Bertha's

Bertha's
734 S. Broadway
Fell's Point, Baltimore
410-327-5795
Seafood
www.berthas.com
Cost: $$
Reservations: Varies
Date of meal: June 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

While Bertha's is known for its mussels, it is their marketing that makes my mouth water. (I guess this is what happens to you when you work as a business school professor for four years.) The first clue is that they have "www.berthas.com" as their website. They have bumper stickers,



and t-shirts.

What's more, people actually wear them. I haven't seen such brand loyalty since Vanguard or Harley-Davidson. (I bet you can guess which of these two brands I'm loyal to.) To top it off--which may be trying too hard--Bertha's has its own myspace page (which lists "her" marital status as "swinger").

Bertha's has a restaurant and a bar. The restaurant is substantially up-market of the bar; I haven't been to the restaurant yet. The bar is eclectic-kitchy-divey, a bit like a cross between Delux Cafe in Boston's Back Bay and Mama's Royal Cafe in the San Francisco Bay Area's Mill Valley. The walls are covered in bumper stickers.

You go there for the mussels (and maybe some beer). I got both, taking advantage of the many sauce options. Mussels were reasonably priced; they were also very good, although the bread for dipping was not as good. I enjoyed it and would be very happy to go back. However, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. These mussels seemed pretty similar to those on offer at many solid Belgian brew pubs (Monk's and Eulogy in Philadelphia come to mind). Given Baltimore's smaller market, I'm delighted it has a yummy place for mussels in a low-key environment.

Costas Inn

Costas Inn
4100 Northpoint Blvd.
Dundalk, Baltimore
410-477-1975
Seafood
www.costasinn.com
Cost: $$$
Reservations: Recommended (reserve "large" crabs)
Date of meal: Saturday August 11, 2007 (7pm)
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It


Costas Inn is a traditional, paper tablecloth, hammer as utensil, crab place. To say it is casual would be an understatement. It is Dundalk, which is East/Southeast of downtown and pretty far off my radar screen. I had never heard of the area before this meal.

We made a reservation the day before; they suggested we reserve crabs which we didn't do. When we got there, they were out of large crabs so we got medium-sized crabs. We hat potato skins and crab dip to start and crabs for dinner. Potato skins were great; crab dip wasn't. Crabs were good; prices are high but that is pretty much par for the course. (If you haven't done this before, be warned that eating crabs is extremely messy and a lot of work.) We also had two pitchers of beer (there were four of us). All in, the meal cost $40 per person plus tip.

Kali's Court

Kali's Court
1606 Thames St.
Fell's Point, Baltimore
410-276-4700
Seafood
www.kaliscourt.net
Cost: $$$$
Reservations: Recommended
Date of meal: February 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It

I went to Kali's Court as a recruiting dinner before I moved to Baltimore. There are two floors, with a bar and dinner seating downstairs and more seating upstairs. We sat upstairs. Decor is old-world plush. This was particularly successful downstairs, where the dark lighting and dark wood bar. Upstairs felt more like overflow seating, which it was.

Our service was OK, but not great. It was a bit fawning but not very helpful, heavy on the hard-sell. I had a seafood bisque to start and crab cakes for dinner. Both were very good. At the price, you would expect this. To be honest, I wasn't as wowed as I should have been at $30+ for an entree. If someone else was paying, I'd be happy to go there but wouldn't suggest it. I would not go there again if I was paying.