Capitol City Brewing
Baltimore (Inner Harbor), MD
 Price:$$$$ Decor: Touristy Bar and Grill
 Summary: Bad soup..Good everything else
(2.5 crabs out of 5)


Karen-It was a Captiol 4th of July in Baltimore at the Capitol City Brewing Company! Braving the throngs of fireworks-frenzied Baltimorians, we fought our way to this Inner Harbor Megarestaurant, that with a stunning view of the Harbor and a 4th of July menu sparkling with dishes such as "Francis Scott Key Lime Pie" and "Raven Wings," and even a beer that benefits the Constellation, Capitol City makes you almost for that, well, Baltimore isn't one. But regardless of that minor detail, the pub-themed restaurant did a good job of attracting our loyalty.

One huge plus right off was that, in lieu of traditional dinner rolls, they brought a tin of soft pretzels with mustard sauce. So what if the sauce was too tangy to touch--this creative and unmatched spin on the predinner bread wins them points for originality that their traditional food might otherwise lack.

Paul-The pretzels were a nice change of pace and I liked the mustard. It was probably dijion. Karen forgot to mention the soup we started with. I'll call it "MD crab" soup....it needs the quotes because this was the worst soup I've ever had. It was spicey but not with old bay and it was thick like tomato soup and most of all....it didn't really have any crab in it. It concerns me that this place serves the soup to tourists and they think thats what the normally delicious MD crab is. Very sad.

Karen-Indeed, the rest of the meal was dependably familiar. A Caesar Salad with
chicken had good, fresh, bite-sized pieces of lettuce with grilled chicken and good amount of sauce (read, for me, a lot!). The hamburger was wide and sloppy with big beefy bites and accompanied by outwardly-crispy, inwardly-soft fries.

Paul-I had the burger. I ordered it with onions and mushrooms. I thought it was a bit pricey for a burger but then it is the inner harbor. All in all it was pretty good though.

Karen-My "Raven Wings" were also what would be expected. They didn't amaze me with the sheer plump succulence like some have (for instance, Jillian's), in fact they were quite smallish. However, they got quite right the zippy red buffalo sauce that, when combined with the creamy white of bleu cheese, caused luscious sparkling colorful bursts on the tongue.

The price for all of this dependability (with those shocking pretzels) was about what you'd pay at any of those mid-scale restaurants. Going cheap as we did
with the salad, burger, and wings was fairly reasonable, but venturing into the
seafood entrees will leave you reeling (ha! Ha! Hmm?$22 for crabcakes!). At any rate, it was a fine Captiol 4th meal, even if we weren't in a Capitol City..

Reviewed-July 2001

$$$$$-over 20 dollars
$$$$-15 to 20 dollars
$$$-11 to 15 dollars
$$-5 to 11 dollars
 $-Below 5