{"id":992,"date":"2017-04-04T08:44:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T12:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.citywalkerapp.com\/?p=992"},"modified":"2017-09-12T12:40:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T12:40:26","slug":"discover-fine-eats-and-drinks-at-pen-quill-in-station-north-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/discover-fine-eats-and-drinks-at-pen-quill-in-station-north-baltimore\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Fine Eats and Drinks at Pen & Quill in Station North Baltimore"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Chesapeake Restaurant was a Baltimore institution. It was the kind of place that our parents and grandparents would go to on special occasions, to sup on lobster Thermidor and beef so tender you could \u201ccut your steak with a fork…else tear up the check and walk out.\u201d It opened in the 30s, expanded in the early 60s, then closed with a thud in 1989. Two and a half decades later, a new incarnation opened and promptly closed. I never ate in either version, being too young to care the first time around and wise enough to notice the general lack of enthusiasm the second time.<\/p>\n

\"gnocchi<\/p>\n

Rather than repeating history and allowing the building to remain empty for another 25 years, Helmand Karzai took over the space in 2014, renaming it Pen & Quill<\/a> after the cocktail lounge in the original Chesapeake restaurant. If the name Karzai seems vaguely familiar, it\u2019s because Helmand\u2019s uncle Hamid was the President of Afghanistan for almost a decade. Helmand\u2019s father, local restaurateur Qayum, also gave politics a try. While he did not succeed his younger brother in office, he did win the hearts and appetites of Baltimoreans<\/a> with his popular restaurants The Helmand<\/a>, Tapas Teatro<\/a>, and b – A Bolton Hill Bistro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having grown up in restaurants, it seemed natural for Helmand to continue in the business. And he\u2019s keeping things in the family. It was a no-brainer to hire Bella Kline as the executive chef at Pen & Quill. Not only was Kline the sister of his fianc\u00e9e Naomi (now his wife and the restaurant\u2019s bar manager) she also had some serious kitchen chops. Schooled in French technique<\/a> by Jeff Smith of Baltimore\u2019s late, lamented Chameleon Caf\u00e9, Bella was working at Chicago\u2019s Michelin-starred Longman & Eagle when she got the call; now her creative modern American cuisine<\/a> is making tummies happy back in her hometown.<\/p>\n

\"scallops<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to Pen & Quill I was treated to a selection of dishes from Chef Kline\u2019s menu. Things started off with impeccably fresh oysters on the half shell and a few items from the \u201cPloughman\u2019s Platter,\u201d including a plump house-made pork sausage with merguez-style spicing (cumin, coriander, cayenne). Next came pillowy burrata served with warm marinated mushrooms, fried sage, and slices of baguette; a tender beef tartare over a \u201cbroken\u201d gribiche (an herb-forward cousin of a remoulade or tartar sauce, with hard-cooked eggs in place of raw); perfectly pan-seared scallops with banana ketchup; and fried polenta triangles with baba ganoush, artichoke hearts, and marinated feta over baby greens.<\/p>\n

\"steak<\/p>\n

There was also a vegetarian twist on a Reuben sandwich<\/a>, keeping the classic sauerkraut\/Swiss cheese\/Russian dressing\/griddled rye but replacing the beef with smoked beets. It was probably my favorite dish of the evening, although the lamb pot pie with brussels sprouts and a sturdy pastry crust also ranked high. The first thing I noticed about the food was the unusual combinations of ingredients. The banana ketchup was a fun surprise (and not as sweet as one might imagine), as was that Reuben. But the backbone of strong French technique was also very apparent, particularly in a dish of French gnocchi (made with choux paste, most commonly used in eclairs or profiteroles) with a bright green soubise–a classic sauce flavored with onion. Petals of smoked Vidalia onion brought another, modern, level of flavor to the dish.<\/p>\n

The menu\u2019s not all fancy stuff, of course. The restaurant has a great bar, so it needs great bar food. There are the obligatory wings and a burger, but also steamed buns filled with things like fried oysters or pulled pork, and a gorgeous fried chicken sandwich just begging to be Instagrammed.<\/p>\n

Pen & Quill<\/h3>\n

Get Directions<\/a> to
\n1701 N Charles Street
\nBaltimore, MD 21202
\n410-601-3588
\n<\/a>penandquill.net<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Minxeats Baltimore food blogger and Co-author of the new book,\u00a0Maryland\u2019s Chesapeake: How the Bay and its Bounty Shaped a Cuisine<\/a><\/em>, plus\u00a0Food Lovers\u2019 Guide to Baltimore<\/i><\/a>, and\u00a0Baltimore Chef\u2019s Table<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

\n

Editors Note:<\/em>\u00a0One thing we like to do when launching in a\u00a0city is to partner with local writers. This is a key part to the City Walker experience, we don\u2019t only want our app (iOS<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Android<\/a>) to have a local prospective, we want our blog to have it too! This gives the authentic personal prospective that no one other than a local can offer. We are honored to have\u00a0MINXEATS\u00a0be a guest writer<\/a> for City Walker in Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chesapeake Restaurant was a Baltimore institution. It was the kind of place that our parents and grandparents would go to on special occasions, to sup on lobster Thermidor and beef so tender you could \u201ccut your steak with a fork…else tear up the check and walk out.\u201d It opened in the 30s, expanded in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Helmand Karzai took over the space in 2014, renaming it Pen & Quill after the cocktail lounge in the original Chesapeake restaurant.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[166,156,158,243,241,245],"tags":[46,37,129,130],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baltimore","category-drink","category-food","category-local-pov","category-maryland","category-minxeats","tag-baltimore","tag-food","tag-french","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/burrata.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9buia-g0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1968,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/1968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}