Say it Ain't So, Johnny?

After 91 years the last remaining Polock Johnny's is closing its doors for the last time on Saturday, December 15th.  
 
For the locals that know the impact that this iconic Mecca of Polish sausages & lemonade  has had on Baltimore over the past century, I share your pain, it even exceeds the heartburn from the No. 1 with sauce & onions.   

The closing is coming as a result of the landlords decision to expand the property and not renew the lease to Polock Johnny's.  Though there are plans to reopen in a new location, which has yet to be determined, it will not have the same aged character of this landmark. The tin plated back wall, the hand painted mirror and the random animated characters painted on the exterior walls cannot be properly relocated to another spot.  These are items which simply evolved over decades and generations of business at the same location and they will become little more than a fond memory to those of us who where blessed to have enjoyed this little hidden gem over the years.  For those unfamiliar; you have now idea what you have missed in the simplistic pleasures of a No. 1 with sauce & onions and a lemonade.

I may be getting sentimental here, but I remember scraping together pocket change as a kid and riding my bike to the nearest Polock Johnny's, at the time located on Liberty Road to order a No. 1 with sauce & onions and a lemonade.  I do hope to see the rebirth of Polock Johnny's somewhere in the west Baltimore area and pray it doesn't go the way of Little Hut Hamburgers and Jack's of Lombard Street.

Goodbye, old friend.  You will be missed.

My Search for Truly Great Pizza in Charm City, Part I

Living in Baltimore has a few drawbacks:  the public transportation sucks, Peter Angelos still owns the Orioles and you just can't find truly GREAT pizza here.

I have been on an, "on again, off again, on again" search here in Baltimore for truly great pizza.  I'm not entirely sure I haven't set my standards too high, but that will be determined with an upcoming trip to Chicago in early July and a trip to NYC later this year to see just how great pizza can be.  But seeing how Baltimore has never been known for its pizza, we need to establish a baseline from a few places that created the standard.  For the record, I'm not a fan of thick crust, so I've eliminated them from the search by default.  What we do have here is a trio of establishments that are worthy of note but before we get ahead of ourselves we will be covering Joe Squared (I ate at the original location in the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore City in this post.

Joe Squared at one point was rated best pizza in the state of Maryland.  A great honor yes, but given that this is not a land known for its pizza, I was still a bit skeptical.  So back in March I called up my  friend Dahjn who is from of all places, Brooklyn.  The benchmark by which all other pizzas are judged.  We took a ride to Joe Squared and decided to order the BBQ chicken pizza.  I was a bit unsure how BBQ chicken, corn, avocado and spinach would work together but it did and in fine fashion.  My friends comments were very much what I expected, "The pie was good, very good but just wasn't a Brooklyn pizza".   My take was a bit different, and in part because I don't have the experience with pizza from NYC like I do cheese steaks from Philly.  The crust was just this side of what is now called "ultra thin" and just shy of crispy.  The flavors of the combined ingredients worked surprisingly well together and they were fresh, which makes all the difference.  I also was surprised by the white sauce, which was quite good.  I thought the pie was fantastic, though heavy on the gourmet side.  And that may be an issue when comparing pizzas.  When making a fair comparison of anything we want to compare apples to apples, not apples to cumquats.  In my mind anyway there are three basic classes of pizza; Classic Italian, Street Corner and Gourmet Pizza.  This was definitely in the gourmet class.

I have reason to believe that I will be back at Joe Squared and that you will enjoy your visit as well.  If not for the great pie and cocktails they have live music every night.



Enjoy and Eat Like A Local!

All Hot Dogs are Not Created Equal

Well yesterday I found myself free of obligations, so I decided to spend the day doing what I like to do best...explore the water front and search out new places to eat.  I was wandering around the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland and came upon Stuggy's Hot Dogs.  Stuggy's has been here about 2 years now and even with the recommendation of a colleague of mine, I somehow still hadn't made my way down here just yet...my mistake.

Now in all honesty, as a rule I am hesitant to spend more than a couple of dollars on a hot dog, let alone $6.99.  So I stood back and read over the menu as well as the poster explaining how the founders purposely created their supply chain from local farms and essentially created their own hot dogs to meet their standards.  "Hmmm?", I said.  "Locally owned and supplied?  This is a philosophy I can support".  Well, that along with realizing that I wasn't going to be able to make a call on this place without giving them an honest try.  So I decided to try the Mac Crab Dog, but alas, they were out of crab meat.  So we went to plan "B" and ordered the "Wild Thing"; bison sausage cured with maple syrup, blue cheese and diced raw onions.  This was surprisingly good!  Generally when we think of hot dogs it is a mentality of , 'a hot dog, is a hot dog, is a hot dog'.  Throw that thinking out the window when you enter Stuggy's.  The food is fresh, tasty and filling.  A word of caution here...with the exception of just a plain hot dog, if it isn't on the list of ingredients, don't add or subtract anything!  Yeah, you may like mustard on your dogs, but trust me, there is a reason deli mustard isn't on the Cuban Dog just like relish isn't on the Late Night.  It doesn't work!  There has been enough trial and error to find the right balance of flavors on these specialty dogs so enjoy them as they are intended. 

Probably by no surprise, the vast majority of their business is carry out but they do have a small counter by the window that will fit 3 or 4 people if you want to hang out and dine.  Just be prepared to "get to know your neighbor".  The entire interior of Stuggy's is maybe 5'x10' and they stay open late Thursday-Saturday until 3a, most assuredly to capitalize on the crowds as they leave one of the many local bars.

The manager, Ashley is fun to chat with while she catches her breath between answering the phone, ringing up an order and working the grill and she does it all with a smile and a laugh.   If your in the area or wandering around Fells Point for one of the many festivals during the summertime.  Do yourself a favor and stop in and try one of the many specialty dogs on Stuggy's menu.   Trust me, you'll like the food here.   As a matter of fact, I liked it so much I went back today and ordered the Crab Mac.