Reviewing the Belvidere on Broad Review

Since the Bevidere at Broad got reviewed by the RTD today, of course I had to head up there tonight to enjoy my neighborhood haunt before it's inundated by the masses.

I'd read the review but had just a few bones to pick with it.

My primary issue was the timing of the review; as anyone in the business knows, a reviewer waits three months to review a new place.

The Belvidere opened July 29th and the reviewer was in the restaurant on September 25th; by even the most rudimentary calculations, that means the place had been open 8 weeks when she descended upon it.

Restaurant critic Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post not only insists upon a three-month window to allow a new restaurant to get its footing, but also requires three visits before a review is published.

Granted, this isn't a major market, but it still seems a tad unfair to review a restaurant so early on in its life.

My other gripe would be the crab cake comment, "could have used a touch more seasoning."

I grew up in Maryland and have been eating crab since I could hold a mallet; I am of the opinion that a crab cake should taste like crab, not like seasoning.

The Belvidere's crab cakes are, as the reviewer acknowledged, pure jumbo lump crab meat.

And for any true crab lover, that's what they should be; overt seasoning is for inferior crab meat.

Also, perhaps the reviewer was not aware of Chef Chris Hassen and his crack kitchen staff's intent with the Trio Appetizer, either.

It's intended to be eaten beginning with the mildest flavor (the crab cake), followed by the bruschetta's medium and fresh flavors paired with the strongest (the superb smoked salmon), much the way wine tastings go from lightest to heaviest bodied.

My dinner tonight at the Belvidere offered an opportunity to discuss the review with the kitchen and wait staff and other regular customers, all of whom are lamenting losing our neighborhood treasure to the soon-to-arrive hordes of the curious.

The consensus seemed to be that the review read better than a mere three stars, but at least it will introduce the unaware (like the reviewer whose foodie friends had not mentioned the place to her...what kind of foodies are these?) to a really fine addition to the downtown eating scene.

And that is most definitely a good thing.

And should you be looking for a scene, I left just as the Rumours soul dance party was beginning; the play list was a retro dream.

Yet another reason to check out the B @ B.

Just don't take my bar stool.