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Eat Feature

L is for Lunch

Women's Industrial Exchange · Sascha's Daily · Mughal Garden · Akbar · Bombay Grill · Nate's and Leon's · Snyder's Cafe and Deli

Joseph Kohl

Eat Special Issue 1999

Alphabet Soup We know where we like to go for a good burger--and we'll bet you do too. Or a good omelet. Or a good...

A is for Appetizers The Helmand · Café Madrid · Henninger's Tavern · Café Zen · Grand Palace · Morgan Millard · Al Pacino Café · Sarah's Café · Iola Café

B is for Breakfast Jimmy's · Blue Moon Café · Golden West Café · Morning Edition Café · Helen's Garden Café · Hull Street Blues Café · Loco Hombre · Weber's on Boston · Suburban House

C is for Carry-out DiPasquale's · Cosmos · Rotisseria · Chow Mein Charlie's · Chokchai · Thairish · Caribbean Kitchen · Viccino's · Michaelangelo's · The Roost

D is for Dessert Vaccaro's · Cheesecake Factory · Adrian's Book Café · Moxley's · Louie's Bookstore Café · Coney Island

E is for Expensive Charleston · The Black Olive · Milton Inn · Polo Grill · Chart House · Oregon Grille

F is for Frugal Pete's Grill · Trolley Stop · Fazzini's Italian Kitchen · jr. · Rallo's · Mamie's Café · Caribbean Food Carry Out · Silk Road Café · Frisco Burritos · Winterling's · Valley View Inn · Fresh

G is for Guilty Pleasures Anne's Dari-Creme · Howard's Delly · Maria D's · Johnny Rockets · Thrasher's · Steak Out Express · New System Bakery · Krispy Kreme

H is for Happy Hour The Brewer's Art · Mick O'Shea's · Brass Elephant · Speakeasy Saloon · Calvert House · Nick's Inner Harbor Seafood Co.

I is for Incendiary Sushi Café · Ko Hyang · Joung Kak · Thai Landing · Sisson's · Café Tattoo · Austin Grill

J is for Java Needful Things · The Hidden Bean · City Café · Donna's · Empire Café · Xando · The Daily Grind

K is for Kids Friendly Farm · Hacienda Mexican Restaurant · Fuddruckers · Overlea Diner · Funk's Democratic Coffee House and Bistro · Mount Vernon Stable and Saloon

L is for Lunch Women's Industrial Exchange · Sascha's Daily · Mughal Garden · Akbar · Bombay Grill · Nate's and Leon's · Snyder's Cafe and Deli

M is for Meat Prime Rib · Shula's Steakhouse · Ruth's Chris Steak House · Alonso's · The Crease · Bill Bateman's · Lenny's · Attman's · Boomerang Pub

N is for New School Joy America Café · Spike and Charlie's · Sotta Sopra · La Tavola · Opa! · Viccino Bistro · Café Pangea

O is for Old School Haussner's · Tio Pepe's · Ikaros · Acropolis · Bo Brooks · Forest Diner · Angelina's · Kawasaki · Thai Restaurant · Perring Place Restaurant · Sanders Corner · Sabatino's · Matthew's Pizzaria 

P is for Pub Grub Peter's Inn · Simon's Pub · Duda's · Sobo Café · Koco's Pub · Kisling's · McCabe's · Dougherty's Pub · Charles Village Pub

Q is for Quirks Holy Frijoles · Ye Olde Malt Shoppe/Earl's Beauty Inn · Tamber's Nifty Fifties Dining · Captain James Landing

R is for Romantic Corks · Pierpoint · Banjara · Ambassador Dining Room · Tersiguel's

S is for Seafood Gunning's Crab House · Gunning's Seafood Restaurant · Faidley's Seafood · Legal Sea Foods · John Steven Ltd. · Anne Arundel Seafood · G&M Restaurant · Mo's Fisherman's Exchange · Bill's Terrace Inn · Bay Caf

T is for Tourists Waterfront · Hollywood Diner · Café Hon · Obrycki's · Bertha's · Lista's · McCormick and Schmick's · Wharf Rat · Gallery Sandwich Shoppe · Hard Rock Café · Planet Hollywood · ESPN Zone

U is for United Nations Restaurant · Silk Road · Braznell's Caribbean Kitchen · Orchard Market and Café · Ze Mean Bean Café · Saigon · House of Kabob · Desert Café · Restaurante San Luis · Little Havana · Café

V is for Vegetarian Golden Temple · Liquid Earth · One World Café · Wild Mushroom · Puffins · Sin Carne · Village Market

W is for Worth the Drive Captain Billy's · Captain John's · Cantler's Riverside Inn · Gabler's · Baugher's Family Restaurant · Rudy's 2900 · Olney Ale House

X is for XXL New No Da Ji · The Yellow Bowl · Micah's Cafeteria · Cactus Willie's

Y is for Yeast Baltimore Brewing Company · Big Sky Bread Co. · Stone Mill Bakery · Ellicott Mills Brewing Company · Capitol City Brewing Co.

Z is for ZZZ Sip & Bite · Double T Diner · Valentino's · Star Light Diner · Bel-Loc Diner · Gampy's · Nam Kang

Posted 2/24/1999

Surely the Woman's Industrial Exchange (333 N. Charles St., [410] 685-4388) is the most perfect forum for luncheon in all Baltimore. It's a proper little place, where disapproving sideways glances are cast at those who dare enter the temple wearing inappropriate attire such as shorts or failing to remove their baseball caps. Shoot, we're lucky white gloves are no longer de rigeur for lunching daintily on ladylike foods such as chicken salad and tomato aspic, but we'd don a pair if that's what it took to gain admittance. We love, love, love the Women's Industrial Exchange and pledge ourselves to preventing its extinction through faithful pilgrimages to offer our lunch money.

Sascha's Daily (5 E. Hamilton St., [410] 659-7606) just might be one of the most underrated restaurants in town. An attractive, humble little shop tucked away just off Charles Street in the heart of downtown, Sascha's lunchtime light fare is consistently a cut above (they make a great ham and brie on a baguette), its daily hot-food special always hearty and reasonably priced (we love the lasagna), and its cookies soft and sinful. Sascha's recently set up an offshoot inside the Walters Art Gallery.

If we've remembered to wear pants with an elastic waist, we occasionally treat ourselves to the gluttonous wonders of Mughal Garden (920 N. Charles St., [410] 547-0001), Akbar (823 N. Charles St., [410] 539-0944), or Bombay Grill (2 E. Madison St., [410] 837-2973). All three of Mount Vernon's Indian establishments host enormous, economical luncheon buffets. Novices get their first taste of delicacies such as the navrattan korma; regulars crowd their plates with mild palak paneer, creamy badam pasanda, and spicy alu ghobi, instead of having to choose just one. Most importantly, all three buffets include dessert, usually cool, creamy khir, which we'd never get at lunch otherwise.

Nate's and Leon's (300 W. Pratt St., [410] 234-8100) may be located in the heart of the Camden Yards/Inner Harbor tourist district, but its heart lies further east, on Lombard Street's Corned Beef Row (even though the original N&L's opened farther north still, in 1935 on North Avenue). The spacious bar/restaurant's menu includes some nods to California cuisine (veggie sandwiches, grilled salmon, mesclun greens, etc.) but mostly stays true to the traditional Jewish deli, with plenty of chopped liver, roast brisket, and, of course, juicy corned beef. A bit of advice: take the light rail to Camden Yards if you're visiting from outside the harbor area--parking is a bear.

Snyder's Café and Deli (9616 Reisterstown Road, Valley Centre, Owings Mills, [410] 581-2999) styles itself as, well, both a café (pizza, salads, wings) and a deli (corned beef, knishes, etc.). We'll take the latter: Snyder's has an entertainingly extensive menu of old deli favorites and does a respectable job with the likes of lox, brisket, kishka, and potato pancakes. We'd be more impressed if they'd offer up a free pickle platter like the delicatessens of old (now that's how you start a lunch), but this being the modern world, we suppose we'll take what we can get.

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