Brasserie Tatin

Brasserie Tatin
105 W. 39th St.
Tuscany/Canterbury, Baltimore
443-278-9110
French
www.brasserietatin.com
Cost: $$$
Reservations: Recommended
Date of meal: weekday dinner, April 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It

I've been to Brasserie Tatin once for a work dinner. If Saffron and Gertrude's had a love child, it would be Brasserie Tatin. All three are perfect for work and should probably be avoided otherwise. Brasserie Tatin has a decor like Saffron, kind of plush with warm reds. The food is plain but well prepared.

The environment is a little bit more lively than Gertrude's. The bar is actually pretty happening, though with upper-middle class folks in their 40s as drinkers. Does this count as happening? I think of this liveliness as a drawback; Gertrude's sedation is sometimes ideal. Once you are no longer catering to the octogenarian and University administrator set (and with the ban on age-based forced retirement the intersection of this Venn diagram is not disjoint), you might as well go to Petit Louis Bistro. It is just about as much fun as Brasserie Tatin (read kinda fun if you are upper-middle class and in your 40s), but with better and more interesting food.