Jump to content

Birroteca, Pizzeria with Craft Beers in Hampden - Chef Cyrus Keefer on Clifford Road


Recommended Posts

Birroteca, a new restaurant that focuses on pizza, small plates, craft beer, and wine officially opens tonight. A little bit about how the restaurant came to be here and a link to their Facebook page here (they do not appear to have a website up yet).

I had the opportunity to go for their soft opening last night with 3 friends. The full menu was available and we were able to choose what we wanted. The menu is split into the following sections: appetizers, salads, pastas (entrees), pizzas, and vegetables, with if I'm remembering correctly about 6-8 choices in each section, plus they have a nightly special. We opted to get a mix of the small plates/apps, pizza, and entrees and share everything.

We started with three appetizers, the meatball, calamari, and fried polenta as well as a duck confit salad, all of which were excellent. My favorites were probably the meatball, which was 8 oz (not sure what type of meat is used) and served on top of housemade ricotta with tomato sauce and a little shaved cheese and the calamari, which was cooked a la plancha, resulting in incredibly tender pieces of calamari topped with capers and grilled lemon. The fried polenta was a pleasant surprise, 3 "sticks" of very creamy polenta that was fried to crisp perfection (I really have no idea how they accomplished this) served on top of eggplant ragu. The duck confit salad with a bed of greens with figs and some type of citrus fruit, topped with an entire duck confit leg. The fat was scored and rendered really well and the skin was incredibly crispy - I could eat that leg every day. The salad itself was less appealing to me, everything went nicely together, but there was a bit too much sweetness overall for me to have eaten the entire salad on my own.

Next up we shared the duck duck goose pizza, two entries: the papperadelle with wild boar bolognese and the penne with fennel sausage, the mussel appetizer, and the cauliflower from the vegetable section. The pizza came topped with duck confit and a duck egg. It was really rich and tasty, but again there was that sweetness and sadly our duck egg was overcooked so we weren't able to get the benefit of the yolk spreading out over the pizza as you cut into it. However, the crust was perfect for me - the right balance of slight chewiness to overall crispness. The pasta for the bolognese appeared to be housemade and was very tender and the sauce was very good, if not wowing. The fennel sausage was a surprising standout however. Not sure where the sausage is sourced from, but it's incredible and balanced nicely with the tomatoes and the bitterness of the greens in the dish although I don't think the penne is homemade . The (1/2 lb of) mussels would have been underwhelming I think were it not for the croutons in the dish. I will fail miserably at describing these - they were flavorful and incredibly well seasoned and seemed to be soaked with liquid, but they were still crunchy so they added a nice texture and flavor to the dish. By the time I got to the cauliflower, the last item to reach our table, I was getting quite full so I'm not sure I can evaluate it fairly. It was roasted and again had a sweetness to it (fig, balsamic, both?) that for me after having experienced that with both of the duck dishes was too much, but it was tasty otherwise.

Desserts were a pumpkin pannacotta that was well liked across the board, as well as a chocolate fig tart (good, but not something I would rush to order again) and the olive oil & sea salt and ricotta ice creams (both tasty - I enjoyed having the sea salt ice cream with the chocolate tart and the ricotta ice cream with the pannacotta).

We stuck mostly to by the glass wines, and a couple of people sampled some of the craft beers on tap. They have a really nice selection of (mostly local) beers on tap, I would say about 15 of them (?) from places like Brewer's Art, Stillwater, Flying Dog (was so happy to get to enjoy The Fear on tap), etc. along with a decent cocktail list. I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the wines that we had and I sampled 4 of the reds, but for the price (most tend to run $7/glass) they're fine. They didn't have a dessert wine list yet and were still working on that so hopefully the wine list will evolve as well.

For the sake of full disclosure, we were asked to pay for our drinks, but not our food. However, we were presented with the food bill separately (presumably so we could tip accordingly) and for everything that we ate, plus an average of 2-3 drinks/person with tax and tip the meal would have cost us just over $60 per person, which to me is an excellent value as we left stuffed. Across the board I felt the food was very good to excellent, the set up of the menu is really great - a large enough selection with a lot of enticing choices, but not overwhelming (and nice for sharing), the service especially for a soft opening was quite good (there were a few hiccups, but surprisingly few), and I really liked the interior - I think this restaurant will be a promising addition to the Hampden restaurant scene.

ETA: You'll have to forgive me if I've forgotten some of the details or gotten things wrong as I'm working completely from memory here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We went here Friday night for dinner and had a nice time watching the Orioles beat Texas in the Wildcard.

We started with the Kale and apple salad- it was good, but felt a bit too "healthy". The kale and apples were chopped a bit too chunky for pleasant eating, and while I liked the bitterness of the kale, it could have used some more salt or acid to cut it some.

I agree with choirgirl on the crispy polenta sticks with eggplant ragu- so good.

We also had a great side of cauliflower with agro dolce sauce and figs. Delicious. However, again the cuts of cauliflower could have been smaller.

Our pizza was the pesto pizza. The crust is good- thin, crisp with a slight chew. I think they wood fire the pizza, so it did not have the char you get from a charcoal oven. Personally, I think Hersh's edges them out by a little.

For dessert, we had the pumpkin panna cotta and the chocolate fig tart. Both were very good.

Birrotecca fits well into the dining scene in Hampden.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone know if Robbin Haas is running the day-to-day operations here? The Baltimore Magazine article ChoirGirl21 links to implies that he might be, but also says he has his hands in several projects, and the Facebook page lists Cyrus Keefer as the Chef.

I don't know what the long term plan is, but according to the friend who invited me to the soft opening he is still heavily involved. He was at the soft opening for what that's worth. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dropped in last night for an early supper.

Food: (shared everything): Crispy Spiced Chick PeasMeatballsTuna Crudo, Steak Tartare, and two pizzas (Duck Duck Goose and Puttanesca).

Drink: Wolffer Dry Rose Cider from NY (I mean c'mon, it's like a 100 degrees out!). Also sipped from Evolution Craft Pine'hop'le and a gose I can't recall. 

Cost: $48pp (incl. tax/tip)

Good to know: Ample parking lot (unless super busy)

My first time, but doesn't seem like much has changed since @Choirgirl21's thorough soft opening writeup from 2012. The beer list is one of the more impressive in Baltimore, not merely because of size (on that count, there are longer ones) but the variety, availability of flights, inclusion of oddballs, and sheer rep of locals. Not sure exactly how formalists would categorize the pizza: not quite neapolitan or Roman, but nonetheless wood-fired. The Duck Duck Goose was just too rich for me to enjoy more than a slice, which made me happy I was primarily responsible for the excellent Puttanesca. The Chick Peas were the big surprise: a heaping portion and not afraid to bring the heat. Their Steak tartare is apparently very popular but I preferred the tuna.

Takeaway: this Clipper Mill/Woodberry/Hampden area is becoming my favorite F&B neighborhood in Baltimore between this place, Woodberry Kitchen (natch), Union Craft Brewing, and of course La Cuchara. 

Postscript: Swung by the relatively new (I believe) Waverly Brewing Company for a quick one on the way home. They have limited hours on Sunday so we only had one each: a ginger pale ale (okay), and a trippel (full on excellent). Snake Hill was just breaking down their pop-up, which smelled delicious. They have a few tables outside in the shade too. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...