Wednesday, October 23

Chester's Steakhouse

[This is the first in a new series of restaurant reviews, which will run sporadically on littleplate.com. By "sporadically," I mean they'll run when I find restaurants that seem worthy of a review, good or bad. Don't forget, the following is worth exactly what you paid for it!]

When you walk into Chester's Steakhouse in Fells Point, you might feel like you are walking into a timewarp. That is not necessarily a bad thing – not at all. You enter the restaurant through the narrow, mirrored bar, where patrons are merrily hoisting martinis and Manhattans to the music of Frank and Dean. For a few minutes, you might want to run home and put on your best jitterbugging outfit, but then you smell the steaks and decide you don't really want to leave.

The ambience at Chester's is pure forties gangster hangout, only nicer. In the main dining room, there are lots of wooden booths, red checked tablecloths, and black and white photographs framed in black and white. You can sit in "Al Capone's Private Booth," though I don't know if Mr. Capone himself ever sat there. It's that kind of place; if the Rat Pack wasn't blasting over the speakers, I would say it almost felt like a speakeasy. Of course, you don't have to give a password at the door, but the restaurant has that kind of hidden macho feel.

Once seated, you are given the rather short menu. It's only one page, and it becomes immediately clear that Chester's is big on one thing: meat. There are steaks in several sizes and cuts, and if you don't want steak, you can have...chicken. Or ribs. That's about it on the entrees. The rest of the menu is fairly standard steakhouse fare, and a few specials are chalked in on boards around the dining room every night according to the chef's whims. The wine list is similarly brief, but has some good bargains, especially in the Australian red section.

To start, you can choose any of a number of the standard appetizers (calamari, hot crab dip, a fried onion) that must be circulating on a Restauranteur's Best of 2002 list. Or you can choose the very good house specialty, grilled Caesar salad, which is made with warm barely charred romaine and an anchovy-spiked homemade dressing. Soups include a salty French onion under a very thick cap of cheese. A special soup, cream of crab, is so creamy that it seems more like a stew; nonetheless, it has great flavor and a good amount of quality crabmeat.

Steaks at Chester's are not prime, but both the Chester's Special (a 20-ounce ribeye) and the Delmonico (a 10-ounce ribeye) have very good flavor, and come cooked exactly as ordered. All of the entrees come with your choice of potato – baked, fried, mashed, or home-fried. The baked potato might be slightly undercooked, but I would reach again for the home fries, chunky with bits of crisp onion and a fresh potato-ey flavor.

Vegetables are a la carte. The creamed spinach has a wonderful texture, and you get quite a bowlful of it, but it doesn't have enough salt, and is served more room temperature than hot. Or you can get sauteed mushrooms, so classic with steak, or coleslaw, which is a surprisingly good foil for the steaks.

Should you still be hungry after polishing off a half-pound or so of meat, the restaurant offers delicious creamy peanut butter pie, rich and luscious in a crisp graham shell. The strawberry shortcake is a bit past its prime at the moment – where can anyone get good strawberries this time of year? Or you can go safe with ice cream, a coffee, or an after-dinner coffee drink rich with Frangelico or Bailey's.

Oh, and the timewarp? It pops up again when you get your bill. Two hungry meat-eaters could dine here – and dine well, with three courses and a bottle of wine – for less than $75.00, easily. It's a very pleasant surprise in an era when a really prime steak dinner can set you back $200.00 a couple.

Not only that, but Chester's is friendly. The service is competent and unobtrusive even when the joint is jumping, and the atmosphere is cozy. The meat might not be prime, but on a brisk fall night a secret smiling place with a good steak and a nice glass of wine can really hit the spot. (You can always make creamed spinach at home, after all.)

Contact information:

Chester's Steakhouse

1717 Eastern Avenue (at Broadway)

Baltimore, MD 21231

(410) 732-9800