Mike & Eric's Front Street, American and Italian on Front Street in St. Michael's

[wisehands]

Mike & Eric, who formerly ran the now shuttered Bay Hundred in Tilghman Island, have resurfaced with a new restaurant in St. Michael's: Mike & Eric's.  My impression of what the place offers is excellent skillfully prepared food at moderate prices, served in a casual setting by a very friendly hospitable staff at a great location.  MIke, who is a very warm and welcoming host/bartender, runs the front of the house, while Eric runs the kitchen.  They have some sidewalk seating, a very quiet back patio, and a comfortable dining room that is designed, according to MIke, to be as "non-jarring" as possible.

For starters we enjoyed the Crab Bisque made with lump crab and sherry, and corn & crab fritters that came with a zesty red pepper aioli for dunking.  For main dishes we had the Crab Canneloni made with swiss chard, ricotta, and crab topped with a sundried lemon cream, and the Bouillabasse, which was packed with seafood such as mussels, shrimp, scallops, and fish in a saffron tomato fennel broth, although I'd say the Bouillabasse is more like tasty seafood stew than a bouillabasse.  The wines offered match up nicely with the items on the menu and are reasonably priced.

They're located at 200 S. Talbot Street in St. Michaels.

[DrXmus]

Mike & Eric, who formerly ran the now shuttered Bay Hundred in Tilghman Island, have resurfaced with a new restaurant in St. Michael's: Mike & Eric's.  My impression of what the place offers is excellent skillfully prepared food at moderate prices, served in a casual setting by a very friendly hospitable staff at a great location. 

Because of the above review, Mrs DrX and I enjoyed lunch there this afternoon. We passed the Bistro, the Crab Claw, Marcoritaville, etc. and we're generally happy we did. I felt bad for the owners because we were the only diners in the place at 12:20 on a Monday afternoon. As we were finishing up, more people appeared and by the time we left there were about 8 other diners in the house. Admittedly, tourist season is over but I hope they're busier other days. I can see how it'd be difficult to have a restaurant like this and have to deal with such swings in business through the year.

The small beer list is unexciting, but they did have brewed-just-down-the-street amber ale made by St. Michaels Brewing which went well with the meal. The crab and corn fritters were nothing like I expected but were delicious. I figured they'd be hushpuppy-like but they were more similar to a soft, bready fried crab cake. I used the dipping sauce sparingly because the fritters were great by themselves, but it was very tasty, too and complimented the fritters well. The crab bisque was out of this world, also. The crab flavor was very strong, but there weren't many pieces of crab. it's not like the crab was missed. I enjoyed the strong sherry flavor that permeated the creamy bisque. Both dishes were apps, but they were large appetizers. I wish we had more people to share them with, but we finished them both without too many worries.

I had a lamb burger with feta on a kaiser roll. Unfortunately, it was cooked past my requested medium doneness and I feel the seasonings were missing. It didn't have much flavor to me and I couldn't pick up the rosemary or garlic mentioned on the menu. I added a fair bit of the tzatziki sauce which was served on the side. Because of the size of the apps, Mrs DrX just got another app of Chili Garlic Shrimp for her entree. It was a bit of a dud, too. I didn't try it but her take was that the flavor was lacking, the shrimp were small and the avocado relish wasn't something she'd eat.

There were several specials offered in addition to the full one-page menu and they sounded good, too. A couple of dessert options were offered, but we were stuffed, of course. The lunch was pricey, but each of us just HAD to have those apps, so I blame myself for 1/3 of the bill.