Charleston is a beacon of grace in Baltimore

When chef Cindy Wolf and co-owner Tony Foreman renovated their Harbor East restaurant in 2005, turning the establishment into something that resembled a home with grand taste, they also changed the way customers ordered. Out went a la carte and in went a tasting menu that put diners in the driver’s seat: They had free rein to create their own three- to six-course menu, from every dish on the list -- a poster-size menu running to two dozen dishes, not including dessert. A lot has changed on the dining scene since then, but two things haven’t: Wolf is still letting patrons have it their way, and she continues to offer some of the finest cooking in the Mid-Atlantic. Her favorites – lobster soup laced with curry oil, grilled French quail enhanced with peaches in summer -- are likely to become yours, and if Wolf gets tired serving fried oysters, a dish she’s been making since the ’90s at Georgia Brown’s in the District, she also knows a petition would follow if she took off the cornmeal-crusted bivalves enriched with cayenne mayonnaise. Frying and sauce-making are arts here, but so is the cauliflower puree, a dish so dear to the chef that she makes it herself, with the help of Dijon mustard, lemon and what tastes like sticks of butter. The niceties start with delicate cheese puffs in one of three hushed dining rooms and pile up throughout the evening, with wine from Foreman’s impressive, French-heavy cellar and a respectable cheese cart. The dishwashers must be careful; the china is Bernardaud. Food accounts for much, but not all, of the allure. Wolf says new servers are taught that the name Charleston is synonymous with Southern hospitality. “We take care of people.” Understatement of the year, chef.