May 8, 2005
It's Brasserie, not Brassiere
The rumor cicuclating over the last days of Pesach was that both The Brassiere and Cafe 921 are in dire straits. The Brassiere's plight is probably due to a combination of heat from the recently-opened Accents, which is closer to the community, more affordably priced and ostensibly family-friendly, while Cafe 921, despite having the fealty of the 16 and under crowd, might be reeling from lofty overhead expenses for their staff and location.
As callous as this may sound, I care very little as to the fate of 921; apart from that tasty salad dressing, there's not much in culinary terms that I feel beholden to. Combine that with the fact that the place is disorganized beyond belief and whenever I go there, I'm out 20 bucks and still hungry, and I'm fine to see it go.
The Brassiere, however, would be a real loss if it were to shut down. It's the one place in town to go for a special occasion that you get a nice, waitered meal without spending more than is reasonable for an economically depressed town like Baltimore. More importantly, it's still relatively taboo to bring kids there, making it one of the few places one can get away from all things under the age of twelve for a short period of time. Also, the DelMonico steak is amazing.
As sad as it would be should The Brassiere go the way of Buzz Berg's Bison herd, it's quite understandable, given the community demographics. The Baltimore community is family-oriented; the average household size is probably between four and five, and people are going to opt for the more affordable and kid-friendly establishments five times out of six.
This also underscores the need for higher-end establishments to market outside the "kosher" community. Despite the fact that the community has grown significantly over the past few years, we still seem to be unable to support more than a certain number of eating establishments. Pulling from the non-kosher community could allow us to move beyond this bottleneck, assuming there's a willingness to sacrifice a more parochial atmosphere for more variety.
At any rate, I'd be sad to see the Brasserie go, so here's what we're going to do. Call it a lunch time flash mob, if you will. Let's all meet at the Brasserie for lunch, this Wed. (May 11, I think), at 12:00 PM. If you like, spread the word, RSVP in the comments or just show up. More than likely it will be just me, but it could be a nice gathering of folks. We'll eat, drink and be merry and perhaps postpone the inevitable for just a while longer. See you there.
"The Brassiere's plight is probably due to a combination of heat from the recently-opened Accents, which is closer to the community, more affordably priced and ostensibly family-friendly"
Forgive me, but when I went to Accents, I was extremely not impressed. They don't even have proper in-restaurant seating! I can't envision how that place is going to stay open - or is it more crowded during the day than I think?
I mostly agree with the rest of your thoughts. Cafe 921 is just not the kind of service I want when I go out, and their food is not all that great, either.
The larger overall problem is that kosher restaurants don't bother to actually succeed as excellent food establishments - as long as their food doesn't suck, and their prices aren't too high, they limp along, because kosher consumers are dying for variety. I understand that's just a consquence of a customer base that's actually rather ill-served at the moment, but there you go...
It's actually worse in Silver Spring, where you've basically got Max's, Ben Yehuda's, and Nuthouse, and that's it. The rest of the places are really closer to Rockville and Potomac.
-DMZ
Posted by: DMZ at May 9, 2005 7:25 AMYour comments on Accents are spot on; I've been meaning to give them a review for a few weeks now. The key differences, I think, are that Accents is new, and therefore the current place to check out, competes with the Brasserie in areas like sandwichs/wings that are closer in to the community, and that Accents is more of a Max's style conceptually. I agree that if Accents is going to have any long term appeal for me and my family, they have to do something about the service in that facility. More on this later.
As for Max's, it's one of the better kosher restaurant as far as I'm concerened, at least outside New York. The place is getting a bit worn down, they need to power wash the place, but the overall experience is almost always worth it.
Posted by: Greg at May 9, 2005 10:28 AM"The place is getting a bit worn down, they need to power wash the place, but the overall experience is almost always worth it."
They apparently tossed in some sort of door entryway thingie at the front doors of Max's over the weekend (post seeing you on Thursday). It's a little hard to describe, but I think it's going to be the start of some kind of partition between the restaurant and the "buy Shabbos food here" section.
If I were to make the place nicer, I would probably paint some nice murals on the upper walls of the establishment.
-DMZ
Posted by: DMZ at May 9, 2005 10:23 PMMy wife and I think Accents is just fine. We've never had any problem with the service. The food is first rate (gotta love their Mexican chicken wrap) and prices are not bad. They could use some refinement of their ordering system -- first time visitors are often confused about where to order -- but I think it is far more efficient than Cafe 921. The one major annoyance is when a party of four or five waits until they get to the counter to decide amongst themselves what they want instead of talking it over while waiting on line, but that is not the fault of the restaurant.
I have no prediction as to whether or not it will last. The economics of any restaurant seem frightening to me; they certainly have a ton of people working there and I imagine they have to pay their serving staff more per hour than a sit down restaurant because tips are fewer. But we're glad it's here for now.
Posted by: Charles at May 10, 2005 8:29 AM
