The Kings Contrivance, Columbia

[DonRocks]

Some milestones are more dubious than others. Yesterday I had the English Trifle at Kings Contrivance as part of their Easter Prix Fixe (3 courses, $35), and I now think this particular dish - at this particular restaurant - may be the only restaurant item (other than an Egg McMuffin) that I've had in five different decades (70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and now 10s). Certain things never change - the gracious Richard Ackman, for example - but I remember this trifle as being good in the distant past: They used to wheel out a dessert cart, and hand-spoon it into a glass parfait; not any more - this may no longer be made in-house, and is just not worth eating. The Shellfish Bisque was pleasant enough, with wedges of lobster, shrimp, and crab cooked into a sherry-deprived, rice-thickened coulis, but the Roasted Leg of Lamb drowning in "mint sauce" - which was nothing but mint-infused brown gravy - sitting next to some short-cooked ratatouille and lumpless garlic mashed potatoes (with an inexplicable cheese tuile plunged into them!) ... see you in the roaring twenties, my friends.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[Waitman]

Boy -- I think King's Contrivance was the greatest restaurant I'd ever eaten in at the time -- must have been 1970, and my parents had just closed on our new house in a barely existent (pre-mall, even) Columbia.

Amazed that it's still holding on.

[DonRocks]

Boy -- I think King's Contrivance was the greatest restaurant I'd ever eaten in at the time -- must have been 1970, and my parents had just closed on our new house in a barely existent (pre-mall, even) Columbia.

Amazed that it's still holding on.

Not to make a terrible joke, but even in 1970 we may be talking about pre-Columbian architecture: Although Columbia was officially "opened" in 1967, most of that area retained the name Ellicott City for some years afterward - the village of King's Contrivance (the 8th of 10 villages) didn't open until 1977.

That said, I know you grew up in Oakland Mills which opened sooner (it was the 3rd village to open). And, okay, I'll admit it - I really just wanted to make that pre-Columbian joke.

In 1492

Columbus sailed (the ocean blew)

In 1491

Columbus had sex with Attila the Hun

That's how I remember these things (e.g. Mr. Wilson Is Inside Miss Kathcart's Twat All Morning Long ... that's my mnemonic for remembering the states bordering the Mississippi River, going from north to south.)