R. House - An Airy, Sleek Food Hall in Remington

[monsterriffs]

There's no thread for R. House? Guys, c'mon --- it's the closest thing we have to Union Market! 

If I had to rank the stalls I've tried in there --- no comments on White Envelope (Arepas --- my fiancee was not impressed), ARBA (Mediterranean), Little Baby's Ice Cream, Hilo (poke and sushi) --- it would go as follows:

1) Ground & Griddled - the reincarnation of the beloved, and now shuttered, Cafe Cito in Hampden. Focus is solely on coffee (Stumptown Roasters) and breakfast sandwiches on their signature ciabatta.
2) BRD - had this once and it was an outstanding, ridiculously large fried chicken sandwich.
3) Be.bim - pretty good to occasionally middling bibimbap; usually my go-to option if I'm not feeling anything else.
4) Molina - a new addition; pretty decent brick-oven pizzas that I need to try again now that they've had time to work the kinks out.
4) Stall 11 - caveat: I pretty much get one thing from here, and one thing only, and that's the crispy cauliflower; this thing get me every. damn. time. Done in a Korean BBQ sauce, it's sweet, tangy, and crunchy with plentiful scallions. I wish I was eating some right now!
5) Amano Taco - fugouttahere with this crap; do you love overly stuffed tacos drenched in different variations of a mayo sauce? Really? This sounds like your joint, but I'll just go to Clavel.

R. Bar deserves a separate paragraph independent of the numerical ranking because it serves the entire hall. They have a good selection of amari, whiskies, and other fine liquors, as well as good beers. Cocktails range from excellent to wtf-were-they-thinking. 

[curiouskitkatt]

I too was excited for my first visit to this food hall, but was justly more impressed with this one much more like Union Market. I have yet to venture to Mt Vernon for their offerings, but I here nothing but delicious rave reviews. I can personally report the smoked mussels that are on the menu at Neopol Savory Smokery are worthy of licking your fingers shamelessly. They are that good. Although I am not vegan, one of the best chocolates I have had can be found at Pure Chocolate by Jinji. She serves a dark chocolate sea salt truffle that are incredibly decadent.

I too share your fiancee's take on the Arepas. I wanted to like them but the flavors were clumpy. The dough was heavy and the flavors were not executed all that well. I met a few locals and they shared the same sentiment about R. House as a whole. They intent is there, but the execution falls a bit short. Its a good thing the residents of Baltimore have a few different options to choose from for food halls. 

[monsterriffs]

4 hours ago, kitkatpaddywak said:

I too was excited for my first visit to this food hall, but was justly more impressed with this one much more like Union Market.

I don't know if I agree with this. Belvedere Square has more of a "market" feel in that there are actual shops from which to buy groceries and other goods (the wine place and Italian market), but the options feel much more limited than R. House or Mt. Vernon Marketplace. Depending on what time you get there, your choices may only be down to Ejji for ramen or Atwater's for sandwiches, etc.

I do hope R. House mixes up the stalls because I always thought that place would be an incubator of sorts for new chefs, etc., and there's really only a couple of places that are consistently good.

[curiouskitkatt]

1 hour ago, monsterriffs said:

I do hope R. House mixes up the stalls because I always thought that place would be an incubator of sorts for new chefs, etc., and there's really only a couple of places that are consistently good.

I share your hopes for R house in terms of it serving as an  incubator space for promising food start ups, or a platform for  pop ups that eventually find a home . But I think they are doing something similar to that at Share Kitchen, or City Seeds?