Kosher Food and Drink

Even though I’m a local, it has been some time since I’d visited The Club Deli & Grill, a sister restaurant to Ta’am Thai, Mama Leah’s and Goldberg’s, all under the same ownership – and in the same plaza at 1500 Reisterstown Road.

A disclaimer: I am friends of all the involved parties here: the owners, the chef, even some of the staff.

I reached out to Mark, who runs the place, and is a lifelong friend. Well, actually, I was a longtime counselor in the camp in which he grew up: Camp Shoresh. Luckily for me, he never ended up in my bunk, as he had quite the rep as the wild child! Kidding aside, we’ve always remained friends, as I have with his sister and parents. Shoresh back in the day was really more of a large family than a traditional camp. Since those earlier years it has become much larger and now sits on a beautiful campground in western Maryland. A special place at which I made many lifelong friends.

Back to the restaurant. I reached out to Mark and asked him what the policy was with BYOB (in this case, as usual, I was asking about wine). He told me that the restaurant allows outside wine (must be mevushal, of course) but charges a corkage fee. Corkage is a restaurant’s choice to allow a customer to bring their own wine for a small fee, and the restaurant will provide a corkscrew and glassware. This fee is more typical in a restaurant with a wine list, but it is not unheard of in any restaurant. The fee will range generally anywhere from $20 to $50. In this case, it was $20. Fine. So I put my Shiloh, Secret Reserve, Petit Verdot, 2020 aside to take with us for dinner.

I called and set our reservation for 7:30pm. The restaurant is open until 10pm, which is nice for Baltimore, where seemingly everything is closed early. We arrived on time, and were immediately seated in a booth in the farthest corner from the front door (it was freezing outside and there is no real protection from the elements) and further from the front counter – the exact spot I would have chosen. The restaurant is small, with a mixture of about 8 booths and 3 to 4 tables, but doesn’t feel particularly tight, which might have been aided by our seating in a booth and the fact that the restaurant was not overly busy.

The table is set with water served in a beer growler, and mason glasses for drinking. Both cute choices. One small issue was the glasses were still wet, likely fresh from the dishwasher.

Our server immediately asked if we were ready to order, which we were. Our orders, both apps and entrees, came out very quickly. We were a party of five but ordered more than necessary to get a taste of a bunch of items.

The Blooming Onion came out first, so everyone took a bite. It’s not something I’d typically order, but it was very tasty. The batter was seasoned well and the onions were hot and not overly oily.

Next came the Club Poppers app. These are obviously pretty standard fare but I really liked these. In fact, I couldn’t stop (ahem) popping them. I cut one open and it was a very nice chunk of chicken breast with a light breading. The sauce is nicely spicy – a rating on the Jewish Heat Index of a 6/10 and on the Regular Heat index of 3/10. The club sauce for dipping is a little over the top for my taste. Obviously it’s a take on the non-kosher Buffalo wings and blue cheese dipping sauce, but dipping a deep-fried, battered nugget into mayo is a little rich for me. For research purposes I tried it and it was fine. Thought it took away from the sweet/spicy flavor of the popper. Good dish, though.

For something interesting, we were curious to taste the Short Rib Lasagna. The dish is slow braised pulled short ribs layered between pasta with a bechamel cream, seared and topped with marinara and fresh pesto. I took a nice bite and thought it very good. You better like marinara, which I do, as this dish is smothered. I’m not sure how pareve bechamel is made nor did I really notice it in the dish but that was fine with me. I’m not a huge fan of pareve takes on very dairy items (dairy bechamel is made from butter, flour, and milk, it’s classic French and this is a classic Italian dish). The lasagna was filled with braised short rib. A funny side note: growing up in a strictly kosher home and only ever eating kosher, it was not until I was well into adulthood that I realized that only kosher-keeping Jews consider lasagna as a strictly dairy dish, made with pasta, marinara, and ricotta, as opposed to the true Italian dish which contains meat. Again, I thought this was a very good dish. It comes with a small side salad.

There were two orders of a Smash Burger with the one pictured here the most basic, the Get Smashed, which is a 1/4 lb. patty topped with melted pareve cheese (which we opted not to add), ketchup and mustard, served with fries. My mom got this and enjoyed it. I did not taste, but the burger looked properly cooked and the fries were as well and nicely salted. At $15, it’s more than a reasonable deal for a sit-down restaurant.

The Burnt Ends are “twice smoked BBQ brisket ends served with the signature mashed potatoes.” They come served in cast iron mini skillets which are taken right from the oven (so be careful not to touch them immediately). I taste one bite of each the brisket and the potatoes. I thought the brisket was good, smoky and soft, though a couple pieces were on the dry side. The potatoes were just fine, though I’m not a big mashed potatoes fan. Thought they could use a little more creaminess maybe. All in all, another tasty dish.

The Rippin’ Dippin’ Chicken is fried chicken breast cut into strips with your choice of three dipping sauces, served with fries. Pretty basic dish but cooked nicely. A recurring theme which we will see again on the next dish is a good, flavorful batter. Don’t think I’d get this dish again, and certainly not before the next one.

The Fried Chicken should more aptly be called Smoked Fried Chicken. A fervent reader of Kosher Epicurean Society will recall my recipe for Incredible Smoked Fried Chicken, a delicious, decadent dish. While I think I preferred my recipe (what can I say, I like my food), this was really good. This is exactly the type of dish I want to find on a restaurant menu. This is something that takes time and effort and is not simple to nail just right. It is a recipe most people don’t have the ability to make, either because of time, lack of tools, or … well … the skill. I asked for white meat and to be honest expected it to be at least somewhat dry. The chicken was cooked perfectly and again the batter was very tasty, nicely seasoned and peppery. Big winner for me.

Another small criticism were the wine glasses coming out (also) wet, seemingly straight from the dishwasher. There were a couple small service things but they were nitpicky. Service was adequate and all the food came out very fast, all hot, all perfectly cooked.

Our bill totaled about $180 without tip. The Club adds a service fee on tables of six or more people (we were just five) and I’m pretty sure charges a credit card fee. Still a very reasonable bill for a lot of food. We were all quite full and even took some food home which we’ll use on Shabbos. Who doesn’t want short rib lasagna for Shabbos dinner?

Last time I ate at The Club was before it’s menu and pricing overhaul earlier this year, and I must be honest and say I did not love the place on that trip. The restaurant is now remarkably better. Portions are presented nicely, generous, and reasonably priced.

As an added bonus tonight, we even got to see local celeb Chef Dan, always a treat.

Chef Dan is a talented guy and the food backs this assessment up. Well worth a visit.

The Club Deli & Grill: 1500 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, Maryland 21208, (410)504-8102, sales@clubcentercatering.com, Star-K supervision