I wanted to take advantage of being in Baltimore, so I really wanted to get either some really good crab or some fresh oysters. Before Amelia's lacrosse games on Saturday we scouted out some places. The night before we were casting about for places and walked through a spinning door and were deposited into an ice cold black tie only lobby that was clearly not for a sweaty, shorts wearing, dad and his daughter. Saturday we walked around a little bit in the sweltering boiling heat of a Baltimore Summer and found a place called Moe's that looked pretty good and looked like you know sort of a working place. There were people there for lunch so forth and so on.
We came back after her games. She took a shower. I drank a beer and we went over to Mo's. I was a little nervous because it was 7:30 and I didn't know if they would have a wait. It seemed like the type of place that really could get hopping with locals as the evening progressed. But they had a table for two and sat us right away. The place was bustling. Three round couples who seemed to be from Indiana came in. The impressively bellied men wore trucker hats and conservative themed t-shirts and the pear shaped wives all had the same short economical hairstyle that you can find at SuperCuts. They were enjoying life and having a great vacation. They were very happy to be led to their seats upstairs.
I like dive bars. Dive bars are not shitty or dirty bars. They are small, well-run, and well loved by their patrons. My sense in the morning and my initial sense after my first 10 minutes of observation was that I was in the presence of a wonderful dive bar style experience. The first little twitch that something was off was when they delivered our drinks. Amelia's soda was fine. I had ordered a dirty martini and it appeared a little bit lime green and cloudy. Imagine a frog pond.
The very pleasant server came back and she asked us what we'd like. Amelia doesn't eat meat but we had looked at the menu ahead of time and she picked out some things that she would like. She asked for macaroni and cheese. The server said, “Oh you don't want to order that here but it's on the menu so I'll bring it if you really want.” to that I said well my daughter is a vegetarian so are there other things that you might recommend. the server then recommended chicken chicken tenders or a hamburger. everything was moving too fast and I only realized later that what she had wondered was or what you thought about Amelia was can I get you something that is not fish. so Amelia gave up on the mac and cheese and ordered a Caesar salad which she usually Likes I ordered oysters a dozen and we waited for our food to come out.
With no mac and cheese coming for Amelia I encouraged her to eat all of the rolls that came out.
My oysters were served traditionally on a bed of ice but the first one I ate was lukewarm. I thought about just getting up and going but there was nothing overtly wrong with the oysters they just weren't ice cold which is the way I prefer eating them. I looked to Amelia and she said that the lettuce was okay the dressing was bad and the croutons and cheese were bad. so not a very good Caesar salad. I ate most of my oysters we ask for the check there was no line to give a tip I ask the server if there was a way for me to give a tip and she disappeared we did not see her again. so I signed the bill and we left.
