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Solomons Dry Dock Restaurant Part of the impressive Zahniser's Sailing Center, Dry Dock relocated in 2001 to larger quarters on the second floor of a marina building with great views of the harbor. Innovative fresh seasonal cuisine is featured on the blackboard menu, which changes daily. Decor is simple and nautical, with a rowboat hanging from the ceiling in the L-shaped dining room that wraps around the bar. Porches open to the outside, and a deck doubles the dining capacity in summer. The busy waterfront is on view from most tables, and we watched with fascination the parade of boats finishing the weekly Wednesday night race. Racers accounted for much of the activity in the noisy bar, which obviously is a haunt for yachtsmen. Dinner began with a complimentary wooden board bearing Wispride cheese spread and assorted crackers. We liked the oyster stew better than the highly touted spinach salad with fruit and nuts. Good main courses were lightly breaded pan-fried oysters with herbs de provence and grilled tuna with tomato-basil salsa. They came with rice, broccoli and an abundance of non-edible garnishes. Other possibilities included crab cakes with honey horseradish, cajun baked salmon drizzled with mandarin orange rémoulade and crab-stuffed lobster with lemon-caper hollandaise. Cumin-baked chicken with southwest sour cream, seared pork tenderloin with a sherry-sundried tomato sauce and grilled New York strip steak with roasted garlic-green onion aioli were the only non-seafood items at a recent visit. Desserts included key lime pie, bourbon pecan pie and a number of chocolate extravagances. (410) 326-4817. www.zahnisers.com. Entrées, $21
to $30. Dinner nightly, 5:30 to 9 or 9:30. Sunday brunch, 10 to 1.
The bar here is in a skipjack, the Spirit of Solomons, custom-built to a third of its size in the restaurant. It's a conversation piece at a contemporary, high-ceilinged establishment with huge windows onto the harbor and an outdoor deck that takes full advantage of its waterside location. The chef’s cuisine has won many awards for the restaurant, which was built in 1986. Seafood takes precedence on the menu, which ranges from a vegetarian platter to surf and turf. Scallops with mushrooms and cheddar cheese, crab in the usual guises, baked stuffed shrimp, seafood platters and filet mignon are favorites; flounder renaissance and snapper royale could be specials. Start with escargots, clams casino, stuffed mushrooms, danish shrimp stuffed with blue and cream cheeses, or a sampler of the last three. Among desserts are apple and key lime pies. Interior dining is on two levels on the main floor and on a spacious mezzanine. Oil lamps cast shadows on each shiny wood table. Sandwiches, light fare and a half a dozen entrées are served outside at the Quarter Deck, a separate entity run by the same enterprise and open weekends seasonally for lunch. (410) 326-2444. www.lighthouse-inn.com. Entrées,
$16.95 to $28.95. Dinner nightly, 5 to 9 or 10, Sunday 4 to 9. Quarter
Deck: May-September, Monday-Friday 5 to 9, Saturday and Sunday noon to
9. The C.D. Cafe Chef-owners Catherine File and Deborah Witmer used to cook at the Dry Dock Restaurant, so you’d expect the fare at their casual café to be a cut above. Theirs is the full-service successor to a gourmet bakery and deli in the Avondale Center, a good-looking, contemporary retail complex built by Skip and Ellen Zahniser of the marina family. The Zahnisers thought the town needed another decent, casual restaurant serving dinner, and this is the happy result. The sleek gray decor is minimal. Cane chairs are at butcher-block tables topped with gray inlays and glass. The dinner menu is eclectic, to say the least. Under appetizers and light fare are things like caesar salad with grilled salmon, a hummus and couscous sampler, quesadilla of the day, southwestern catfish salad, creole andouille sausage and Catherine's savory cheesecake, a walnut-crusted blend of herbs, goat cheese and cream cheese. For entrées, Deb's favorite is pan-seared chicken with pecans, apples and onions, deglazed with apple schnapps and topped with crumbled feta. Other possibilities are honey-blackened salmon, smoked salmon cakes, Mediterranean pasta and cajun shepherd's pie. No heavy dishes here – the meatiest is steak au poivre, unless you include a bistro burger. The bistro burger made for a satisfying lunch, but more impressive was the day’s special, an ethereal broccoli, feta and mushroom quiche with a side caesar salad. Catherine's changing desserts are special: key lime pie, walnut pumpkin cake, chocolate-caramel cheesecake, crème brûlée, bourbon-pecan pie and decadent brownies. We got a taste of the last after an earlier lunch of a curried chicken salad sandwich and potato salad that really hit the spot. The espresso-cappuccino machine is the only one on Solomons, which makes this a good place for continental breakfast and coffee in the morning. Beer and wine are available later in the day. (410) 326-3877. Entrées, $15.95 to $20.95.
Continental breakfast from 9. Lunch daily, 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner, 5:30
to 9.
This big-windowed restaurant beside the water was opened by Gerri DiGiovanni, who had run a restaurant on Long Island with her husband. When she became a widow, she relocated to Solomons, where she turned the second-floor store above the Dockside Marina into an Italian seafood restaurant. Now in partnership with her new Iberian husband, Ceferino Epps, she offers a high-style menu of Italian specialties, prepared by a chef from Venice. The locals are fond of the pastas, among them the homemade crab ravioli with saffron cream sauce, the mixed seafood over angel hair and the fettuccine alfredo with shrimp or prosciutto. They also tout the pan-seared sea scallops with creamy parmigiano risotto and basil pesto. Typical entrées are tilapia saltimbocca, soft-shell crabs sautéed with olive oil and herbs, veal marsala and pepper-crusted filet mignon topped with gorgonzola and wild mushroom ragu. Expect antipasti with a difference: roasted eggplant stuffed with crabmeat, baby artichokes sautéed in herbs and garlic, and mussels sautéed in a pesto-white wine broth. The fried calamari are tossed with tomatoes, spinach and olives in a lemon-vinaigrette. Desserts include New York cheesecake, cannoli and tiramisu. (410) 394-6400. Entrées, $15.95 to $28.95.
Dinner nightly, 5 to 10, Sunday to 9. 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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