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Baltimore: Cinghiale and 2 Amys

Posted by Ed Levine, March 3, 2008 at 9:30 AM

Editor's note: New York Times best-selling novelist Laura Lippman, author of the upcoming Another Thing to Fall, is passionate about all aspects of Baltimore life, including food. In fact, having read all her books, I can tell you that her characters eat in all the best places in Baltimore. So when I asked Laura to become a Serious Eats Baltimore correspondent, she graciously agreed. Laura travels frequently promoting her books, so I have a feeling she might be filing dispatches from all over the globe. —Ed Levine

WORDS BY LAURA LIPPMAN | I've had some reason to think about reviews lately. A good friend, one with a palate far superior to mine, didn't like Cinghiale, the latest addition to Cindy Wolfe's burgeoning empire in Baltimore. But I had a hunch that I would love it—if I ate in the bar, Enoteca.

The fact is, much of my dining out is centered on Baltimore's bars—Nasu Blanca, Mezze, Tapas Teatro—because I live in a household where the only reservations we have tend to center on our own characters. I also love small plates because I like lots of variety in a meal.

I've been to Cinghiale three times in the past month and loved everything I've tried—the green salad, the tonno with poached quail egg, the grilled calamari. I've taken bites of a couple of pasta dishes and antipasti as well. It's just my kind of place, where the bartenders are happy to recommend wines by the glass, and there's cheese for dessert. My only criticism is of the bread, which I found a little blah, but that simply means I don't waste time eating it. Maybe one day I'll make it into the main restaurant, but I'm not sure why I'd need to.

Recently, my family also decided to try out 2 Amys, a well-regarded pizza place in Northwest Washington, D.C. I looked up the hours on its website, then clicked through to the reviews, finding several readers' comments appended to Tom Sietsema's three-star review from October 2007.

The readers' comments I saw were, generally, negative, although the overall readers' score matched Sietsema's. One complained bitterly about the puttanesca pizza and the deviled eggs in salsa verde. I thought for a second, then decided that readers' comments on a review (as opposed to posts on, say, here, or a site like Chowhound) probably tend to grouchiness. If I found a place I loved, I can't imagine appending a review to an already positive one, and I'd have to be really, really, really angry over an experience to write a negative review. So we went, had the puttanesca pizza (which we loved) and the calabrese (better still) and the eggs, which I thought outstanding. Oh, and a side order of sardines, which were served with bread and butter. I used some of the leftover bread to sop up the leftover green sauce, trying to figure out what went in it. As usual, I failed.

One big complaint about 2 Amys is the noise level, but we were upstairs, seated near some other apparent foodies, one of whom mentioned Di Fara in Brooklyn and another D.C. place, one where we had dined just the night before. She claimed to have seen a mouse there. I thought about that and decided it wouldn't keep me from going back. A mouse could be just passing through. Besides, I've seen a mouse in my kitchen and I still eat there regularly.

2 Comments | Tags: 2 Amys, Baltimore, Cinghiale, Maryland