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Dining out around town, crab cakes and seafood from places like Donnelly’s Dockside are a solid choice for locals, and if that’s not your thing, eateries like Severna Park Taphouse will satisfy any appetite with their burgers and sandwiches, and Señor Chile is a must for the Mexican food enthusiast.
Whatever your favorite haunt, “the usual” always hits the spot. But there are times you want to deviate from the familiar – take a detour to Flavor Town, maybe try something you wouldn’t naturally crave – just to broaden your culinary horizons. Several area restaurants have items on their menus that range from funky to refined to “how did they come up with that?” If you’re looking to sample something out-of-the-box, here are a few good places to start.
Tuna salad, tuna steak, tuna poke – odds are if you eat fish, you’ve had at least one of these. But have you tried tuna carpaccio? You might be familiar with thinly sliced raw beef, but Cafe Mezzanotte owner and executive chef Kosmas “Tommie” Koukoulis shared that this seafood starter is a traditional Italian dish of thinly sliced tuna crudo, garnished with lemon tonnato aioli, green chili emulsion, cucumber, fennel pollen and extra virgin olive oil.
Another exotic protein on the menu is pork secreto, or the “butcher’s secret” because many would keep it for themselves.
“Pork secreto is a cut of pork that only comes from Iberico pigs,” Koukoulis said, adding that it’s by far the best pork he’s ever tasted. “It’s a thin steak about the shape of a beef hanger steak that wraps around the pork shoulder.”
Served medium-rare with a sweet corn puree, chive brown butter, potato gnocchi, green beans limone and pistachio dukkah at Cafe Mezzanote, pork secreto is commonly referred to as the “wagyu of pork.”
Koukoulis shared that half of the menu changes every six months to spotlight seasonal ingredients and offer new options for guests. “We’re blessed with a lot of regular clientele, so they have their favorites, but it’s also easy to get bored when you’re a regular at a restaurant,” he said. “Our regulars don’t have that problem because every six months, they’ve got about 20 or 30 (different) things to try.”
For the health-conscious diner, a salad topped with protein is a safe choice, but it doesn’t have to be a boring one. At Cypress Restaurant, the two top-selling entrée salads are anything but.
General manager Joshua Malter shared the origin of the “Shobb” salad. “I call it a little bit of everything for the seafood or salad lover,” he said. “The name is basically taken from the classic cobb, but since (it has) shrimp and scallops, we turned that to ‘Shobb’ with an S-H.”
A bed of field greens is topped with a hearty medley of scallops, grilled shrimp, lump crab, hardboiled egg, red onions, sliced carrots, bacon, blue cheese and a homemade house vinaigrette.
Another favorite, the citrus salmon salad is not just a feast for the mouth; it’s a feast for the eyes. Sliced oranges, grapefruit and avocado are ornately arranged atop arugula, along with fennel, pistachios, a house-made citrus vinaigrette and, of course, a fresh grilled salmon fillet.
“We like to think of ourselves as elevated upscale American food, so we take classic American dishes and we do our own fresh take on them to make them exceptional flavors,” Malter said.
Owner Jeremy Allen’s Alabama roots explain why Millersville’s popular new spot, Elephant in the Room, offers a menu with unmistakable southern influence. Shrimp and grits, Creole pasta and short rib are just a few southern staples, but the restaurant’s starters offer several truly unique palate pleasers.
Allen loves creating new things and isn’t afraid to dish up the unfamiliar. In the south, he tried alligator bites, liked them, and decided to test them out as a special.
“I thought alligator is one of those things that, if you expose people to it and they like it, they’ll actually continue getting it because they can’t get it anywhere else. And it’s been a hit. It’s probably our number-one appetizer right now,” he said, adding that it’s become a permanent menu item. Elephant in the Room now receives two weekly deliveries of fresh alligator tail.
Allen first discovered bacon-wrapped dates on a cruise and said, “Where else can you get it?” In his rendition, medjool dates are drizzled with honey gochujang sauce and topped with goat cheese.
“There are so many good places out there, but I think so many of them … just capitalize on their menu and then they keep it the same,” he said. “I don’t want to be that. I want to have one or two signature things, but I want to try new things each season and bring in unique things that people normally wouldn’t cook at home.”
From grilled cheese and macaroni for kids, to provolone and parmesan finding their way into all types of subs and pastas, to mascarpone and ricotta making appearances in desserts, cheese is a known crowd-pleaser.
Park Tavern is beloved for its robust drink menu, innovative salads and bowls, and hearty handhelds, but the restaurant is doing some fun – and fine – things with atypical cheeses.
Nashville hot cheese curds made their debut as a shareable alternative to a popular staple.
Justin Dvorkin, partner in the 206 Restaurant Group, shared that Park Tavern’s slogan is “reinventing the neighborhood tavern.” With the cheese curds, the team took something familiar – mozzarella sticks – and reinvented it, asking, how can we make something that’s fun, shareable and different? The restaurant’s crispy fried cheese curds include Nashville hot sauce and ranch dressing.
When concocting a new sandwich, the question became, what can we do that has an elevated approach? Enter the lobster grilled cheese. Smoked gouda, Havarti and fresh, cooked-in-house lobster are served on brioche in this decadent sandwich.
“How can you go wrong with the ingredients that are involved?” Dvorkin said.
When you’re craving seafood, there’s a good chance you get straight to the point – the Point Crab House & Grill, that is. But among the fish tacos, crab soups and steamed shrimp on the menu, you might not expect to find a Mediterranean appetizer or a funky fried dessert.
Both are on there, however, and both have a backstory.
Whipped feta isn’t particularly unorthodox if you’re at a Greek restaurant, but it’s a little offbeat off the Magothy River. The idea came about after owner Bobby Jones took his team on a taste-testing trip to a foodie town where they sampled whipped ricotta.
The Point’s whipped feta showcases fresh herbs, toasted pistachios, pickled red onion, garlic, pepper and olive oil, and is served with soft, crusty bread.
Bryan’s fried cornbread sundae was a harder sell for Jones, but fortunately, Bryan is a persistent salesman. A friend for over 30 years, local musician Bryan Ewald raved to Jones about a fried cornbread muffin served with ice cream he had while traveling. “That sounds pretty lame,” Jones told him, but Ewald didn’t let up.
So into the kitchen Jones went late one night, where he adjusted the sweetness and saltiness of a cornbread recipe, baked it in a ramekin, split it in half, and fried it. Then he made a berry coulis, a reduction of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries with lemon and sugar. Caramel sauce was the perfect finish. Named for his longtime friend, Bryan’s fried cornbread sundae is served as a vanilla Always Ice Cream sandwich finished with the berry coulis and caramel. Warm, cold, salty and sweet.
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