Dining: Brasserie 10 South (Baltimore, MD)

10 S Calvert St
Baltimore, MD 21202-1301
(410) 528-8994
brasserie10south.com

It's restaurant week here in Baltimore! Erin and I like to take this time of year to explore places we've never heard of and give them a shot. Tonight we were both snagged by the tag of "Southern Fusion". Sounds good to me. Being suckers for some soul food, we bite. Made our reservations on OpenTable and shot downtown.

B10 South, as it is known, is in a part of town that doesn't seem to get a lot of foot traffic. You have to know where you are going, and know that you want to go there. It's right around the corner from "the block". Other Baltimorons will know what I'm talking about. For those of you not in the know...you are probably better off.

Upon arrival, the host stand is vacant. We wait patiently for a few minutes until we are finally greeted. Preferring a booth, we decided to have a drink at the bar while we wait for one to open up. Walking through the dimly lit dining room I notice the decor. Did this used to be a night club? Apparently there is an actual night club upstairs. Interesting. We are seated at the bar, are greeted by the bartender, and he walks away. Several minutes pass and returns to take our drink order. Erin requests a drink menu, there is none to be had. The bartender offers up a few suggestions, all of which sound decent, but really aren't to Erin's taste. An infused vodka & soda it is. Being the beer guy that I am, I ask for their list of beers. I'm thinking...with a name like "Brasserie" it's got to have a good tap selection. Nothing on tap. Very limited domestic bottle selection, the most adventurous of which is Corona...which, yes, I consider to be a domestic beer. Big disappointment. For a restaurant to completely impress me it must have a good beer selection, with some adventurous brews on tap. Maker's Mark and Diet it is for me. A good old stand by that I always enjoy. I think this place should create a few signature drinks to set the mood for the meal and beef up their beer selection. Five minutes later a booth opens up.

We are seated, and menus are ready for our perusing. A small plate of fresh cornbread triangles and sweet butter are promptly placed. Nice touch! I was secretly hoping for some cornbread. For appetizers we choose the Smokin' BBQ Chicken Pizza and Down South Egg Rolls. The pizza was pretty decent. The BBQ sauce had a nice kick to it and the dough was fresh. The egg rolls were one large roll cut diagonally served over mixed greens with a drizzle of Mango Hennessey BBQ sauce, stuffed with smoked shrimp, cabbage, collard greens and red onion. This sounded much better than it really was. For a "fusion" concept, I would have expected a lot more greens to be in this roll. The shrimp was ok. The sauce was limited. The fusion didn't come through in the taste. Had I not read the description and done a blind taste....typical Americaized Chinese egg roll is what I would have guessed.

On the the entrees. We order the New Orleans Seafood & Grits and Cornbread & Andouille Stuffed Chicken Breast. The bed of parmesan herb grits was covered with lots of red peppers and onions, some tomatoes and a decent portion of mussels, shrimp and crab meat. The flavor is definitely here, I can see the fusion of a few style present. I quite enjoyed this dish, while the tomatoes were a bit much for Erin. The chicken was fairly well cooked, though a tad dry on the bottom. The stuffing was moist and flavorful but without the presence of Andouille. Had this been more prominent in the stuffing, this dish would have really done it for me. A drizzle of chicken velouté sauce is hidden underneath, nothing more than a dressed up chicken gravy....a good one though. A side of well cooked collard greens with a smokey vinegar bath was quite delicious. I could have eaten a whole bowl of those greens.

Time for dessert. I order the Triple Chocolate Cake and Erin snags the Twisted Banana Pudding. The cake was a standard dense chocolate, heavy on the chocolate, light on the sweet. Fluffy chocolate icing and a chocolate ganache complete the play. It was ok, just above average. The pudding was the clear favorite. Topped with a flame kissed meringue, layers of vanilla wafers, sliced banana and pudding below. Sure, it's a simple taste...one that throws me back to childhood...but it was executed well. Delicious.

The service here was mediocre, at best. The staff were quite friendly, but they simply need more help. A few more servers and an active host would do wonders. The decor just isn't right. Get some new tables, some nice table cloths, a fresh coat of paint and get rid of the disco lights.

Overall I would give our experience at B10 South a grade of B-. The food was decent, but I doubt that I would recommend it to friends. If some small improvements to the food are made and a lot of improvements in the decor and bar selection occur I would come running back. They seem to be on to something, but just haven't quite reached their potential.