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French classics in a cozy, warmly lit, slightly ramshackle
bistro setting. But if there’s any place in the country that’s
making this quintessential genre feel fresh and new and fun
and youthful, it’s Baltimore’s Le Comptoir du Vin.
It all starts with the delightful couple who opened it:
Rosemary Liss, an artist whose residency at the Nordic Food
Lab in Copenhagen involved making a quilt out of dehy-
drated kombucha mothers, and Will Mester, who was chef
de cuisine at the restaurant that used to be in this same
space, Bottega. The pair built Le Comptoir as an homage
to a neighborhood restaurant in Lyon of the same name,
which Mester liked so much that he convinced the chef to let
him spend a night in the kitchen.
Like the Lyonnaise original, the scrappiness of the Le
Comptoir operation is its charm. Mester didn’t want to be the
type of chef who oversees lots of stations; the kitchen is just
he and his sous-chef, Kelsey Martin, who runs point on the
bread and baked goods.
And yet: They turn out the silkiest chicken liver pâté. They
hand-cut a tartare that practically glistens, the steak tossed in
colatura (anchovy sauce) and served with roughed-up
golden hunks of potato that made
me question how I ever could’ve
enjoyed steak tartare any other way.
For dessert they make crazy things
like Grandpa toast, in which foie
gras is shaved onto a piece of well-
crisped bread, and it’s exactly what
you think a frozen waffle smothered
in butter and maple syrup is going to
taste like but never does.
For as satisfying and timeless
and rustic as these dishes are, the
food is not even really what Le
Comptoir is about. It’s about having
a place where you feel immediately
welcomed. A place where you can
settle into a worn wood chair under
a wall-mounted marlin and drink
glass after glass of delicious natu-
ral wine from the scribbled list. A
place where you just wanna hang
out, as golden hour fades, hoping
the night never ends. —J.K.
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT
Paris-Brest with
pistachio cream
Owners Will
Mester and
Rosemary Liss
Pig’s head terrine
with pickled fennel
Roast chicken
with fried
potatoes and
mojo rojo
The restaurant’s
ever-changing
chalkboard menu
Egg yolk ravioli
with ham, peas,
and brown butter
THiS IS NOT
THE FiRST
RESTAURANT
TO SERVE
