Cinghiale Julian Marucci Cinghiale

Cinghiale

822 Lancaster St. (S. Exeter St.)
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-547-8282
Map
Cuisine: Italian
Two restaurants in one: an informal wine bar and a dining room with Northern Italian fare --- with prices to match.
Openings: Dinner Mon.-Sat.

Features

Cinghiale, Baltimore, MD


Cinghiale Restaurant Review:


Cinghiale is right across the street from Charleston --- the flagship in Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman’s justly famed Charleston Group of restaurants --- but it’s also a continent away. What Charleston does for the low-country cooking of the American South, Cinghiale (“wild boar”) does for the Italian North. It’s really two restaurants in one: the Enoteca, or wine bar, is for feasting on antipasti, pasta, panini, and charcuterie and cheeses from the central salumeria, while the formal dining room, the Osteria, offers four courses of the chef's most luxuriant seasonal specialties, as well as a more rustic (and economical) Grandmother’s Kitchen option. Menus change daily. There might be some concern regarding the Osteria’s high prices and portion sizes that look stingy to locals used to Little Italy’s bounty. But when your meal can include such fare as pan-roasted black bass and confit of rabbit leg with maitake mushrooms, crispy polenta and spinach purée, a little sticker shock just might be worth it. You’ll probably want to indulge in paired wines, too. Any cellar masterminded by Foreman is one well worth exploring.