Sunday, February 19, 2012

Alchemy

I've never participated in Baltimore's Restaurant Week.
Sometimes it has been money issues, sometimes it has been timing, but mostly it is because i don't pay enough attention to when it is happening.
fTM Felicia was talking about trying a restaurant in Hampden that she'd never been to, called Alchemy; her intended companion kept changing the plans so she finally just gave up on him and asked me to go with her. I agreed cause i'd never been there, either, not knowing at all that it was indeed Restaurant Week.
Three Cheers and a Tiger for lower prices!
Located on the Avenue in Hampden, Alchemy is located in a refurbed row and doesn't look like very big from the outside, but it has dining space upstairs and down, as well as a bar.
They describe themselves as Modern American cuisine, which in this case means lots of ingredients and normally out of Niki's price range. Luckily, the Restaurant Week menu had an impressive number of selections.
 Felicia started with French Onion soup and I went with crispy flatbreads with beets because i have never in my life willingly ordered something with beets as a main ingredient. They were diced and roasted, then mixed with bleu cheese and applewood bacon. It was surprising delicious and i loved the little cripy herb garnish.


For our main courses, Felicia had the crab mac and cheese which she described as very rich and full of hunks of crab meat, while i had the chorizo burger - it was phenomenal.
that knife is so cool
Obviously i took off about half of the arugula because even i couldn't possibly fit that in my mouth and removed the tomatoes cause ewwww; there were caramelized onions and Manchego cheese on the sirloin/chorizo blend patty. Never, ever have i tasted anything like it. Served with homemade chips and green chili mayo i can't recommend it highly enough.
It was a pleasant lunch with good company in a cheerful, brightly room. Plus, with the reduced prices, it kinda felt like we were getting away with something.
I'm not up to anything; what makes you think that i'm up to anything?

3 comments:

Chloe Innvaer said...

WOW! The food looks amazing! Glad that you had the chance to go!

Unknown said...

Yum! French onion soup is my favourite.

Rea said...

Love, love, love beets! But better yet, the beet greens. And don't get me started on the tomatoes! You eat ketchup, speghetti sauce, salsa.......
Looks like a great HUGE lunch! YUM!