Local Lure
Easton boasts another restaurant worth the drive

By Tom Sietsema
Sunday, April 22, 2007

** Restaurant Local

101 E. Dover St., Easton, Md. 410-819-6066 www.tidewaterinn.com

Open: lunch Monday, Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner Thursday through Monday 5 to 10 p.m.; brunch Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All major credit cards. Free valet parking. Smoking on the terrace. Dinner prices: appetizers $8 to $16, entrees $19 to $36. Full meal with wine, tax and tip about $80 per person.

The more I cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and head to Easton, the more I'm reminded how delicious a destination this has become in recent years. Starting in 2000 with the Australian-themed menu at the Inn at Easton and continuing in 2005 with Scossa, the alluring Italian hot spot, Easton has blossomed into a great excuse to jump in the car and go for a drive. Now there's further incentive, in the form of Restaurant Local in the Tidewater Inn.

The newcomer's name was chosen to underscore local ownership, lure nearby customers and celebrate the foodstuffs of the region, says Richard Hamilton, the restaurant's 40-year-old executive chef. That means cheese, beef and fish from very near, and lamb and squab from Pennsylvania. An entree decorated with peaches -- in January -- made me skeptical about Local's intentions, but I unknotted my brow when Hamilton explained its presence: The fruit, which he had canned earlier in the year, was there to cheer people up in the dark of winter.

Local has a big heart and a generous touch. Check out the little Mason jars on the table. "Tonight, we have butter pickles and green beans," a waitress noted as she opened the containers for our inspection. The chef refers to the treat as a "country" amuse-bouche. When the bread deliverer came by, he offered a choice of corn bread, biscuit and sourdough roll, along with plain and honeyed butter, or soon, butter flavored with crab. The wine list is a serious document, but it's approachable; a full page of bottles priced at $35 gives diners the sense that Local wants us to enjoy wine with our meal. And a temperature-controlled display of wine near the swinging kitchen door serves as both decoration and lesson: Cool reds are better than warm reds.

Fish and seafood stock the menu and have made for pleasant memories at Local. On the light side are oysters on the half shell and flash-grilled white shrimp partnered with toasted biscuits and jazzed up with barbecue and lemon sauces. Turtle soup speaks to yesteryear and to Maryland, but I'd prefer to see it slip out of its big bowl and into a cup; the beefy-tasting, sherry-spiked liquid and meat, veined with crunchy vegetables, was too hearty and too filling in its current portion size. One night's special, sea scallops in a luscious swirl of green curry, was a combination you'd expect to find at the nearby Inn at Easton, where Asian accents are frequent. Rich with coconut milk and sparked with lemon grass, the plate, inspired by the chef's time in Singapore, merits permanent residence status. "Lobster, lobster, lobster" could drop one of its crustaceans; my vote is to keep the lobster-and-mascarpone-enriched cannelloni and the seafood oil and sauce, and to lose the entree's chewy lobster tail. But everything about an order of crab cakes appealed to me: its fine nest of shredded cabbage, its swipe of cheesy grits, its Jackson Pollock-inspired application of herbed oils.

Some of the best eating sprouted among the specials, including a recent "study of mushrooms." Count me an engaged student. Decorating a single white plate were a chive-flecked bouillon; tempura-dipped royal trumpet mushrooms treated to a bright sweet-and-sour sauce; and a moist, herbed mushroom bread pudding, streaked with a warm goat cheese cream sauce. The last component was one of those tastes you regret coming to an end.

With each visit, the cooking and the inventiveness have improved. Early in its life (Local set sail

in December), sidekicks tended to outperform the stars. A pork chop was cooked past optimal, but I ate every bite of the accompanying cheesy cubed potatoes and crisp green beans -- even the crescents of peach arranged on the border of the plate. Similarly, a blah chicken was rescued by a scoop of vegetable-laced "dirty" rice and meaty dark greens. Flank steak showed up as a tepee of rosy meat strips pitched on three kinds of beans and chopped beet greens. The legumes had a smoky intensity, thanks to smoked salt and smoked paprika in their seasoning, that was echoed in the cooked greens. Squab was set off with foie gras essence. It was good. But the creamy risotto that came with it was sufficient reason to order the entree.

Local suggests you are on the water. Big white sails of cloth float from the ceiling, and the chairs are swathed in sea-blue fabric. Glass doors lead to the neighboring Decanter Wine Room, a luxe retreat that would make the perfect setting for an important meeting or celebration; stone floors, leather seats and walls of wine give the room an air of import.

The restaurant has work to do on its service. In the bar, I've been treated like Casper the Friendly Ghost -- invisible -- for long minutes, as staff members gossiped and avoided my eye. In the dining room, there have been long waits between courses, and wine is sometimes fetched so slowly that you're almost done with your entree by the time it arrives. But the youngish staff is otherwise knowledgeable about what goes into the cooking, and plenty engaging. "Still, sparkling or Easton's finest?" one offered, reciting Local's water choices.

Desserts gather the familiar and the fashionable. A trio of creme brulees suffered from soggy sugar crusts, but the garnish, a chocolate-dipped fortune cookie, was a whimsical touch. More elegant was the opera cake, layers of soft buttercream and crisped chocolate; its restrained sweetness was refreshing. But fruit tends to be my finish of choice. A late-winter "apple tasting" assembled a tiny caramel apple on a stick, a fluted tartlet with slivers of fruit, a clear shot of cider and a velvety scoop of apple ice cream.

The finale brought the evening to a lovely conclusion. And like so much at Local, it delivered a taste of both city and country.

To chat with Tom Sietsema online, go to washingtonpost.com on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.