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Vin 909 Wine Cafe, Farm-To-Table Cooking in a Home Setting at 909 Bay Ridge Avenue in Eastport


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Forgive me Don if this is the wrong place to post this, but I needed to talk about our meal at Vin 909 in Annapolis. We thought we were lost when we got there because it's located in a residential neighborhood in what looks like somebody's house. When we saw all the people waiting on the lawn, we knew we were in the right place. It was just 6pm on Saturday night, but we waited about 45 minutes for a table. There's a pretty lawn with benches to wait for a table, so we ordered a bottle of wine and sat for a while. There are two small dining rooms inside and and a small patio out back. Also, there were two tables on the front porch that didn't look very comfortable. Oh yeah, the food. For starters I had the "Chesapeake farm raised clams" with wild mushrooms, grilled corn, scallions, garlic, smoked bacon, white wine, and cream. I think this was the best dish I ever had in my life. The clams were perfectly cooked, the bacon was thick and meaty, and the sauce was perfectly decadent. My SO, not as pro-cholesterol as I am, had the greens with blue cheese. SO loved it. Then we moved on to the pizza. Pizzas are sort of oval, pretty thin, but not soupy at all. Kind of Roman if you know what I mean. I had the Spotted Pig with spicy soppressata, wild boar meatballs, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and provolone. SO had the Trip, wild mushrooms,taleggio and fontina cheeses. Pizzas were AMAZING. Perfectly balanced amounts of sauce, cheese and toppings. Service was friendly and efficient. Char was just right. When informed of a food allergy, the server checked with the chef for each dish we ordered. Sorry, no dessert report, too full.

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We had a really nice Sunday dinner here.  Good flavors, very good ingredients, and very pleasant service.  Definitely worth a visit if you're in the Annapolis area.  There's a small parking lot for the restaurant plus a decent amount of free street parking nearby.

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Rate this as the best meal I ever had in Annapolis. Love the ambience, the casual seating (we made friends with everyone around us), and the interesting farm-to-table menu that wasn't overly pretentious.

Things looked and smelled so good that the two of us accidentally ordered way more than we should have!

We had a rich, creamy corn-ginger soup , mixed salad (amazing - which is a difficult accolade to achieve for a salad),rock fish ceviche (not my favorite as I"m not much of a rockfish in ceviche fan - but it was the only ceviche offered and I AM a ceviche fan, so couldn't pass it up. ), skirt steak (probably one of the best dishes I've ever had at a restaurant. When I mentioned it to the server, he told us that it is the ONE dish that they will never take off the menu as rumor has it the customers would riot. I believe it. And, if that weren't enough food. We also had a fantastic mushroom pizza. Oh. And if THAT weren't enough, we ordered dessert! Butterscotch pudding with caramel sticks (beyond words). CARAMEL STICKS! 

We've told many many friends about this great little place and I can't wait to go back!

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What day and time did you go?  The last time I tried the wait was almost 2 hours, that is a deal breaker all the time.

I live in Annapolis on weekends, I suppose we'll go on some stormy night when the tourists aren't there!!

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Ate at Vin last night.  Sunday at 6 they were packed and we were able to grab 2 seats at the kitchen bar.  Vin gets way elevated in my mind as I watched numerous chefs show a ton of love on the food they prepared sent out.  We had  a simple salad with figs and gorgonzola  and white pizza with mushrooms and arugula, both of which were excellent.  I watched the chef prepare tuna tartar and take lessons from the lead chef in plating and seasoning as the night went on, will order next time.  I didn't realize they make mozzarella fresh to order for their pesto entrée, have to order this next time as well.

This is a keeper but hard to get into on weekends once tourist season starts in Annapolis.  No reservations and folks start lining up at 430 on Saturdays.

Highly recommended.

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On a Thursday night in the non tourist season Vin has a small, 10 minute wait at 730.  We shared a salad, scallop entrée and white flatbread with Lamb Sausage.  This place is still rocking on all cylinders as they execute well.  They had just rolled out a new seasonal menu but I didn't notice much difference then before.  This would be on my usual rotation except that it always has a wait and there are many other great choices in Naptown.

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On 8/14/2013 at 8:46 PM, Cuddlyone said:

Forgive me Don if this is the wrong place to post this, but I needed to talk about our meal at Vin 909 in Annapolis. We thought we were lost when we got there because it's located in a residential neighborhood in what looks like somebody's house. When we saw all the people waiting on the lawn, we knew we were in the right place. It was just 6pm on Saturday night, but we waited about 45 minutes for a table. There's a pretty lawn with benches to wait for a table, so we ordered a bottle of wine and sat for a while. There are two small dining rooms inside and and a small patio out back. Also, there were two tables on the front porch that didn't look very comfortable. Oh yeah, the food. For starters I had the "Chesapeake farm raised clams" with wild mushrooms, grilled corn, scallions, garlic, smoked bacon, white wine, and cream. I think this was the best dish I ever had in my life. The clams were perfectly cooked, the bacon was thick and meaty, and the sauce was perfectly decadent. My SO, not as pro-cholesterol as I am, had the greens with blue cheese. SO loved it. Then we moved on to the pizza. Pizzas are sort of oval, pretty thin, but not soupy at all. Kind of Roman if you know what I mean. I had the Spotted Pig with spicy soppressata, wild boar meatballs, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and provolone. SO had the Trip, wild mushrooms,taleggio and fontina cheeses. Pizzas were AMAZING. Perfectly balanced amounts of sauce, cheese and toppings. Service was friendly and efficient. Char was just right. When informed of a food allergy, the server checked with the chef for each dish we ordered. Sorry, no dessert report, too full.

I think this is the spot, a couple I ran into at Chiko, were raving about. I must find out for myself. Adding to short list.

off main st,

kat

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On 1/14/2018 at 10:44 AM, MarkS said:

Vin is in Eastport on a residential street.  Around the corner is a strip mall that is showing its age but has the Eastport Kitchen and Adams Ribs, both fallbacks when Vin has a 2 hour wait.  

So funny you mentioned this. I was there a few weekends ago, and stopped in for recommendations as to where to go until dinner service. The exact response was given by the staff at Vin.  We received  suggestions for returning by 4: 30 to line up for the first seating. Glad we did. This spot is a charming wine cafe that is known for it's pizza and creative use of seasonal ingredients. 

 For starters we had the Chesapeake clams in a smoke tomato broth seasoned with basil and crisp rounds of chorizo. I wanted to drink the broth.  Second course was  a candy sweet beet salad with honeyed pecans and  Maytag Blue Cheese dressed with crisp apple vinagrette .  But honestly we came for the pizza, and it did not disappoint.  The  pizza was the superstar. We ordered the house special, The Chef Moore. A magherita pizza topped with crispy sheets of procuitto and freshly torn basil.  All of the flavors married  harmoniously, and the texture of the crust was crispy goodness. If you order anything at Vin, don't miss out on the pizzas. They are delish! I would go again, 10 out 10 even with the possibility of lengthy wait. It is worth it.

Where the locals go,

kat

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Glad you enjoyed, makes me realize I need to go back.  Vin 909 like several others in Annapolis are places that hold their own against anything you can find in a bigger city.  And we have small town charm.

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Met some Friends who waited the 90 minutes at Vin on Saturday night.  The four of us shared a beet salad and butcher board to start and then moved on to 2 pizzas.  The margarita was perfect while the white pizza with BBQ chicken was great(less then perfect).  Place was hoping when we left at 9:30 which is late for Annapolis.  

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Has a few take out pies from Win last week.  As good as ever.  With pandemic restrictions going away they have stopped taking reservations.  That translates into 1-2 hour wait if you aren't waiting when they open at 5.  Worth it as you can sit outside with wine.

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