Sometimes Dining in Baltimore

A few months ago, a friend of mine in town told me about Sometimes Dining, kind of an underground dining group in the Waverly neighborhood in Baltimore.
Since their dinners are at an actual residence, spaces are limited, but luckily last week, I was able to score a seat for their Pi day dinner.
We showed up at the house around 7:30pm, and were immediately welcomed by the staff and chefs when we entered the house. We were instructed to sit where we could, and we were lucky to get seats at a large table in the kitchen area.
Everyone was very friendly at our table which consisted a mix of newbies like ourselves and friends of the people who were running things. They were BYOB, but they did include suggested wine pairings in our confirmation emails.
We started with some homemade rye bread that had a fantastic crust served with alder smoked honey butter.

Our first course was a beautifully set salad with broccoli stalked shaved in thin strips topped with fresh beets, cashews, and Unikass cheese (which was like a hard cheddar).
In between courses they served a drink of warm black tea, root beer and ginger.
The second course was homemade cinnamon noodles with a mushroom reduction, served with duck breast with a red onion, grapefruit confit. I really enjoyed how all the flavors were actually very subtle and fit together nicely.
The third course was "le trou normand", or "palate cleanser": a shot of clove infused vodka. At this point, the chefs came out and toasted their guests.
We also got small plates of pickled asparagus and roasted pistachios.
The fourth course was a wonderfully poached hake served wrapped in a scallion crepe with a frisee salad and topped with a poached egg. The whole dish was delicately prepared and delicious.



As the dishes were cleared for dessert, I ordered a really nice and strong cappuccino made with Baltimore based Bluebird coffee.
The last dish was an apple compote with a sage shortbread cookie with some creme anglais.
They finished us off with some homemade dark chocolates.
The whole Sometimes Dining experience was just so warm and intimate and with such wonderful and thoughtfully prepared food and drink, it is a true treasure in Baltimore's food scene.