Copra, Baltimore, Md.

Once I got done with a meeting in Baltimore this morning, my friend John came and picked me up and, after a detour to his school to pick up some things from his classroom, we went to lunch in downtown Baltimore at a place called Copra, conveniently located across from John's condo and a half block or so from the church where he's the organist.

Copra's is a comfortable downtown cafe probably more popular for its bar and happy hour. While not a fish place, there was a prominent seafood odor when we entered. The place is done up in dark woods and colors in sort of a modern, clubby style.

Since Tuesdays are half price wine day, we decided to try a bottle of Los Caldos Doña Paula Malbec 2005, a nice little red from the Mendoza region of Argentina. I've been drinking a lot of Argentine wines of late because of their quality and affordability, and this particular malbec did not disappoint.

We ended up ordering the same food for lunch. I was having a hard time making up my mind, so I took his lead and followed along. I actually wanted some Maryland crab cakes, but they only had a crab cake sandwich and some small cakes for appetitizers, and there were no crab cake entrees. They also had a big selection of entree salads that seemed enticing, but I turned them down. What did we get? We had the meatloaf with tomato marmalade and baked macaroni and cheese.

The meatloaf was okay, though I'm not sure what made the tomato marmalade "marmalade" as opposed to just sauce. The macaroni and cheese also was quite tasty, but slightly on the salty side.



For dessert, we split a bananas Foster ice cream cake. It was better as it thawed a bit. The waiter recommended it over the carrot cake.



John was supposed to have had someone coming in for an audition at 1:30, but she called and rescheduled until "3-ish," which gave us time for a cup of coffee and a cognac (we originally ordered port, but the waiter came back and reported that the port bottles were in the bar but all empty!).

Here's a picture of John in his Kody Pose shortly after the wine arrived (and the wine spill made by the waiter cleaned up), followed by another with the cognac and coffee at the end of the meal.