Thomas Dunklin just announced his first menu since taking over the stoves at B&O American Brasserie last December.

New -- small plates like roasted beet carpaccio with goat cheese, avocado, pistachio, and Meyer lemon oil, Decadent Deviled Eggs, a soft boiled egg with truffled Maryland crab, mustard and caviar, and oxtail ravioli with parsnip, ricotta, cherry jus and calamari ($14).

New signature flatbreads featuring Dunklin's creations -- wild mushroom with pesto, goat cheese and pearl onion, and house made duck chorizo with egg, Gouda, candied turnip and braised greens.

The dinner menu offers raw bar selections with the season’s freshest shellfish and oyster offerings as well as charcuterie items made in-house.

But what got our attention at the Midtown Headquarters of the International Red Velvet Appreciation League (IRVAL) --"Chef Dunklin’s famed Red Velvet Doughnuts with cream cheese frosting and served with a sweet potato cashew milkshake.

 

Continue reading "B&O Brasserie's new menu -- Red Velvet Doughnuts!" »

Blue Hill Tavern tweeted that its new spring menu was viewable on the new menu tab on its facebook page.

I knew what that meant!

According to co-owner and manger Mel Carter, who answered the phone when I called, the appetizers are mostly, if not entirely, new. They include octopus with lemon and shaved fennel, an escargot saute, and a garde manger with chicken liver, prosciutto di parma and breseola.

Entrees are now divided between seasonal and favorites, things that customers would "kill us if we took off the menu," Carter says.

On the seasonal menu -- mussels and monkfish in saffron both, skate wing (suddenly everywhere) with olive tapenade and orange and butter braised fennel, and bison osso buco.

Send your spring menu to richard.gorelick@baltsun.com

 

Baltimore Sun photo/Kenneth K. Lam

 

 

Last week, I posted the new Fall menus that I knew about. Here are a few more

 

Chameleon Cafe started its new Fall menu just this Wednesday night. Much of the foundation material - quail, sweetbreads, lamb shank -- will look familiar to Jeff Smith's fans, but he's giving most of them fresh twists. You can look at the new menu here.  

Actually I knew about the B&O American Brasserie's new Fall menu, too -- but it got lost in the shuffle. On the latest seasonal menu from chef Michael Reidt (pictured here)  are starters like Guinness-root vegetable gnocchi and a foie gras and oxtail terrine; entrees like wood-fired cassoulet and Briarwood Farms rabbit with dumpling squash and kale-smoked almond pesto; and, from the brick-oven, wood-fired brussels sprouts, home-made sausage, and short-rib flat breads. Check out the entire menu here.

Baltimore Sun Staff/Kim Hairston

 

 

I will post these new menus as they come in, in amber waves of grain. In some cases, the restaurants have menus posted on their websites. I really do think that one other restaurant had sent me their Fall menu (before I asked for them, I mean). If so sorry about that.

Drifty is sleepy!

B -- Until the first frost, the Bolton Hill bistro will be straddling the seasons. Summer vegetables like heirloom tomatoes and egglplants are still coming in from the farm, but so are fall vegetables like potatoes, butternut squash, rapini, turnips, and radishes. So, this weekend look for fried green tomatoes with smoked pimento aioli and smoked anchovies and an autumnal butternut squash soup with yogurt and fried sage leaf, too.

Brewer's Art -- The fall menu debuted just a few nights ago with returning fall favorites like the Utz-crusted cod, steak frites, and shrimp and grits with Tasso ham and red-eye gravy. Promising new menu items include a seared miso-glazed tuna, red-curry sweet potato bisque, and a knockout pumpkin polenta with sauteed greens apples, gruyere, parmesan cream, and sage-hazelnut pesto

Pazo -- When Pazo opens back up following this Tuesday's fire (as soon as Friday night -- update, 2:28 p.m.: Pazo will open tonight, Friday, October 8), it will be with an entirely new menu format. But among the autumnal highlights are an "Autumn Soup Duo" of butternut squash and black bean; a wood-grilled Magret with pistachio pesto, local pear puree, and honey sauce; a three-cheese "Bianca" pizza with spinach, cauliflower, pignoli, and golden raisins; and a green-apple brown-butter tart. 

The Wine Market -- Highlights from Christopher Becker's first menu as the new executive chef here include a field green salad with julienned delicata squash, crispy salsify, banyuls and maple vinaigrette;Marvesta Farms shrimp torchon with avocado buttermilk, cumin-shrimp reduction and mint puree; and a miso-ginger braised Creekstone shortribs with herb-butter dumplings and carrot puree.

 

Baltimore Sun Staff/Gene Sweeney Jr.