I’ve been to Bryan Voltaggio’s Volt, his high-end restaurant where Irene and I experienced a seven-course anniversary dinner tasting menu. I’ve also been to Voltaggio’s Family Meal, for which the chef created a menu devoted to comfort food like chicken and biscuits and fried green tomatoes. So I figured it was time I tried out Lunchbox, his attempt at a gourmet sandwich shop.

And since I’d planned to head over to Maryland today to meet with a master tailor who could perfect the fit of those two jackets I first showed off at Chicon7, this seemed like the day for it.

I arrived at exactly 11:30 a.m., right when Lunchbox opened, so I was the first customer of the day. When I entered, I was welcomed enthusiastically, with one of the women behind the counter offering to explain the various sandwiches, since they weren’t your usual Subway grinders. I probably should have let her go ahead, just to see her shtick, but I’d studied the menu at home, and so already had an idea of the sandwiches which most called to me.

The two that seemed the most tempting were “mom’s meatloaf: tamarind ketchup, gruyere, onion marmalade, ciabatta” and the “pork shoulder: ham, pickle, gruyere, pickled cabbage, egg yolk, cilantro-lime, baguette,” though I must admit the “tcb: nutella, bananas, potato bread” looked tempting as well. (See what I mean about Voltaggio trying to put the “gourmet” in sandwich shop?) (more…)

Last night, after I made my reservation for today’s lunch at Family Meal—our second visit to Chef Bryan Voltaggio’s new restaurant In Frederick, Maryland—I discovered that my post about our first visit had been picked up by Eater, which had gathered the early reviews from the restaurant’s first month of operation. Each of the excerpts was given a header, and mine was “The Rave,” which indeed it was.

My report on our second visit won’t be quite as positive, though in a bifurcated way, because it’s almost as if Irene and I had eaten in different restaurants.

Technically, we were eating in different restaurants, because we arrived a few minutes before our 11:30 reservation, and breakfast service stops and the lunch menu takes over at exactly 11:30 a.m. But because Irene was interested in breakfast, and I was interested in lunch, and we were on the cusp, we were allowed to order from both menus.

Irene ordered waffles, without the blueberries or syrup they usually came with, wanting only butter and honey, plus biscuits and a glass of milk. I’ll get the bad news out of the way first, by stating that her two plates arrived without the honey, and the server had to go back to the kitchen to retrieve some, plus, even though at the time the order was taken Irene was asked whether she wanted the milk then or when the meal came and she replied that she wanted the milk with the meal, the meal came without the milk, and so Irene had to sit for a few minutes waiting for the milk to be brought to her. Those may sound like small things, but any time you have to wait to dig in, that does damage the experience.

And it gets worse … even though the biscuits we’d had with our fried chicken during our previous visit were a light golden color and dense but delicate, Irene’s biscuits this time were a dark brown, and crusty, and hard. Oh, sure, they were still made from wonderful ingredients, but they were rock-like, and she felt she could have used one as a weapon. (more…)

Bryan Voltaggio, the celebrity chef behind Volt, where Irene and I recently celebrated the 38th anniversary of the day we met, opened a new restaurant in Frederick, Maryland at the end of June—Family Meal, named after that meal eaten by restaurant staff before or after a shift. Unlike the tasting menu meals of Volt, Family Meal aims to serve comfort food. And since we were heading over to Maryland to run some errands and see our son, we decided to check it out before that new restaurant shine rubbed off.

After seeing some folks over at Yelp complain about long waits, most of which seemed to occur over dinner, I decided to check whether a reservation was needed for a Saturday lunch. When I called, I was told that they were recommended when possible, and that 25% of tables were set aside for reservations. So we made one for 11:45. We arrived a few minutes early, and were taken to our table immediately. (During the course of our meal, I never noticed more than one or two parties at a time waiting briefly, so there seemed no problem with long lines, at least not during lunch.)

Family Meal is housed in a former car dealership, and as you might expect, that means there’s plenty of parking.

But more important than that—there are crispy pig ears on the menu!

And when there are crispy pig ears on the menu, you eat crispy pig ears! (more…)

Irene and I discovered Volt Restaurant several months ago, and were taken with both the menu and its setting in a 19th Century mansion in downtown Frederick, but waited to eat there until we had an event worthy of such a meal—our celebration of the 38th anniversary of the day we met. (Which also happens to be the 38th anniversary of my first day working in the Bullpen at Marvel Comics.)

So on Sunday, we drove over to the imposing brick mansion, built in the early 1890s, which now houses Volt, for the seven-course kitchen tasting menu, which once the various amuse bouche were added in, actually came to ten courses.

While we were in the same room as the open kitchen, so we could look over and watch the cooking and assembly of each dish, we weren’t seated flush against where the chefs performed their magic. That privilege belonged to the seven diners (that night, anyway; I believe up to eight can be serviced) at Table 21, who were taking part in a 21-course tasting menu.

What follows is an embarrassingly incomplete description of the meal, for I forgot to snap a photo of the menu, and the one currently up on the site represents an earlier iteration. When I get my hands on the current menu, I’ll update what follows, but for now … (more…)