New Baltimore places! WOO HOO!! (Day 1)

It's been a while since I have been able to get to any new DDD places.  Summer is always a tough time to travel (since I fly stand by) and I have been to most of the places that are within driving distance. so I am looking forward to a trip in the early fall to check-out.  I have been stuck on 357 since May and I am getting the itch to try some more.  On Labor Day weekend I saw a post on one of the DDD Facebook sites that showed 3 places in Baltimore, now I had no idea about any of these places, but I knew that Guy had been in Baltimore for the opening of the new Horseshoe Casino, as he has a restaurant in the casino, so it made sense.  I asked the guy who posted it, Neil Martin aka Boy Band is an Associate Producer for the show and I need to thank him for the tip!

I headed up to Baltimore after work one Thursday to try and get to the 3 places that Neil had posted.  It took about an hour to get from Dulles to the Baltimore area, traffic was really not too bad.  I had to use the Harbor Tunnel to get to northern area of Baltimore and the Dundalk area of the city.  Dundalk is a very industrial area and the restaurant is across the street for some sort of warehouse that supports the Port of Baltimore.  I pulled into a small parking lot for what was a pretty big building. 
Jimmy's Famous Seafood" was at first sort of confusing to figure out.  there is a package store, a carry-out area, a bar on the upper floor and on the side of the building is a nice entrance to the dining area.  Inside this is a very nice place, a bit dark but all the tables were very nicely appointed with cloth table settings and cloth napkins. 

I looked over the menu and although this is a seafood themed restaurant, the menu is very diverse with a varied cuisine.  I saw something that made me chuckle and since this news item was only days old upon my visit I have a feeling that there will be a menu change.  They do have a line of sushi items and some of them are named after players of the local NFL team, Ravens and one of them is the Ray Rice Roll, I had a lot of things go through my mind, as you can imagine.  They feature a huge lunch special menu at a fixed $11.99 price, which is no too bad and one of the items was a Soft Shell Crab sandwich.  I don't get too many opportunities to have Soft Shell Crab, so I decided on that.  After a short wait the sandwich arrived and was served with potato wedges.

My Soft Shell Crab Sandwich lunch

It was really good, I had asked that they not add the hot sauce as I am not a real fan of spicy stuff.  The crab as great and they had Jimmy's special mustard sauce and that just added to great taste.  I would like to return and try their signature Crab Cakes (but in Baltimore EVERY place has a signature Crab Cake!).  There weren't too many patrons but the staff seemed very busy and I had to wait much longer than expected to get the bill and get my book signed. 

After going up to get a hotel for the night I had made arrangements to meet my niece Elaine and her husband Matt at a place near the Fells Point area of Baltimore.  On the way from my hotel to the restaurant I must have past about 3 or 4 other DDD places, including G and A, DiPasquales and Sip and Bite.  Parking around this place was very difficult as there are a number of row houses, stores, bars and restaurants in the area.  I found a place about 3 blocks away and walk to a very unique place called Johnny Rad's Pizzeria and Tavern. 

This is the first time I have ever been to a skateboarding themed restaurant.  On the tvs were videos of skateboard demonstrations.  On a night that the Ravens were playing (and beating) the Pittsburgh Steelers they video entertainment was not football!  I had to wait for Elaine and Matt, as they had some trouble finding parking as well.  this game me some time to talk with the staff and owners of the place and they were super nice.  The owner was excited to see me and that there future TV appearance (about 6 to 9 months until it airs) was reaping some rewards.  After Elaine and Matt arrived we decided to try a few different things and ordered their signature Risotto Balls as an appetizer.

Johnny Rad's Risotto Balls

Lightly fried Risotto served with a marinara sauce.  The balls were stuffed with mozzarella and were done great!  The marinara was served cold, which was strange to me a first but it went really well with the  risotto.  None of the pizza choices really jumped up at me and when Elaine decided to try a pizza and offered for me to try it I decided on a item that did jump at me, the BLT which featured Pancetta Bacon.  It was served with house made russet chips and a side of Bleu Cheese.  The tomato was probably the biggest and thickest cut tomato I have ever had on a sandwich.  I actually put it on the plate and cut it and ate it like a beefsteak tomato!

Johnny Rad's Pancetta BLT

It was a great time catching up with my niece, I don't get a lot of opportunities to see her so that made it nice.  As the owner came to sign my book, he gave me one of their beer can koozies, I really appreciated that and it was pretty cool.

Front side of the Koozie

Very cool and funny back side

I say good bye to Elaine and Matt and headed back to the hotel and as I passed another DDD place, the Broadway Diner, I had to stop and try one of their typically Greek deserts.  Day one was done and my DDD count is at 359!