Years ago (maybe 2001?) I went to Baltimore and ate at a great restaurant that made their own ice cream - the chocolate was absolutely divine! Mr. Cinnamon (Og love him) is taking me to Balmore to see Wicked, and I’d love to take him there for dinner. Of course, I don’t remember the name or location.
I can tell you it was in walking distance of the hotel, which was actually attached to a shopping mall, IIRC. Also, it was in walking distance of the convention center and the Inner Harbor.
Anyone have some ideas? I know I’m not giving a lot to go on, but I thought it was worth a shot.
I lived in Baltimore for 2 years back in the late 90s and worked right across the Inner Harbor. Going by your description, if it was “attached to a shopping mall” but not to the convention center, and within walking distance of the Inner Harbor (presumably without being actually on the Inner Harbor), I would guess it was in the Galleria (which is right across the street from the Harbor and is in fact also attached to a hotel with a walkway across to stores on the Inner Harbor).
I don’t remember there being any restaurants in there, though, just a Food Court on the fourth (top) floor. But a check of their directory online shows that there is now a 5th floor there labeled “Windows Restaurant” (or maybe it was always there and I never noticed).
If that wasn’t it – any other clues as to the restaurant? Cuisine, level of dressiness and cost of the menu, etc.? What’d you have for dinner before the ice cream, for example?
…or maybe it was Lee’s Homemade Ice Cream, right near the Harbor and which is listed as one of the Top 10 Best Ice Cream joints in Baltimore on Citysearch (#6)?
That sounds like an ice cream shop rather than a restaurant (to me, a “restaurant” means you sit down and get a menu and order real food, not just dessert), but is probably what you had in mind in terms of a place that “makes their own ice cream”.
Ok, you gave me some good hints, thanks! I must have stayed at Harborplace. So the restaurant would be within walking distance, but not connected to, Harborplace.
It’s on the ground floor, and it was a sit-down dinner - semi-fancy, I’d say. Definitely not an ice cream shop. I’m now cruising the web looking at restaurants in the vicinity, but any help is still much appreciated!
I know a few around that area… maybe if you remember something else about the restaurant? What cuisine it served? Most semi-fancy restaurants make their own ice cream, so that doesn’t really cut it down.
If you don’t have any luck finding it, might I recommend the Joy America Cafe at the American Visionary Art Museum?
You might, but you’ll be shocked to learn that they closed. I live about two blocks south of there, and loved walking over for “special” brunches with my wife, and now it is no more.
I thought you were in Silver Spring? When did you move up to Baltimore?
My husband thinks it may be Phillip’s restaurant. That’s a seafood place. I can see the place in my mind, but I don’t frequent the area so I’m probably not much help at all. I very nearly linked the Harborplace website again for you, probably a sign that I should go to bed.
Well, the Phillip’s that’s down in the Harborplace is actually in one of the Harbor pavilions (which I think the OP said it wasn’t), and IMHO is not a particularly fancy or “nice” restaurant. I enjoy going there, to be sure, but it’s noisy and casual, but the most popular thing to get there is the salad and seafood buffet bar and the tables are covered in paper, which gives you an idea of the sort of establishment it is. (The dessert was a selection in the buffet bar too, IIRC, though there may have been a la carte desserts I didn’t look at.)
I still think a more helpful hint would be to tell us what you actually ate for dinner and the cost, but perhaps you don’t remember that kind of detail after all these years. For example if it was seafood and cost about $20 an entree, it might have been Legal Sea Foods, a chain based in Boston but which has a location on Light Street across from the Inner Harbor.
I’m also going to go out on a limb and double-check that you’re not referring to The Cheesecake Factory, which is also in one of the Pavilions. This is a pretty common chain restaurant (even satirized on the Simpsons when Dr. Hibbert decides to take his family to “The Texas Cheesecake Repository” instead of Moe’s), so I assume you’d remember it by name if that was it, but perhaps you’ve actually never been to any other one so think of it as a unique place? They do have decent enough food and definitely make their own desserts (ice cream included I would assume).
If you don’t come up with your original place, have dinner wherever you want and go to Vaccaro’s for dessert. They’re a sweet shop in Little Italy (walking distance from the Harbor if you really like to walk). Their homemade gelato is great. I also see that they have a shop at Harborplace now.
robardin, it definitely wasn’t a Cheesecake Factory. I’d say the cuisine was American or steakhouse style, though you correctly guess that my memory is fuzzy. The only reason I remember it is that ice cream - I think the menu actually said it was made with a premium chocolate like Scharffen Berger or Valrhona, and it knocked my socks off. Little did I know many nice restaurants in the area make their own.
CookingWithGas, thank you, we will definitely check out Vaccaro’s as DH loves gelato. We will probably shop for some nice pasta and stuff while we’re in that area! After all, we have Friday night and all of Saturday to while away, before the Big Night.
This is a nitpick, but you did not stay at Harborplace:
Harborplace is several buildings that hold shops and restaurants. They don’t included any hotels. You may have stayed in the Inner Harbor neighborhood, where there are indeed are number of hotels.
I’ve been to the Inner Harbor a number of times, but I can’t suggest any place that fits your description.
The Renaissance Harborplace Hotel is a hotel that is attached to one of the Inner Harbor’s Pavilions via a skywalk over Light Street. That’s probably what the OP was referring to.
OK, I’m not likely to ever be a connoisseur of ice cream (unless they would somehow make it with Guinness) but in Baltimore, there are a few emporiums that you may have stumbled into.
The best by far is Lees Homemade Ice Cream which is at 201 E. Pratt St. AKA Harborplace. It is on the lower level of the Light St. Pavilion.
That has to be it. My other fave is called Moxley’s in Towson which is nowhere near Harborplace.
I live about two blocks south of there, and loved walking over for “special” brunches with my wife, and now it is no more.
