Crush

In honour of my friend Jefe’s birthday, we had lunch at Crush today. Crush is located in Belvedere Square, and if you’re old Baltimore, like I am, you might remember it as the location of Hess Shoes with the sliding board. They do still have the sliding board, but it’s raised so you can’t slide down it.

I hadn’t been in the restaurant since it was Taste, and didn’t really remember what it looked like then, but this iteration is really well-decorated and interesting.

We got there right at noon, and there was only one other table taken, but by the time we left, an hour and a half later, there were about 10+ tables filled.

Since they were offering a Restaurant Week menu, I ordered off of that, but Jefe ordered from the regular lunch menu. A few weeks ago, I’d written about the amazing idea of grilled cheese croutons, and Crush had a creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons. We both started with that, and it was excellent.

My next course was grilled salmon with lobster mashed potatoes(!!!), spinach and a red wine reduction. Jefe got a grilled chicken sandwich with Brie and bacon. Both were excellent. Just beautifully presented and fresh.

As we were eating, I saw the waitress walk by with a colourful timbale. I started describing it to Jefe, but then she  walked back with it and I flagged her down to tell us what it was. She said it was the Uncobb salad, with layers of arugula, lobster, shrimp, avocado, crab and tomato on a pool of vinaigrette. It was just gorgeous, and the perfect thing for a summer day.

We finished by splitting a Jewish apple cake with an excellent caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream.

The bill was quite reasonable and both of us agreed we’d go back there in a heartbeat.