Acacia

So close, and yet... This New American contender sits squarely in the revitalized historic district of Frederick and presents itself with a lot of immediate appeal. The decor is tidy, comfortable yet modern; the wait staff are wonderfully professional; the menu is promising. It might as well have been transported in one piece out of Northern California...for some reason the place reminds me of San Rafael.

If only the food were as seamless. I think the kitchen has all of the right elements, but in trying to innovate they’ve gone one or two steps too far. Consider the baby spinach salad, for instance, a concoction of pastrami-smoked salmon, bacon, Maytag blue cheese and a green onion dressing. I positively adore Maytag blue, and not just because Fritz Maytag is one of my food heroes. I positively adore salmon too. And fresh spinach. But here, more is not better, and their generosity with the salmon completely overwhelmed what is probably North America’s best cheese. If the smoke didn’t do it in, the conspicuous crumble of some sort of grana over the dressing most definitely killed it dead...I suspect if might have been parmigiano reggiano, but the clash of the cheeses made it difficult to tell.

I’d say something about my entree (a daily special), but I’m having trouble remembering exactly what about it was dissonant. Something about the veggies. The steak itself was beautiful, btw.

The potential is there, but for the moment pretentiousness and vanity have the upper hand. Maybe I should have taken a hint when I saw that the wine list included selections from the Acacia vineyards in California, which I suspect were selected only for the coincidence of their name. Perhaps in a couple of months I’ll give it another try...if I can trick myself into bypassing Monocacy Crossing first.

-dave