Restaurant 2
Cinghiale
822 Lancaster Street
Baltimore, MD
As previously mentioned, the premise of this journey is simple. Go to a restaurant, ask the chef which dish best encompasses him or her as a chef, order that dish and find out where they go to get a good meal. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Sometimes, however, they make for an interesting story...
So when we last left our hero, he was leaving Peter's Inn with the suggestion to visit Cinghiale in the Harbor East section of Charm City. Simple enough. Time to make the reservation.
A quick check on the Chinghiale website enlightened me to two things; one, that I would more than likely need to make a reservation and two, I was getting into fancier territory. Cinghiale is a restaurant operated by the Foreman Wolf group. They operate Charleston, Petit Louis, and Pazo restaurants as well as Bin 201 and Bin 604 Wine Sellers. They seem to know what they are doing when it comes to food and wine in the city. Me? Not a clue.
For some reason, the distant sounding of alarm bells was going off in the back of my head when reading about this restaurant company and reading the staff bios. The term "over your head" started working its way out of my brain pan, but I am not here to be cautious. I'm here to see how far this fiery comet will take me.
Back to the reservation...
I called Cinghiale to make a reservation just to make sure that I could get a seat on the day that I wanted. I also wanted to make sure that the chef would be at the restaurant when I was there so that I could ask my questions. When I asked if the chef would be in and if he could swing by the table before dinner so that I could ask him a couple of questions, I was put on hold while the host checked. She came back and informed me that yes, chef Julian would be there and that he would be able to visit our table. Then I was asked if this was for an article. I informed her that it was for a possible freelance piece. I had to think fast and this was the vaguest somewhat accurate bullshit that I could think of. Possible freelance piece? Sure, I guess. If I turn this into a big compilation, maybe I could turn it into a story for the Baltimore City Paper or a weekly of some kind. People need to know where to eat and everyone likes to observe a fool's folly.
So I filed away the reservation part of the story and though nothing of it. Until...
I get a telephone call the day of the reservation from Allison Parker-Abromitis, Vice President of Development & Communication for Foreman Wolf. She introduced herself and said that she understood that I was doing a piece on Cinghiale. She then offered to get me any bio information, photos of the restaurant and pretty much anything else that she could to assist me in my story. She said that the chef and staff was eagerly awaiting my arrival and she also let me know that the food was sensational and that I was going to have a great experience. She was friendly, sincere and I'm sure that she would have been a great help if I knew exactly what I was doing.
Remember those little alarm bells? Someone just started hitting them with a hammer.
Cut to the restaurant. Cinghiale is a beautiful restaurant, across the street from the harbor. It has a long bar. It is tall and open and as soon as you walk through the door, you know that you are in for a serious night of dining. The restaurant is split into 2 restaurants, an Enoteca - wine bar, and an Osteria - dining room. The wine bar is more casual and the dining room is more upscale.
My dining guest and I arrived at the restaurant and when I mentioned my name to the host the whole place seemed to really snap to. We were whisked to our corner table and there was a flurry of servers and staff to make sure that any needs that we would have would be addressed. We had the same server throughout the night and although I cannot remember his name, I assure you that he was top notch. A perfect guide for the evening's activities and completely professional.
A few minutes after we were seated, chef Julian Marucci stopped by our table. He was younger than I thought he would be for the executive chef of this scale of restaurant. As I have been finding out, most chefs are a little confused about being questioned before a patron's meal. I explained as best I could the premise of my journey and he seemed to get it. I asked him which dish on the menu had the most of him in it. He explained that most chefs have some of himself or herself in the dishes and that it was hard to pick just one. He then settled on a pasta dish that he seemed the most proud of - Pasta del Ovo (we'll get to that in just a minute.)
When the topic of which restaurant he would choose to go out to to get a good dish came up, he mentioned that he was a new father and that he and his wife had very little time for nights out. When he did, however, he said that he liked to go to Pazo. He apologized for picking a restaurant in his own business' chain, but he said that if he was being honest, that was the place that he really liked to go to. So be it.
Chef Julian then asked what it was going to be for the night. Of course, I said, I would be having the pasta. He then came up with a brilliant suggestion - a three course meal. One dish off of the house menu, one off of the then recent Valentines Day menu, and one dish that they would make up in the kitchen just for us. "How does that sound?" How does that sound?!? That sounds awesome! "Would you like the wine pairings, too" Absolutely!
Our server then came out with what looked like a sushi menu, but it turned out to be a wine card with three wines numbered and circled indicating which wines we would be receiving with each course.
My first course was a simple salad with candied walnuts, feta and a balsamic vinaigrette that was simple in its preparation but fantastic in flavor. My dining partner had fried calamari, also simply prepared with rosemary, olive oil and chili flake. It was also very good and the wines matched up perfectly.
Throughout the course, in addition to our server, a couple of different staff members checked in to see how things were going. Meanwhile, I'm trying to write what I'm eating in my notebook and hold down polite conversation.
The second course was the slam dunk. The pasta dish was ravioli filled with a spinach ricotta mousse and a partially cooked egg. The ravioli was served in a truffle butter sauce with sliced truffles on top. When you cut into the ravioli, the egg spilled out and blended into the sauce. It was as delicious and as decadent as it sounds. It was the type of dish that you savor very slowly and are extremely reluctant to share. But share we did. My dining partner had a tossed pasta dish with huge Japanese prawns. A little heat and plenty of flavor. Delightful.
More people checking in and spectacularly matched wines. So far, they're batting 1.000.
On to the final course. My dish was a magret of duck with parsnip puree and preserved cherries. I haven't have a lot of well prepared duck dishes in my life but this was wonderful. The texture of the duck was exactly like steak in my mouth. It had great flavor. Not the best dish of the three, but a close second. The dining partner had Tasmanian sea trout. What is a Tasmanian sea trout, you say? Heck if I know! Looked like salmon, tasted like salmon. It had an extremely flavorful and crusted skin and the meat was perfect.
The wine pairings again, were wonderful and this time, one of the people who came to check in on us was the owner, Tony Wolf himself. He didn't introduce himself. He just came over to ask if everything was alright. At that point someone had torn the alarm bells in my head off of their mounts and was now throwing them down metal stairs. I actually turned to my dining companion and said "If they catch on to the fact that we're not legit, they're going to run us out of here on a rail!" We laughed and I was assured that technically, I was doing a freelance piece and I was and still am kind of legit.
Desserts? How about a panna cotta and three fantastic gelatos? Add to that sparkling wine and port and you have a great ending to a night filled with fantastic food, world class service, some of the best wine ever to touch these lips.
Cinghiale is pricey, no doubt about it but the whole experience is worth every penny. I cannot stress that enough. A perfect special occasion restaurant. It is a perfect example of what I had in mind when I came up with this foolishness.
Next up: Pazo
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