25 August 2012: A friend of mine hosted her own birthday party celebration at The Wine Kitchen in Frederick Maryland with close to two dozen friends. She made arrangements with the restaurant to set up a wonderful pre-fixe menu with a few choices in each category: Appetizer, entrée, and dessert.
Along with dinner, flights of wine were included; however, due to the large group and not having enough wine glasses to go around (three wine glasses per flight), set several bottles of wine were placed on the table for everyone to sample.
We sat in the private room, which part of the walls were lined with wine bottles. While a tight fit and very noisy from a boisterous fun group, everyone had an excellent time.
It was hard for me to select from the menu, as there was a very nice variety to choose from. After much thought I selected the corn and bacon chowder, the roasted chicken with broccoli, cornbread puree, oyster mushrooms, and blue berries (sounds like an odd mixture but trust me, it was delicious), and peach tart tatin with (get this) goat cheese ice cream, blue berries, and basil (last photo).
Tony ordered the heirloom tomatoes with compressed watermellon, shaved fennel wit buttermilk dressing, the steak with string beans and mashed potatoes, and the same dessert as me.
While waiting for our food, we tried some of the wines. What’s nice about the Wine Kitchen is that they supply small cards with descriptions of the wines.
My soup arrived and I could immediately smell the bacon. I love bacon! Who doesn't? The soup was fantastic! I was slightly surprised that it was puréed. I was expecting an actual chowder, chunky with diced bacon on top. Fine with me, as the flavors were wonderful and the smell and tast of bacon permeated throughout the soup. Others that ordered the soup were nodding their head in satisfaction.
The chicken was tender and tasty and I liked the addition of the blueberries that gave it a slight hint of sweet flavor.
Tony’s steak was cooked to order and a large cut to boot. String beans and mashed potatoes were nicely prepared. Their menu on the web site shows a $10 supplement but those that ordered the steak were charged a $15 supplement.
All in all, a really good meal. The portions were appropriate for the price we paid, service was very good, and even the chef came out to greet the group.
This is a place I will definitely return to for dinner.
11/10/12: This afternoon Tony and I went to see the art works of our friend Toby Mendez (sculpture), his father Tony Mendez (retired CIA officer - go see Argo!), and his mother Jonna Mendez (photographer). See this web site for their studios called Pleasant Valley Studios. 
We toured the various workshops, met Tony, who signed a few books for us, along with hundreds of other books, and spent time with others who were enjoying all of the art work.
