Towson Town Center's Restaurants

To contact us Click HERE
I was invited* to Towson Town Center to take a "tour" of some of their major eateries: TGIF's, P.F. Chang's, Stoney River and The Cheesecake Factory.  Below are some of my thoughts on each place.


Also, Towson Town Center has been having some special events this month, including one on Saturday March 24th from 1-3PM: Cooking Demo and Wine-Pairing Seminar

• Local food and wine expert, Laurie Forster "The Wine Coach," will host a cooking demonstration and wine-pairing seminar.
• Seminars will be held at 1PM, 2PM and 3PM in the Level 1 Grand Court
• Seminars will include table-side sampling (SAMPLES!!!!!), fun raffles, giveaways and retailer offers.

Follow Towson Town on Facebook to keep up with more events.

P.F. Chang's
(Check out my last review of P.F.Chang's from 2009 here)

At P.F.Chang's we were given some items from their Happy Hour menu to try.  Their Happy Hour is Mon-Fri, 3-6pm.  The prices I have included in this section are from that menu.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps 
I hadn't been to a PFC in a while, so I have to admit that I was excited about trying the Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($6) again.  They are still so good.  The chicken concoction mixed with mushrooms and water chestnuts are good alone, but even better when made into a wrap with crisp lettuce.  Yes, of course you can make this at home, but if you're at the mall shopping - this is definitely a nice appetizer to order while sitting at the bar.

Talking about the bar, we tried two specialty cocktails, an Asian Pear Mojito ($6) and a PFX ($6).  The mojito tasted very similar to the regular, but with a slight hint of the pear.  It was nice and crisp.  The PFX is flavored with passionfruit and hardly tasted like there was any alcohol in it, though I am assuming that is a good and bad thing :)  It is supposed to be modeled after the cosmo.  I liked both!


 Crab Wontons
Dan was fan of their Crab Wontons ($5), which are made with a cream cheesy crab filling and served with a plus sauce.  He remarked on how much crab there was in the wontons, and how well they went with the sauce.  If you feel like something fried, and are tired of the ubiquitous eggroll, these might be the thing for you! 
Stoney River

Stoney River also introduced us to some items from their Happy Hour, which takes place from 4-7pm everyday.  There are some seriously good deals:

This menu is solid, especially because it  lasts until 7pm!  It would be so easy to come here for dinner and make a good meal out of these offerings, not to mention with some nice cheap cocktails!  For a drink, ask the bartender to make you a Lemon Iced Tea Cocktail, which is made with Bacardi Limon, lime, sour mix and some iced tea.  If you like Arnold Palmers, this is the drink for you. If you like tea (me), this is for you (me).


We tried and LOVED the Jack Daniel Whiskey Shrimp ($6).  It was so good and SO buttery.  The sauce is made with Jack Daniel's (obv.) and mustard and oh my the little slices of baguettes were just loaded with butter and the sauce and a jumbo shrimp.  Yes please!

We also tried the mountain of Bleu Cheese Chips ($6), and it really was a mountain (though it's hard to tell from this picture). Though blue cheese is not my favorite kind of cheese, once melted it has a mild flavor to it, so I surprisingly didn't mind this at all.  If you love blue cheese, it would be right up your alley, especially because the chips were perfectly crisp and salted. It would be nice if they had other flavors for the non blue cheese lovers.

The Crunchy Ahu Tuna Roll ($7) was also quite tasty, especially when dipped in the accompanying soy ginger sauce.  Sesame seeds and breadcrumbs give the roll its crunchiness.



TGI Friday's
Guinness Stout Milkshake from TGIF (sample size)
There are two new drinks for St. Patrick's Day: the Irish Rita (made with whiskey, sour apple, midori and margarita mix) and the Guinness Stout Milkshake (Guinness with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup).  Their Irish Rita was way too sour for my liking, but the Guinness Milkshake was surprisingly tasty, and I don't even like Guinness!

All in all, I am simply not a fan of this place.  The dishes were dirty, the food tasted unhealthy and it's really just not my kind of atmosphere for a restaurant.

Cheesecake Factory
(Check out my review of the Cheesecake Factory in 2008 here)

I am not going to lie, I tried bites of about 12-15 different types of cheesecakes.  This sounds amazing, but after a while I got a bit sick.  THAT'S A LOT OF DAIRY, YOU GUYS!!!!

My personal favorite from the Cheesecake Factory is the Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake, but of all the ones I tried from that day, I really enjoyed:

• Vanilla Bean cheesecake (layers of vanilla bean cheesecake, vanilla mousse and whipped cream) 
• I liked the simplicity of this, plus it felt light because of the mousse.
• Godiva Chocolate cheesecake (Godiva chocolate cake + Godiva chocolate cheesecake + Chocolate mousse) 
• The addition of cake and mousse in this cheesecake took away the usual heaviness from a chocolate cheesecake.  I loved the rich and dark taste of the chocolate.  
• Dutch Caramel Apple Streusel Cheesecake, pictured (terribly) below (original cheesecake with a TON of baked apples and then topped with some delicious brown sugar walnut streusel topping)  
• I loved this because it was so different.  It tasted more like an apple pie with a little layer of cheesecake.  There's a lot more filling than you would think, which is what really made this cheesecake stand out for me.

The problem is that to get a slice of cheesecake, you have to deal with the outrageous wait for a table because that place is packed ALL THE TIME.  What is up with that?

SUMMARY
The mall is definitely not a place I visit very often, but it was fun to take a tour like this to see the food beyond the food court.  Overall, I loved Stoney River.  Their Happy Hour menu was fun, well-priced and enticing!  I would definitely go back there again! P.F. Chang's happy hour menu was also a great deal, and I especially liked their drinks.  There is no need for me to talk about the appeal of  The Cheesecake Factory, because it's already got that in spades.  TGI Fridays didn't do it for me at all, but you can't win them all!





* I was invited by Towson Town Center, but I was not asked to review, nor was I told what to write.  All opinions are my own (and Dan's!)

Langermann's, Canton

To contact us Click HERE
Dan and I went to Langermann's one evening and what a lovely date night it turned out to be!  The Canton restaurant is in a large open space, with plenty of seating in the dining room and around its large bar.  They even have a nice fireplace which I had the fortune to sit by!  They have valet, but there is also a nearby parking garage and plenty of space in the surrounding parking lot - so suburbanites anxious about parallel parking (or is that just me?), do not fret!


Bread Basket of Dreams
First of all, let's talk about the bread basket filled with two large pieces of sweet cornbread and two buttery biscuits.  Way to know how to win over your diners, Langermann's :)  I knew I was in for a good meal after one bite of that sweet cornbread!

Low Country Louie
Thanks to a Facebook suggestion from Minx, I started off the evening with the Low Country Louie ($10.95) - lobster, crayfish, crabmeat, corn coblets all mixed with creole mayonnaise and served in a Martini glass.  What a lovely introduction to this restaurant!!!  There was no skimping on the seafood in this appetizer - it was full of large pieces of crab and lobster.  Though they had a light hand with the mayo sauce, you still need to like mayo to like this dish, but don't worry about it being spicy.  I thought it was a wonderfully refreshing appetizer, and one that would be welcome in the spring and summer months.

Seared Ahi Tuna
Dan ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna ($23.95) -  jerk seasoned tuna on top of julienned squash, roasted fingerling potatoes and served with a pineapple butter sauce.  He has never ordered seared tuna (served rare) before, but I think this entree alone has made him a convert!  He thought the fish paired excellently with the pineapple butter sauce (don't think of it as a curd, it's chunkier).

Shrimp and Grits
It seemed absolutely necessary for one of us to order the Charleston Shrimp and Grits ($19.95), which is what I always hear about and what our server said is their most popular dish.  Taken from the menu, it's comprised of shallots, tomatoes, andouillie sausage, buttery clam broth, stone mill grits and large pieces of shrimp gently placed on top of the bowl.  They do not play around with their grits.  These were the creamiest/butteriest grits I've ever had, so I was thankful for the salty tomato and clam broth surrounding the bowl.  I loved to get everything on my spoon for one big bite - a piece of shrimp, sausage, grits and broth.  Exquisite.  They do this dish well, no wonder they are so well known for it!

It may not seem like a large bowl, but by golly I could hardly finish the grits!  They were RICH.  I probably would just order an appetizer version of this (if they have it) next time, because it was very filling for me which was the reason why I so sadly had to skip out before dessert.  THIS WAS SO HARD FOR ME TO DO.  I wanted to try their apple pie because the table next to me ordered it and I'm pretty sure the pie was as big as my face.  I WANT TO EAT THAT PIE.

Someday, I will eat that pie.  I am going back, definitely.

They have a Cocktail Hour Mon-Fri from 5-8PM with $5 appetizers, select wines and martinis and beers.  They also have a Sunday Brunch that looks phenomenal for $15.95 for an entree and a drink (mimosa or orange juice) from 10AM-3PM.

Dan and I loved Langermann's - we both highly recommend it for a date, for a group gathering, for happy hour, for a business meeting - for whatever!  You will enjoy it!

Atwater's Ploughboy Kitchen. Mt. Washington

To contact us Click HERE
I was off work one day and was in the mood for a sandwich.  Atwater's Chicken Salad sandwich is usually my go-to for that kind of craving, but for the sake of this blog I decided I needed to at least try something different.  I saw that Atwater's has a location called their Ploughboy Kitchen in Mt. Washington that's literally a couple of blocks away from their OTHER location on Falls Road.  The Kitchen is only open for lunch Mon-Fri, 11AM-3PM. I was so confused that I decided that I needed to investigate the difference between the two.

The Ploughboy Kitchen is located in a business park and the space itself seemed so sterile and so unlike every other Atwater's. I wasn't tempted to stay a while, so I grabbed my sandwich to go instead, which took no time at all because there were hardly any customers.  Apparently, though, this place serves hand pies, unlike the other locations. I wasn't in the mood for a hand pie though, I wanted a SANDWICH.


And a good sandwich I had. 

I ordered half a Winter Roast Turkey ($4.95) Sun-dried tomato pesto, celery root remoulade, cheddar cheese, lettuce and garlic mayo on peasant wheat.  There was a LOT of cheddar cheese which was great, but I wish that the celerey root remoulade was more pronounced.  I also ordered the side salad ($3.95) local field mix, red grapes, pistachios and a balsamic vinaigrette that was very tasty, though quite overpriced.  One gripe - I wish the grapes were cut.  There's something SO annoying about trying to stab grapes with a fork.


In all honesty, I'm not sure I'll ever go to the Ploughboy Kitchen again, especially since the Kenilworth location is closer to me and has a better atmosphere, plus the menu is basically the same.  At least my curiosity was sated though!

A Fun Day in Baltimore County's Country and Soup'R Natural, Parkton

To contact us Click HERE

Soup'R Natural is located in Parkton about 30 minutes away from the Baltimore city center.  I know that's a hard sell for those living downtown, so I decided to create a Baltimore County Country itinerary for you that includes lunch at this lovely restaurant.

Baltimore County Country Daytrip

Why not start your day with some winery tours?  There are a bunch in that area, such as Basignani Winery, Woodhall Wine Cellars and Royal Rabbit Vineyards.  Sure, Maryland isn't much of a wine destination, but it's always fun to visit local wineries and find some new favorites!  Check the Maryland Wine Association's website for any events that are going on in a particular weekend.

When you are ready for lunch, drive to Soup'R Natural and relax after your hours of wine tasting, and perhaps pay for your DD's lunch :)

After lunch, make a quick visit to Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company to see where a ton of restaurants get their bison meat. It's a small little farm, but seeing the bison and looking around the cute little shop is worth it.  When Dan and I stopped in, we ended up getting some ground bison (he uses this recipe to make amazing bison sliders) and some bison sausages.  Of course the meat isn't cheap, in fact we somehow spent $50 in that trip (!), but it sure is delicious.

Head south on York Road for an easy drive back to the suburbs.  Stop in at The Filling Station if you need a cup of coffee, and then, since you probably packed a cooler to store your bison meat, head to Hunt Valley Towne Centre to load up on any foodie delights at Wegman's before taking I-83 back home!

See!  What a fun day that would be!

Crabcake sandwich (foreground) and chicken salad sandwich (background)

Now, onto my review of Soup'R Natural!  

Soup'R Natural is a small restaurant that prides itself on using local meats, eggs, and produce from nearby farms.  It has a very casual farmhouse atmosphere that is great for families as well (my sister brought my niece with us). 

My sister and I split the Chicken Salad Sandwich ($8.75) - Roasted chicken with diced fennel, grape halves and sweet almonds and we both agreed it was one of the best chicken salad sandwiches we had ever tasted.  I loved the crunch of the toasted sweet almonds, and I personally LOVE grapes in my salad, so that made me happy.  It came with regular and sweet potato chips on the side, and the sandwich itself was a nice portion.

My bro-in-law got the Crab Cake Sandwich (Market Price) - served on your choice of bread with Old Bay aioli and capers, which he really enjoyed as well.  Though I didn't try it, it definitely was a good looking sandwich.


For dessert we all split their homemade apple pie with ice cream.  The pie was STUFFED full of sweet apples, and it was quite a crowd-pleaser.

This was a wonderful, comfortable, locally-sourced and family-owned restaurant in a scenic part of Baltimore County.  What's not to love?  Next time, I'll definitely try the soup :)

p.s. Thanks to my brother-in-law for taking some awesome pictures!  If you're into biking, check out the blog he writes for!

REVIEW: Graeter's Ice Cream

To contact us Click HERE


So Memorial Day Weekend is here and I know a number of you plan to host or attend some parties, so let me give you some advice if you are unsure about dessert - find some Graeter's Ice Cream and you're good to go!

Graeter's originated in Ohio, but it started to become well known after it was featured on The Food Network and after someone named Oprah became a fan (see her review here) :)

I was sent four pints of ice cream to try, and I was quite happy to oblige :)  Dan and I hosted a BBQ dinner with our families and we all had a taste test for dessert.

Everyone was pretty excited about this line-up
The flavors they sent me were Vanilla Chocolate Chip, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Mint Chocolate Chip.  And when they say chocolate chips they actually mean chocolate fudge chunks! Even directly out of the freezer, these HUGE chunks were still chewy and actually tasted DELICIOUS unlike most other chocolate chips in ice cream which are usually small, hard and bitter. 

The ice cream itself is creamy and luscious, but the chocolate chunks really steal the show. My favorite out of all the flavors was the Chocolate Chocolate Chip.  If you love chocolate, this is THE ice cream for you - it's just pure decadence!  The Vanilla Chip was a perfect original and I could totally see it being an amazing addition to something like this this.   The Black Raspberry tasted like a mild chocolate berry and though it was not my favorite, I still ate it because of the fudge chunks hahaha

Anyway, you bet your boots I'm buying this ice cream again!  I loved it!  So get yourself to Mars, Weis or The Fresh Market and buy yourself a pint!

DISCLAIMER: I was sent four pints of Graeter's Ice Cream to review for free, but these opinions are entirely my own.

Towson Town Center's Restaurants

To contact us Click HERE
I was invited* to Towson Town Center to take a "tour" of some of their major eateries: TGIF's, P.F. Chang's, Stoney River and The Cheesecake Factory.  Below are some of my thoughts on each place.


Also, Towson Town Center has been having some special events this month, including one on Saturday March 24th from 1-3PM: Cooking Demo and Wine-Pairing Seminar

• Local food and wine expert, Laurie Forster "The Wine Coach," will host a cooking demonstration and wine-pairing seminar.
• Seminars will be held at 1PM, 2PM and 3PM in the Level 1 Grand Court
• Seminars will include table-side sampling (SAMPLES!!!!!), fun raffles, giveaways and retailer offers.

Follow Towson Town on Facebook to keep up with more events.

P.F. Chang's
(Check out my last review of P.F.Chang's from 2009 here)

At P.F.Chang's we were given some items from their Happy Hour menu to try.  Their Happy Hour is Mon-Fri, 3-6pm.  The prices I have included in this section are from that menu.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps 
I hadn't been to a PFC in a while, so I have to admit that I was excited about trying the Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($6) again.  They are still so good.  The chicken concoction mixed with mushrooms and water chestnuts are good alone, but even better when made into a wrap with crisp lettuce.  Yes, of course you can make this at home, but if you're at the mall shopping - this is definitely a nice appetizer to order while sitting at the bar.

Talking about the bar, we tried two specialty cocktails, an Asian Pear Mojito ($6) and a PFX ($6).  The mojito tasted very similar to the regular, but with a slight hint of the pear.  It was nice and crisp.  The PFX is flavored with passionfruit and hardly tasted like there was any alcohol in it, though I am assuming that is a good and bad thing :)  It is supposed to be modeled after the cosmo.  I liked both!


 Crab Wontons
Dan was fan of their Crab Wontons ($5), which are made with a cream cheesy crab filling and served with a plus sauce.  He remarked on how much crab there was in the wontons, and how well they went with the sauce.  If you feel like something fried, and are tired of the ubiquitous eggroll, these might be the thing for you! 
Stoney River

Stoney River also introduced us to some items from their Happy Hour, which takes place from 4-7pm everyday.  There are some seriously good deals:

This menu is solid, especially because it  lasts until 7pm!  It would be so easy to come here for dinner and make a good meal out of these offerings, not to mention with some nice cheap cocktails!  For a drink, ask the bartender to make you a Lemon Iced Tea Cocktail, which is made with Bacardi Limon, lime, sour mix and some iced tea.  If you like Arnold Palmers, this is the drink for you. If you like tea (me), this is for you (me).


We tried and LOVED the Jack Daniel Whiskey Shrimp ($6).  It was so good and SO buttery.  The sauce is made with Jack Daniel's (obv.) and mustard and oh my the little slices of baguettes were just loaded with butter and the sauce and a jumbo shrimp.  Yes please!

We also tried the mountain of Bleu Cheese Chips ($6), and it really was a mountain (though it's hard to tell from this picture). Though blue cheese is not my favorite kind of cheese, once melted it has a mild flavor to it, so I surprisingly didn't mind this at all.  If you love blue cheese, it would be right up your alley, especially because the chips were perfectly crisp and salted. It would be nice if they had other flavors for the non blue cheese lovers.

The Crunchy Ahu Tuna Roll ($7) was also quite tasty, especially when dipped in the accompanying soy ginger sauce.  Sesame seeds and breadcrumbs give the roll its crunchiness.



TGI Friday's
Guinness Stout Milkshake from TGIF (sample size)
There are two new drinks for St. Patrick's Day: the Irish Rita (made with whiskey, sour apple, midori and margarita mix) and the Guinness Stout Milkshake (Guinness with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup).  Their Irish Rita was way too sour for my liking, but the Guinness Milkshake was surprisingly tasty, and I don't even like Guinness!

All in all, I am simply not a fan of this place.  The dishes were dirty, the food tasted unhealthy and it's really just not my kind of atmosphere for a restaurant.

Cheesecake Factory
(Check out my review of the Cheesecake Factory in 2008 here)

I am not going to lie, I tried bites of about 12-15 different types of cheesecakes.  This sounds amazing, but after a while I got a bit sick.  THAT'S A LOT OF DAIRY, YOU GUYS!!!!

My personal favorite from the Cheesecake Factory is the Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake, but of all the ones I tried from that day, I really enjoyed:

• Vanilla Bean cheesecake (layers of vanilla bean cheesecake, vanilla mousse and whipped cream) 
• I liked the simplicity of this, plus it felt light because of the mousse.
• Godiva Chocolate cheesecake (Godiva chocolate cake + Godiva chocolate cheesecake + Chocolate mousse) 
• The addition of cake and mousse in this cheesecake took away the usual heaviness from a chocolate cheesecake.  I loved the rich and dark taste of the chocolate.  
• Dutch Caramel Apple Streusel Cheesecake, pictured (terribly) below (original cheesecake with a TON of baked apples and then topped with some delicious brown sugar walnut streusel topping)  
• I loved this because it was so different.  It tasted more like an apple pie with a little layer of cheesecake.  There's a lot more filling than you would think, which is what really made this cheesecake stand out for me.

The problem is that to get a slice of cheesecake, you have to deal with the outrageous wait for a table because that place is packed ALL THE TIME.  What is up with that?

SUMMARY
The mall is definitely not a place I visit very often, but it was fun to take a tour like this to see the food beyond the food court.  Overall, I loved Stoney River.  Their Happy Hour menu was fun, well-priced and enticing!  I would definitely go back there again! P.F. Chang's happy hour menu was also a great deal, and I especially liked their drinks.  There is no need for me to talk about the appeal of  The Cheesecake Factory, because it's already got that in spades.  TGI Fridays didn't do it for me at all, but you can't win them all!





* I was invited by Towson Town Center, but I was not asked to review, nor was I told what to write.  All opinions are my own (and Dan's!)

Langermann's, Canton

To contact us Click HERE
Dan and I went to Langermann's one evening and what a lovely date night it turned out to be!  The Canton restaurant is in a large open space, with plenty of seating in the dining room and around its large bar.  They even have a nice fireplace which I had the fortune to sit by!  They have valet, but there is also a nearby parking garage and plenty of space in the surrounding parking lot - so suburbanites anxious about parallel parking (or is that just me?), do not fret!


Bread Basket of Dreams
First of all, let's talk about the bread basket filled with two large pieces of sweet cornbread and two buttery biscuits.  Way to know how to win over your diners, Langermann's :)  I knew I was in for a good meal after one bite of that sweet cornbread!

Low Country Louie
Thanks to a Facebook suggestion from Minx, I started off the evening with the Low Country Louie ($10.95) - lobster, crayfish, crabmeat, corn coblets all mixed with creole mayonnaise and served in a Martini glass.  What a lovely introduction to this restaurant!!!  There was no skimping on the seafood in this appetizer - it was full of large pieces of crab and lobster.  Though they had a light hand with the mayo sauce, you still need to like mayo to like this dish, but don't worry about it being spicy.  I thought it was a wonderfully refreshing appetizer, and one that would be welcome in the spring and summer months.

Seared Ahi Tuna
Dan ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna ($23.95) -  jerk seasoned tuna on top of julienned squash, roasted fingerling potatoes and served with a pineapple butter sauce.  He has never ordered seared tuna (served rare) before, but I think this entree alone has made him a convert!  He thought the fish paired excellently with the pineapple butter sauce (don't think of it as a curd, it's chunkier).

Shrimp and Grits
It seemed absolutely necessary for one of us to order the Charleston Shrimp and Grits ($19.95), which is what I always hear about and what our server said is their most popular dish.  Taken from the menu, it's comprised of shallots, tomatoes, andouillie sausage, buttery clam broth, stone mill grits and large pieces of shrimp gently placed on top of the bowl.  They do not play around with their grits.  These were the creamiest/butteriest grits I've ever had, so I was thankful for the salty tomato and clam broth surrounding the bowl.  I loved to get everything on my spoon for one big bite - a piece of shrimp, sausage, grits and broth.  Exquisite.  They do this dish well, no wonder they are so well known for it!

It may not seem like a large bowl, but by golly I could hardly finish the grits!  They were RICH.  I probably would just order an appetizer version of this (if they have it) next time, because it was very filling for me which was the reason why I so sadly had to skip out before dessert.  THIS WAS SO HARD FOR ME TO DO.  I wanted to try their apple pie because the table next to me ordered it and I'm pretty sure the pie was as big as my face.  I WANT TO EAT THAT PIE.

Someday, I will eat that pie.  I am going back, definitely.

They have a Cocktail Hour Mon-Fri from 5-8PM with $5 appetizers, select wines and martinis and beers.  They also have a Sunday Brunch that looks phenomenal for $15.95 for an entree and a drink (mimosa or orange juice) from 10AM-3PM.

Dan and I loved Langermann's - we both highly recommend it for a date, for a group gathering, for happy hour, for a business meeting - for whatever!  You will enjoy it!

Atwater's Ploughboy Kitchen. Mt. Washington

To contact us Click HERE
I was off work one day and was in the mood for a sandwich.  Atwater's Chicken Salad sandwich is usually my go-to for that kind of craving, but for the sake of this blog I decided I needed to at least try something different.  I saw that Atwater's has a location called their Ploughboy Kitchen in Mt. Washington that's literally a couple of blocks away from their OTHER location on Falls Road.  The Kitchen is only open for lunch Mon-Fri, 11AM-3PM. I was so confused that I decided that I needed to investigate the difference between the two.

The Ploughboy Kitchen is located in a business park and the space itself seemed so sterile and so unlike every other Atwater's. I wasn't tempted to stay a while, so I grabbed my sandwich to go instead, which took no time at all because there were hardly any customers.  Apparently, though, this place serves hand pies, unlike the other locations. I wasn't in the mood for a hand pie though, I wanted a SANDWICH.


And a good sandwich I had. 

I ordered half a Winter Roast Turkey ($4.95) Sun-dried tomato pesto, celery root remoulade, cheddar cheese, lettuce and garlic mayo on peasant wheat.  There was a LOT of cheddar cheese which was great, but I wish that the celerey root remoulade was more pronounced.  I also ordered the side salad ($3.95) local field mix, red grapes, pistachios and a balsamic vinaigrette that was very tasty, though quite overpriced.  One gripe - I wish the grapes were cut.  There's something SO annoying about trying to stab grapes with a fork.


In all honesty, I'm not sure I'll ever go to the Ploughboy Kitchen again, especially since the Kenilworth location is closer to me and has a better atmosphere, plus the menu is basically the same.  At least my curiosity was sated though!

A Fun Day in Baltimore County's Country and Soup'R Natural, Parkton

To contact us Click HERE

Soup'R Natural is located in Parkton about 30 minutes away from the Baltimore city center.  I know that's a hard sell for those living downtown, so I decided to create a Baltimore County Country itinerary for you that includes lunch at this lovely restaurant.

Baltimore County Country Daytrip

Why not start your day with some winery tours?  There are a bunch in that area, such as Basignani Winery, Woodhall Wine Cellars and Royal Rabbit Vineyards.  Sure, Maryland isn't much of a wine destination, but it's always fun to visit local wineries and find some new favorites!  Check the Maryland Wine Association's website for any events that are going on in a particular weekend.

When you are ready for lunch, drive to Soup'R Natural and relax after your hours of wine tasting, and perhaps pay for your DD's lunch :)

After lunch, make a quick visit to Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company to see where a ton of restaurants get their bison meat. It's a small little farm, but seeing the bison and looking around the cute little shop is worth it.  When Dan and I stopped in, we ended up getting some ground bison (he uses this recipe to make amazing bison sliders) and some bison sausages.  Of course the meat isn't cheap, in fact we somehow spent $50 in that trip (!), but it sure is delicious.

Head south on York Road for an easy drive back to the suburbs.  Stop in at The Filling Station if you need a cup of coffee, and then, since you probably packed a cooler to store your bison meat, head to Hunt Valley Towne Centre to load up on any foodie delights at Wegman's before taking I-83 back home!

See!  What a fun day that would be!

Crabcake sandwich (foreground) and chicken salad sandwich (background)

Now, onto my review of Soup'R Natural!  

Soup'R Natural is a small restaurant that prides itself on using local meats, eggs, and produce from nearby farms.  It has a very casual farmhouse atmosphere that is great for families as well (my sister brought my niece with us). 

My sister and I split the Chicken Salad Sandwich ($8.75) - Roasted chicken with diced fennel, grape halves and sweet almonds and we both agreed it was one of the best chicken salad sandwiches we had ever tasted.  I loved the crunch of the toasted sweet almonds, and I personally LOVE grapes in my salad, so that made me happy.  It came with regular and sweet potato chips on the side, and the sandwich itself was a nice portion.

My bro-in-law got the Crab Cake Sandwich (Market Price) - served on your choice of bread with Old Bay aioli and capers, which he really enjoyed as well.  Though I didn't try it, it definitely was a good looking sandwich.


For dessert we all split their homemade apple pie with ice cream.  The pie was STUFFED full of sweet apples, and it was quite a crowd-pleaser.

This was a wonderful, comfortable, locally-sourced and family-owned restaurant in a scenic part of Baltimore County.  What's not to love?  Next time, I'll definitely try the soup :)

p.s. Thanks to my brother-in-law for taking some awesome pictures!  If you're into biking, check out the blog he writes for!

REVIEW: Graeter's Ice Cream

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So Memorial Day Weekend is here and I know a number of you plan to host or attend some parties, so let me give you some advice if you are unsure about dessert - find some Graeter's Ice Cream and you're good to go!

Graeter's originated in Ohio, but it started to become well known after it was featured on The Food Network and after someone named Oprah became a fan (see her review here) :)

I was sent four pints of ice cream to try, and I was quite happy to oblige :)  Dan and I hosted a BBQ dinner with our families and we all had a taste test for dessert.

Everyone was pretty excited about this line-up
The flavors they sent me were Vanilla Chocolate Chip, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Mint Chocolate Chip.  And when they say chocolate chips they actually mean chocolate fudge chunks! Even directly out of the freezer, these HUGE chunks were still chewy and actually tasted DELICIOUS unlike most other chocolate chips in ice cream which are usually small, hard and bitter. 

The ice cream itself is creamy and luscious, but the chocolate chunks really steal the show. My favorite out of all the flavors was the Chocolate Chocolate Chip.  If you love chocolate, this is THE ice cream for you - it's just pure decadence!  The Vanilla Chip was a perfect original and I could totally see it being an amazing addition to something like this this.   The Black Raspberry tasted like a mild chocolate berry and though it was not my favorite, I still ate it because of the fudge chunks hahaha

Anyway, you bet your boots I'm buying this ice cream again!  I loved it!  So get yourself to Mars, Weis or The Fresh Market and buy yourself a pint!

DISCLAIMER: I was sent four pints of Graeter's Ice Cream to review for free, but these opinions are entirely my own.

Ripley's Believe It or Harborplace

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Ripley in Harborplace? Believe it or Not!
Put it in Camden Yards instead


Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was right after all: Baltimore's recent Grand Prix was a "game changer". Or more accurately, the game has changed, and that crazy spectacle of 180 mph racecars careening around the Inner Harbor is now the Inner Harbor norm. Anything goes. And as the game changes, other incongruous scenes like a proposed Ferris Wheel, a billion dollar mega-arena convention center or a tent city encampment "occupying" McKeldin Square should be expected as opportunities present themselves.

In such an environment, a giant cartoon Chessie Monster adorning Harborplace would be consistent. Believe it or not, that is the question. Ripley's "Believe it or Not" Odditorium is the latest prospective client being wooed to Harborplace, Baltimore's front-and-center imagemaker.


Never mind that the city's powers-that-be had only recently declared that they were trying to make Harborplace more appealing to regular Baltimoreans and not just tourists, including the burgeoning population of downtown residents, as they gushed over the introduction of mundane but useful franchised suburban imports such as H&M and the Noodles Company. Obviously, an Ripley Odditorium is the kind of sideshow which would be precisely at odds with that. And never mind the recent controversy over whether Denise Whiting's "hon" empire represented a disparaging caricature rather than genuine Baltimore. The cartoon Chessie Monster goes way way beyond "hon" or a pink flamingo.

City officials think they can somehow straddle the fence. They obviously know there is a limit to how crass the Inner Harbor can get. They're just looking for that limit. A three dimensional Chessie Monster jutting out from the classic Harborplace facade has been declared unacceptable, but two dimensional is OK. A fierce looking monster is said to be unacceptable, but if he looks sufficiently playful, that's OK. Just as the previously proposed "Crash Cafe" was excessively fierce and three dimensional, especially for the 911 era, but a giant electric guitar on a smoke stack has passed muster. Somehow the powers that be think they can always find that magic elusive compromise between taste and commerce that turns off some people but not everyone.

How to Accommodate the Monster

OK, granted, Baltimore is still a big and multi-faceted city, so there should be room here for Ripley, Whiting and other assorted oddballs and iconoclasts to ply their trades. But Harborplace? The city's front door? The place customarily photographed to represent Baltimore the same way as the St. Louis Arch and the Seattle Space Needle? With a giant cartoon monster staring back at us?

This is exactly the kind of abuse that nearly a majority of voters were afraid of with when Harborplace was narrowly approved back in the '70s. Fortunately, developer James Rouse and architect Benjamin Thompson provided a dignified design befitting an icon, but the seeds were already planted by a civic mentality that had already destroyed much of the surroundings to build expressways that never happened. The descent into caricature-ism was then further foreshadowed when a gay-90s Mayor Schaefer jumped in the Aquarium pool with his inflated Donald Duck. But now Baltimore has gone miles and miles beyond that.

The bigger problem is why it always seems to be the Inner Harbor that is the focus of everything in Baltimore - the full gamut from the sacred to the profane? The powers that be seem to think that the rest of the city might as well not exist at all. Dense Whiting should be congratulated for applying her "hon" brand to Hampden outside of the city power structure, back when the Hampden neighborhood was really in need of a wholesome identity other than unmentionable undercurrents like "home of Baltimore's ku klux klan". Now of course, Hampden's image has grown all kinds of rich subtlety beyond the "hon" caricature, so she is less necessary but still a cute sideshow that is amusing to some.

So the Chessie Monster needs a home, somewhere in Baltimore where it can be nurtured like Whiting's "hon". Can the Chessie Monster adorn some local Main Street just as Whiting's giant pink flamingo adorns her Hampden restaurant? Does some neighborhood want to volunteer? Probably not, which is just as well because Ripley is a product of a giant multinational organization, not something amenable to Baltimore's home grown neighborhood quirks.

Camden Yards famous thousand foot warehouse, historic Camden Station and background skyline
Put Ripley in Camden Yards

Fortunately, there happens to be a place in Baltimore where such gigantism can be gracefully accommodated - Camden Yards. This is home of two giant stadiums where crass sports business hucksterism and quaint civic pride somehow coexist. It is also home of the incredible thousand foot warehouse, truly an architectural "believe it or not" even more amazing than a cartoon sea monster. Back in the '80s and '90s when planners inspired by Jane Jacobs were preaching of rich detailed fine grained street level urban tapestries, Camden Yards was able to create a new national trend of urban sports amusement districts dominated by giant stadiums. Yet it has somehow still not become as urban as it ought to be.

There has been some effort to turn Camden Yards into a well-rounded urban entertainment district. The dignified historic Camden Station has been turned into the Geppi Entertainment Museum and the Sports Legends Museum. Both of these were outgrowths of smaller nearby enterprises - the former Geppi comic book shop in Harborplace and the Babe Ruth birthplace and museum in the Ridgely's Delight neighborhood. But the critical mass for urban success has not happened.

The Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum would be a perfect addition to Camden Yards, and a perfect complement for the Geppi and Sports Legends museums. The elements of Camden Yards are already large-scaled enough and sufficiently singular so that something as incongruous as a Chessie Monster could fit in, or rather stand out, just as intended. A whole new building could be provided on the existing parking lot between Camden Station and the Warehouse so that the vision and impact of the museum could be built-in from the ground up. Alternately, a small piece of the warehouse could be adapted to fit the museum. The gigantism of the thousand foot warehouse could be a prefect milieu for the monster - a suitable sea of architecture, so to speak, which would absorb the requisite tackiness in stride.

This would also be the important first step in the true urbanization of Camden Yards, which is urgently needed to integrate Baltimore's other present and proposed future overscaled downtown elements - the convention center, the various stadiums and arenas, and the gambling casino (see previous posts).

Voodoo Balto-nomics

The only real question is whether "Balto-nomics" has now become so warped that rational development decisions which respect urban principals cannot be made. The powers-that-be appear to have realized that making real economic development decisions involving real money just doesn't have as much of the kind of impact they want as does making giant proposals with "funny money" - a billion here for a mega-convention arena, a billion there for State Center, a couple billion more for the transit Red Line, a slice of the trillion dollar federal "stimulus money" for the Grand Prix. This is the economic witches' brew of funding sources now commonly referred to as "public-private partnerships".

With all that gigantism floating around downtown and the Inner Harbor, Ripley is just a sideshow. Harborplace was once a big deal, but now it's just soooo 1980s - Baltimore's version of Boy George's Culture Club, INXS and Duran Duran. Maybe the reason why Ripley is destined for Harborplace is a result of the old economic "trickle down theory". Harborplace has had its time at the cutting edge with top tier rents and now it's time for it's adaptive re-use for lower tier tenants like Ripley. Now Harbor East is the happnin' place. Basically, Harborplace is going through the same life-cycle as rest of Baltimore. For example, Walbrook was once an upper crust neighborhood until its former mansions were chopped up into lower income apartments, then finally boarded up, abandoned and torn down. The trickle down theory can't be repealed. It can only be acknowledged and nurtured so that the proud past can be adapted for a productive future.

The alternative is to exploit the investments made by a previous generation, such as Harborplace over three decades ago, in order to squeeze out the last bit of value. Unfortunately, that appears to be what has is happening with the proposed Ripley Odditorium in Harborplace.

Ripley must be stopped. Harborplace needs to grow old with dignity.