Well, you have to start somewhere...

Restaurant 1

Peter's Inn
504 South Ann Street
Baltimore, Maryland

So what would the basis be for picking the first restaurant on my list? Quite simple, really. While hanging out with my upstairs neighbors Jenn and Carlos, Jenn professed to be hungry. That's how it starts; "I'm hungry. Let's eat." She recommended that we all go out together. Her first pick is Peter's Inn in Fell's Point, a place that she and Carlos really like. It is all the way across town, and being hungry and lazy, Carlos and I are pushed for the closer Woodberry Kitchen. I have heard nothing but good things about Woodberry and to be honest, I have been looking forward to trying it out. Where better, I think, to start this journey?

Woodberry Kitchen, from day one has been extremely popular. Located in the revitalized Clipper Mill area of Baltimore, it is a farm to table restaurant with incredible food, or so I am told. Unfortunately, they were completely packed even before official dinner time, so that left Peter's as the go-to place for the night.

We arrived at Peter's about an hour before the kitchen opened but they had no problem with that because the bar was ready. We were seated at a table right next to the bathroom. Oh, yeah, that's right, the bathroom. We must have exuded class, so they put us in a place befitting our stature.

A brief word on the bathroom at Peter's inn...it has a lot of cool art on the wall and a nice collection of items to keep you looking and smelling fresh. It's a little odd in there but they have a cool piece on the wall depicting the mug shots of Frank Sinatra and Sid Vicious with the words I did it my way below. If that piece ever goes missing, it might be at my house. I'm just saying.

The waiter that we had was a friendly enough and he knew to point us in the right direction when it came to drinks. I asked to see the chef when he or she had a chance. Jenn said that the she heard that the chef at Peter's was rumored to have an issue with her drinking but that she was a really good chef. Sure enough, the waiter walked over to get the chef who was standing at the bar with a drink in her hand holding court with a couple of other patrons.

The chef's name was Karin Tiffany and she could not have been nicer. I explained what we were up to and when I asked which dish best exemplified her as a chef, she seemed on the fence with most of the dishes, as her menu changes constantly depending what is in season. She did say that she liked tonight's shrimp and grits with two small pork belly sandwiches with mint alioli. Carlos picked the seared scallops with lobster ravioli and Jenn, I believe had the trout. I may be a little off on her selection because it was a while ago and she's not here to yell to when I'm writing this. I remember that it was good, though.

It was all pretty good. The scallops were the best of the three. The shrimp and grits were fantastic and cooked perfectly. I was excited for the pork belly sandwiches because I had never had pork belly before. The flavor was drowned out by the mint alioli. It basically tasted like a creamy mint sandwich. It was a good, creamy mint sandwich, but that's not the flavor that I was looking for as a standout.

We had a couple more drinks while chatting away and hadn't realized that the restaurant had completely filled up and that there were people waiting inside for seats. We asked for the bill and received it in a quick fashion. Dinner for the 3 of us totaled just around a hundred dollars plus our bar tab of around fifty, but when the check came, the number written on the back was just around a hundred.

This is a test of one's morals and let me assure you that Carlos is a lot more moral than I am. He saw that there was a clerical error and with the table's approval, he asked the waiter over and pointed out that the numbers added up incorrectly. This was a seasoned waiter. You could tell that by the way that he worked the room. However, he re-examined the check, turned it over and said that the check was correct.

We shrugged and paid the check, knowing that although we had been honest, we were getting away cheap. With a spring in our steps and songs in our hearts, we left Peter's Inn feeling full and happy.

As for the second question that I asked Chef Tiffany; where do you go to get an excellent dish, her answer was Cinghiale in Baltimore's Harbor East district. She loved to go there because she knew that whenever she went she could get a really good fish dish.

Did I know anything about this restaurant? Nope. Was I about to find out? Yep. Was it going to be a funny story? Absolutely...