I was supposed to have dinner at Bryan Voltaggio’s newest restaurant, Aggio, back when it opened, but an ice storm forced me to cancel. That an ice storm was the cause will show how early in the year this was. I wanted to try again, but life was far too busy for me to make it happen, until Saturday, when I finally had that dinner … and also the crazy idea of making it at all-Voltaggio day at the same time.

Which meant that before the evening’s meeting of the Seersucker League—aka me and Charlie Newton—first came breakfast at Family Meal and lunch at Volt. (more…)

I celebrated my birthday last week, but then, based on the hundreds of celebratory messages I received via Twitter and Facebook, if you’re bothering to come here, you probably already knew that. And while passing along best wishes for the day, many wondered in what foodie way I planned to celebrate. (I guess I’ve developed a reputation.)

I didn’t have time to tell you here until now, because prepping for our annual daffodil party Saturday (about which more later) took precedence over pretty much everything, but Irene and I went out for a birthday dinner at Family Meal, a Bryan Voltaggio restaurant which we first visited in July 2012 within a few weeks of its opening. It serves quality comfort food, and we try to eat there as often as we can when we have a reason to pass through Frederick, Maryland, but this time, my birthday was reason enough for a special trip.

I’ve been working my way through the menu ever since Family Meal opened, so except for the dessert, I made sure to only order dishes I hadn’t tried before. We started with a smoked scallop with sweet potato, chard, and green tomato.

This being Family Meal, I expected a succulent scallop, but not one that jaw-droppingly humongous. An excellent starter. (more…)

Sunday night’s surprise snowfall forced me to cancel our dinner reservations at the recently opened Aggio, which caused me to undergo a bit of Bryan Voltaggio withdrawal. Luckily, I had various errands to run over in Maryland Tuesday, which gave me a perfectly good reason to drop by one of the chef’s other restaurants, Family Meal. I’ve been enjoying that spot ever since it opened back in 2012.

I started, of course, with my favorite appetizer, the chicken pot pie fritters.

When I placed my order, the server indicated that the recipe had been tweaked to include crushed Ritz crackers in the crust. Surprisingly, this improved a concept I already enjoyed. The coating held together the pot pie filling more tightly, and made for an even more interesting contrast between the shell and what was inside. (more…)

Ever since Family Meal unveiled its Smith Island Roll on Twitter and Facebook New Year’s Eve eve, I’ve been wanting to drop in and try it. I even considered stopping by as we headed to Range, another Bryan Voltaggio restaurant, to celebrate New Year’s Eve, but that seemed a bit much, even for me.

Last night, though, on the way back from a dinner with Jay Lake, Jay’s Dad, Lisa Costello, and Peggy Rae and John Sapienza at which the company was superb but the food was merely adequate, I thought—now’s my chance.

Why the sense of urgency around a Smith Island Roll, Voltaggio’s tweaking of the official dessert of the state of Maryland, the Smith Island Cake?

During our second visit to Family Meal in August of 2012, just a month or so after the restaurant opened, I ordered a slice of Smith Island Cake, and it was a wonder. But then … it was gone, no longer on the menu during any of our subsequent visits to Family Meal. (more…)

So last night, when we realized we’d be cruising through Frederick, Maryland at around 8:00 p.m. without having had a chance to eat dinner first, we realized—hey, this is finally our chance to eat off Family Meal‘s dinner menu!

Irene and I have had many brunches and lunches there, starting last July right after they opened. But for a variety of reasons, dinner remained elusive. And so, as we neared Frederick on our way home from a day down county, we thought—gotta be Family Meal!

Turkey pot pie fritters

We’d had chicken pot pie fritters during our second lunch at Family Meal, but never the turkey ones. Glad I finally got to pop a few of these in my mouth. Best delivery method for pot pie filling ever. Better even than pot pies themselves! (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…)