The Black Olive

If you're ever looking for definitive proof that good ingredients are the secret to flavor, go to The Black Olive in Fells Point. This charming little Greek place has rocketed to very near the top of our favorite area restaurants, and is worth the trek to Baltimore.

It is the closest thing I've experienced here to the times in Greece when I saw the fish being unloaded from the boats late in the day and carried up to the seaside restaurant for a simple grilling and some divine eating. The Black Olive is all about fish, but everything -- from the homemade bread, to the grilled asparagus accompaniment to the strawberry-ouzo sorbet at the end -- was superb. The fish itself was not only fresh, it was grilled or sautéed to perfection. The wine was a crisp, chilled Puligny-Montrachet with a wonderful mineral undertone that paired nicely with the fish dishes.

None of this comes cheap, even with the Baltimore discount, but it is money well spent. They claim to be one of the few places in the U.S. that serves genuine, fresh Dover sole, and certainly the people in our party who ordered that were thrilled. I personally was in seventh heaven with my royal dorade, a Mediterranean fish that has the firm texture of monkfish but a subtler flavor. It was grilled and filleted at table side in two wonderful mounds that made you think the Mediterranean was right outside the door. The waitress dribbled an olive-oil lemon sauce over it that was all the extra ingredient this fish needed.

The real secret of the good Greek restaurants is their olive oil -- and here it was a matchless, light oil that never tasted of olive but enhanced the flavors of everything it came into contact with, which is to say everything. This was especially the case with my starter -- an octopus salad that featured the most tender, subtly flavored octopus I've ever eaten. The little tentacles are marinated in a red wine mix, grilled, chopped and tossed with tiny slivers of onion and this delicious olive oil for an exquisite little salad that eaten with the hard-crust country bread and white Burgundy is alone worth the trip.

The restaurant is fun. Whether it's the charming Mediterranean decor behind the federal brick facade, or the cheerful French maitre-d' late of Petit Louis, or, best of all, the icy display cabinet of whole fish that you view before making your choice. There were the gleaming dorade, red snapper, black sea bass, dover sole, sardines and other fish cavorting in the crushed ice. A separate display case showed off the fillets of halibut, grouper, and salmon as well as the scallops, soft-shell crabs, crab cakes (no filler, olive oil is the only binder), and the rack of lamb thoughtfully provided for those not in the mood for fish.

Good food puts you in a good mood and the high quality of the food here turned this effort to bring together old friends on a summer evening into a real party. The serendipity of unexpected connections gave the whole meal a special air of Greek karma.