In 2006, when the Pfister Hotel opened Mason Street Grill, it was a very different anchor restaurant for them: upscale but not stuffy, a “classic American grill,” they called it. For years leading up to this, fine dining in its rigid, formal style was losing favor. With Mason Street, the Pfister was trying to change its antiquated perception; to a great degree, it has done that.
I can’t think of a local hotel with a better on-site restaurant, and many of its star dishes have become almost iconic: the Maryland crab cakes, the chop salad, the fried surf clams, the filet mignon, the carrot cake – founding chef Mark Weber’s carrot cake.
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The fun, interactive chef’s counter is the spot to watch and chat with the kitchen staff, but the leather-upholstered booths are comfortable, too. Mason Street has that masculine, power lunch kind of energy that suggests an earlier time, but it doesn’t feel dated.
And boy oh boy, is the food good. The lump crab cakes (from a 1950s recipe Weber procured) are thick, chunky and clean-tasting, in the simple way of Maryland-style cakes – light on filler, seasoned with little more than Old Bay ($27 for one). It’s also been on the menu forever, in changing preps – the recent corn and black bean salsa complemented it nicely.
The buttermilk-battered surf clams ($16) are hot, curly strips that taste like they could be served up at the window of a great little fish shack overlooking the ocean – and smell like fried bliss. In my memory, there’s always been a mild, flaky fish that is served with lemon butter and roasted red pepper sauces and pickled jalapeno relish.
Right now, that fish is an herb-crusted halibut ($48), and it tastes like respect. That dish can hold its own next to any seasonal fish special, except perhaps the one I had, Arctic char “piccata” ($48) – the delicate char filets were lightly breaded, pan-fried, the lemon-butter and plump capers delivering rich, briny, citrusy flavors.
All of these dishes together would bring me back to this restaurant, yet only one by itself has the power to do it by itself – a lost classic, tournedos Rossini ($68). Few things eclipse this old French dish – pan-fried beef tenderloin with duck foie gras and Madeira wine sauce – in richness.
The tenderloin cuts like butter, the thick slice of foie gras is smooth, creamy, unblemished, and the sauce is sweet, nutty and utterly hypnotic. The dish is pantheonic and almost ballsy on a modern restaurant menu. It’s one of many reasons Mason Street Grill doesn’t struggle one bit to stay relevant.
In its heyday (the 1970s), The English Room embodied fine dining. Located in the basement of the Pfister, the French high-ender served elaborate dishes such as canard à la presse (pressed duck), which involved pressing a duck to pulverize the bones and liquify the organs for a sauce served with the bird.
After The English Room’s closure in 2001, the hotel operated Celia Restaurant – named after Celia Marcus, whose husband, Ben, founded the hotel’s owner, Marcus Corp. – for five years. When that closed, the basement space was turned into a luxury salon and spa – fitting, as Turkish baths were rumored to be located there in the 1890s.
In late 2006, the hotel opened Mason Street Grill, on the ground level and with its own entrance. After a career that includes heading up the kitchen of Lake Park Bistro in the ’90s, Mark Weber – now Marcus’ corporate chef/senior director of culinary operations – helped create and continues to guide MSG’s evolution.
