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Snow Hill/Berlin The Atlantic Hotel The local investors who renovated this “jewel of the Eastern Shore” knew what they wanted: a fine, special-occasion dining room. They searched the nation for their first chef, who rewarded their trust with culinary honors (the Atlantic quickly became one of six four-star restaurants in Maryland as determined by the Baltimore Sun). The 60-seat dining room is pretty in a hotel kind of way. Balloon curtains around tall etched-glass windows match the walls papered in deep rose, teal and dark blue. High-back upholstered chairs are at well-spaced tables topped with white linens. The short, changing dinner menu ranges from scallion-crusted tuna with gingered bok choy, herbed mashed potatoes and bouillabaisse sauce to frenched rack of lamb topped with montrachet goat cheese and fine herbs – a house specialty. Local rockfish wrapped in prosciutto, hickory-smoked pork medallions with pineapple chutney, grilled veal chop puttanesca and tournedos au poivre might be other choices. Crabmeat prevails among starters – crab stew with Smithfield ham, a crab cake on a blood orange coulis, crab phyllo plus shrimp and sweet potato cakes, roasted oysters and baked brie for two at a recent visit. Finish with a selection from the dessert tray: perhaps Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake, chocolate-raspberry ganache cake or homemade ice cream. The Wine Spectator award-winning wine list is on the expensive side. At a Sunday jazz brunch in the dining room, we sampled shrimp Americaine and tomato concasse in an herbed crêpe as well as poached eggs Chesapeake, served on an artichoke bottom, surrounded by lump crab and topped with a delicate hollandaise sauce. A more traditional breakfast is offered Sunday in the Drummer’s Café, the Victorian lounge with a new sidewalk café that's stylish with wicker furniture and petunias in planters. A short menu, ranging from grilled swordfish to New York strip steak, is offered here day and night. (410) 641-3589 or (800) 814-7672. Entrées, $26
to $30. Dinner nightly, 6 to 9 or 10. Sunday brunch, 11 to 3. Cafe,
$14.95 to $19.95, 11:30 to 9 or 10; Sunday breakfast, 8 to 2.
Jim Washington, who ran the popular Snow Hill Inn restaurant for ten years until he sold it in 2002, turned up in 2003 in the high-ceilinged storefront space that had housed the highly touted but short-lived David’s, A Bistro. It seemed that David Wells returned to Salisbury, from whence he had come a year earlier. He closed David’s and took over Legends, an existing fine-dining restaurant is downtown Salisbury. Snow Hill residents had found his bistro “too gourmet and pricey.” Enter Jim Washington, whose restaurant talents were well-known in town. He gave the two-room bistro a country look, decorated with memorabilia furnished by fellow townspeople and billed it as “Snow Hill’s Home of Hospitality.” His fare was similar to that for which he was known at the Snow Hill Inn. The all-day menu is long on appetizers, sandwiches and salads in the area tradition. Also featured are “platters” with a choice of one or two side orders, from fried clam strips, ham steak and liver and onions to chicken marsala and pot roast. Come dinner time, you can order from a choice of eight entrées, again with sides and tossed salad. Typical are “Jim’s famous ‘no filler’ crab cakes always broiled, flounder stuffed with crab meat, fried seafood platter and grilled ribeye steak. Prime rib is far and away the most requested choice, according to Jim, and after sampling his version at an earlier visit, we understood why. The thick slab was succulent and sensational. Also good was the black and blue filet mignon. We had no room for dessert, a choice of carrot cake, cheesecake or key lime pie. (410) 632-5451. Entrées, $17.95 to $21.95.
Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11 to 5. Dinner, Monday-Saturday from 5. Sunday
brunch, light fare from 5.
Ocean City restaurateurs took over this venerable restaurant in 2002 and closed for refurbishing. Chef Remo Moffo rewrote the menu to feature Eastern Shore food. The main floor includes an airy dining room in the rear and a more intimate front room colorful with stained glass and a decor of hunter green with red accents. There are also a lounge and a shady rear patio for dining al fresco. The inn offers soups and sandwiches for lunch and seafood and steaks at night. The crab cakes and steaks come highly recommended. The new owners also had plans to refurbish three upstairs bedrooms for overnight guests in the 1790 house. (410) 632-2102. www.snowhillinn.com. Entrées,
$9.95 to $22. Lunch and dinner daily, 11 to 9.
Just what the visiting lunch-goer ordered is served up at the deli counter adjacent to the Duck Soup Bookstore. Large, healthful sandwiches, bagels, soups, salads and quiche are ordered at the counter and delivered to tables scattered around the main-floor corridor outside the entry to the little Globe Theater. We liked the Globe sandwich (combining havarti, tomato, avocado, sprouts, cucumber and mayo on seven-grain bread for $3.25) and the chunky chicken salad sandwich called a chico ($3.50). Those and a couple of cafe lattes sent us happily on our way. (410) 641-0784. Open Monday-Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 11 to 5. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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