posts of the same question by the same poster over a period of time. (For example, there was the retired Towson University professor who kept blasting D@L for the failure of Phillips to provide an adequate response to his dining complaint -- when he wasn't also trying to get Michael Phelps to go diving for shipwrecked treasure with him.) Also, I assume that Steve, like the rest of his party of 5, is a doctor, and the profession is notorious for asking the same question over and over without bothering to check for info first. (If you've been a hospital inpatient, tell me when the lowliest intern ever checked your chart before asking you the same basic questions that s/he had asked you on a daily basis for the last week.)

You've got a point about doctors, hmpstd. Last time I was at the clinic, the doctor stared at my chart on the screen, then offered to write me a script for penicillin.

I guess her day was so dull that she needed a good case of anaphylactic shock to liven things up.

And I always thought an EL-ephant never forgets.

Thanks, I'll be here all week.