Urban Mama

Italian Comfort Food at Rockville's Baronessa Restaurant

Originally, I was going to try Baronessa out with the husband, so we could order several dishes, compare notes and discuss the various preparations. But babysitter issues and back-to-school craziness meant I had to go with Baby J, who is in fact three-and-a-half but shall remain a "Baby" forevermore.

So on a rainy afternoon, the J-man and I climbed aboard Rosie the van and headed northwest to Rockville for our mother-and-son Italian lunch. Sadly, the drip-drip-drip of the rain and the movement of the 20-minute car trip lulled J into such a deep sleep that even transferring him clumsily into his Maclaren stroller didn't wake him. That left me dining virtually solo as Baby J napped comfortably by my side. 

The first thing I noticed when I went in was that the restaurant was nearly empty. There was one trio of co-workers finishing their lunch, but otherwise it was just the two of us and an attentive waiter... waiting for me to look over the menu. 

Before I even looked at the menu, I felt like I was in Little Italy in New York (well, except there a little rain doesn't keep hordes of tourists from dining out, so there are never nearly empty eateries). This is basically your run of the mill, white-tablecloth, red-sauce restaurant. The menu is familiar and traditional, the music is classic Italian tunes ("Volare" and "Funiculì, Funiculà" both played while I was eating), and the food is comforting and oh-so-filling.

Since it was so wet and chilly out, I started off with a lentil soup (which come to think of it, is not always on an Italian menu) and the standard Caesar salad. The salad had a bit too much dressing on it, but that didn't keep me from shoveling it in, as I'd had a greens deficit the previous day and really needed to get my salad on. The soup, however, was delicious: hearty, thick, and reminiscent of my Mami's lentil soup. I actually wondered if Mami's recipe had come from my grandmother's best friend Filomena, who was Colombian born to Italian parents. I momentarily got teary eyed when I realized there wasn't anyone I could ask about this and quickly came to, because crying into my lentil soup was NOT on my personal menu for the day. Oh, and as you can see, there was warm bread as well, which I enjoyed, because sometimes you get bread that's blah. This one was rich and perfect for dipping in soup -- not that I would do something as uncouth as that at a restaurant, but you know, if you were to dip (my husband certainly would), it would be good for that.

Next I had such a stereotypical Italian dish I'm embarrassed to admit that I ordered it! But honestly, most of the menu was standard Italian comfort food, so when in Rome (or Rockville, in this case), you go for the wine sauce. I had the Chicken Marsala, and it was so mushroomy good that I completely forgot to take a picture of it until I had finished (as in, there was nothing but a film or wine sauce on the plate), and no one wants to see that. Trust me, it was good.

After my entree, I should have called it quits, but in the interest of providing you with an adequate review, and considering I had only sampled one starter, one salad, and one entree, I ordered dessert. Again, most of the choices will be familiar to anyone who has ever stepped food in an Italian restaurant, but I wasn't in the mood for cannoli or ice cream or even cake, so I got the tiramisu. It was simple and beautiful and garnished with a bit of cream and strawberries.

I was good an only ate half, followed by a cup of strong coffee and the check. Baby J. woke up just in time to amuse the three elderly couples that had wandered in during my meal. I should also mention that the waiter explained that rainy days (not to mention the Tuesdays after holiday weekends) aren't the best time to soak up a restaurant's true atmosphere. He assured me there are many more diners during the dinner hours, especially on weekends.

So would I go to Baronessa for my upcoming 35th birthday dinner? No. But would I pack up my three kids and husband and head there for a Sunday night meal of Italian comfort food? Absolutely. If you only do Italian when the restaurant is owned by Mario Batali or Lidia Bastianich, this isn't the place for you, but if you want some yummy traditional Italian food, this is a welcoming and family friendly restaurant where the service is excellent and the food a reminder of home.

Baronessa is one of many restaurants participating in Rockville's Restaurant Week, which runs this Sept. 10-18. If you live in Montgomery County, I highly recommend giving the restaurants in Rockville a try, since all of the participating ones will be offering big discounts.

Baronessa provided me with $25 to use at their restaurant, but the excess and gratuity was paid by yours truly. This is an un-sponsored post, and the ideas are all my own. Rockville Restaurant Week is a promotional partner with The DC Moms, of which I am the Editor.

Celebrating Small Businesses: Pillow Café-Lounge in Brooklyn

 

 

Thanks to American Express for sponsoring my writing today about small businesses. American Express is presenting Small Business Saturday, a way to honor the local merchants who are the backbone of the economy, this Saturday, November 27. They're offering statement credits to people who shop at small businesses, advertising for small-business owners, and donations to Girls Inc. for "Likes" of the Small Business Saturday page on Facebook. Join the celebration by clicking the "Like" button and then visiting the Facebook page to learn more about the program and read the terms and conditions that apply.

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As most of you probably know, I lived in Brooklyn for many years before moving down to the Washington DC suburbs. Despite three-and-a-half years here in Montgomery County, my all-time favorite small business remains Pillow Café-Lounge in my beloved old neighborhood of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

I remember when Pillow opened in 2004. It was in a small space on Myrtle Avenue between Clermont and Adelphi -- half a block away from my apartment on the border of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. I was pregnant with the Schmoopette and wandered in one morning on my way to work. I met a stunning, bald woman behind the counter who introduced herself as Biola, one of the two owners.

She was one helluva barista and incredibly charming, so after some small talk and a few sips of my decaf mocha, I was an immediate fan. The next day I met her partner Robin, who prepared one of the best bagel sandwiches I'd ever had -- a cream cheese, tomato, cucumbers, red onion (which I asked her to hold) and pesto concoction they called a "Garden Bagel." It was delicious, and I began to literally crave it throughout my pregnancy.

From that day forward, I was a regular customer. I stopped there literally every day, either before or after work, and also on the weekends. When my siblings came into town, I sent them there. When I had plans to meet a friend for coffee and lunch, I'd go there. When I was asked to be a reference in a former neighbor's background clearance for the Department of Justice, I took the federal agents there. When I had my baby daughter and wanted to escape the apartment, I'd pop her in a sling and head there. 

My mother, may she rest in peace, was fond of their protein-smoothies. Our son, the Schmoop, was a huge fan of their Fizzy Lizzy drinks (he and Robin were the only ones who seemed to favor the apple). My husband loved their regular cup of joe, and I was a mocha girl -- hot in the fall and winter, iced in the spring and summer. Robin once joked she could tell the seasons were changing by whether I ordered the mocha iced or hot.

After I was laid off by AOL on December 13, 2006, I walked straight to Pillow and fought back the tears as I asked for my signature comfort drink. They not only made me the mocha, but they *gave it to me,* saying I'd get one every day as a "twelve days of Christmas" present. I'll never, ever forget that kindness, as it brightened up some very dark days for me. To this day, if one of their regulars has a major hardship, they do the same, and I hope remember where it all started.

In February 2007, Robin and Biola moved Pillow to a much bigger space less than half a mile away on Myrtle Avenue, between Ryerson and Grand. They eventually got their liquor license and transitioned from a coffee & sandwich place to a full-service cafe-lounge. The extra blocks were a big deal to me at first, but since I no longer had a daily commute, I still went every day. I found myself walking there to and from dropping off my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter at preschool, schlepping my Macbook to work on my new freelance assignments there. The new Pillow became my office of sorts -- from morning coffee to afternoon lunch right up to school pickups. On the way back from school, the kids and I would pop back in for one last treat before heading back to our apartment.

When we decided to leave Brooklyn that Spring, we knew we could only have our goodbye party at Pillow. So that April, we bid farewell to our close friends and family in the one and only place I have ever felt like Norm in Cheers. Robin and Biola treated me not like a customer but like a friend, and I've yet to feel that sense of investment in any other establishment.

Sure, the manager at Gymboree and the baristas at a couple of Starbucks know me and what I do for a living, but it's not the same. It never is at a franchise store. But Pillow was special, and for that reason, I celebrate the small business culture of New York, where the local small coffee shop becomes your personal oasis, the place you know the owners care about you and you in turn care about them and their business. Thank you, Biola and Robin, for -- to this day -- being the proprietors of my favorite small business.

Honesty clause: I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

My Kingdom For a Cup of Coffee

 When my husband and I got married nine summers ago, we received a traditional Krups coffee maker with a glass carafe. It served us well for six years, mostly because as New Yorkers we drank our coffee, as Seinfeld would say, "on the outside." Shortly after we moved from Brooklyn to the DC-Maryland border, as if to protest our change of zip code, the carafe broke, so we had it replaced. A few weeks later, the carafe broke again, and we figured it was time for a new coffee maker.

Right after our sixth anniversary, eager to find the latest and greatest coffee maker, we (read: I) did the research and settled on the sleek (carafe-less!) Cuisinart pictured. It got us through some crazy holiday weeks when we had all of my siblings and their spouses in the house, making for eight adults all clamoring for a cup (or three) of joe each morning.

Now, only three years later, it too is showing signs of age. I've already had the lever replaced, and now there's a major malfunction of some sort that spilled four cups of coffee onto my kiddie-art-and-paper-and-toy-covered counter. There were many, many tears when my five-year-old daughter realized one of her last projects from pre-K was ruined. And since my eight-year-old son doesn't read my blog, I can admit to you that I had to throw out six Pokemon cards. I haven't figured out what's wrong, but I'm thinking it's time to replace the machine again.

My husband thinks I should just learn to love the coffee-press as he has, but really, I don't have time to put that much effort into my coffee every morning (although we do have chopsticks that Coffee Geek recommends). It's easy for my husband to say, since he's not the one who has to usher three children around the kitchen and out to school or camp or playgroup. 

The new single-cup brewing systems like the Keurig, which my sister owns and loves, and the Bosch Tassimo, which I tried at a recent event and was impressed with, are all the rage now. But if I buy one, the stakes seem to be higher, because we're locked into the pod system. On the surface it seems like a conservationist's nightmare (all those vacuum sealed discs!), but there's an overall cost savings (making one or two cups quickly and easily is better than making four cups in a regular machine and throwing two out, or worse yet, driving to Starbucks to buy coffee every.single.day).

The bottom line: what's a coffee-loving gal to do? Should I try for another conventional coffee maker, or should I try one of the new single-cup machines?

Good Food & Great Company

It's hard to impress me with a burger. I've some awesome burgers in my life -- Burger Joint, Island Burger & Shakes, Shake Shack, Good Burger, Jackson Hole, Pop Burger -- you name it. So when Devra & Sarah invited the DC Metro Moms and other area blogger pals to hang out at Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Eatery in Capitol Hill, I was game to try yet another renowned burger place.

Thanks to Jess' mad driving skillz, we were two of the first ladies there, and after some catching up with the other moms, it was finally time to order our food. I had the Smokehouse burger and Village Fries with a chocolate shake topper. It was beyond delicious, and surprisingly the burger wasn't a giant, greasy mess. Definitely ranks as one of the top five burgers I've eaten -- ever!

The real treat, however, wasn't the amazing food but the awesome group of ladies I got to reconnect with. Along with the crew of DC moms I already knew, I got to meet Sue from My Party of 6, JJ from Caffeine and a Prayer, the adorably pregnant Diana from Diana Caffeinated, Claire Jess from Crunchy-Chewy Mama and a gaggle of very cool Amy/ie/s.

As most of you who are reading along know, I've had an awful year. I'm sad a lot. I cry a lot. This Mother's Day is shaping up to be the worst day ever, so getting out and just having fun was simply the best.

Thanks to Devra & Sarah for hosting the event, Chef Spike for the memorable food, and especially to Quaker, for sponsoring it and donating to the Capital Area Food Bank in our honor.