Jump to: My Dinner with Slimer
Join the actual Edgar Allen Poe as he celebrates his 200th birthday with a decadent four-course dinner, complete with wine pairings, at the historic Admiral Fell Inn on Thursday, November 12. With this deal, $37 gets you an extravagant meal with complimentary cocktail reception, wine pairings, and a ghostly poetry recitation by the master of macabre himself, a $75 value. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres begin at 6:30 p.m., and dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. Grab your literary lawyer and gothic girlfriend for a night of gourmet dishes and scholarly spooks.
"Admiral fell in" is more than just an explanation of why there's an awesome bicorne hat floating in the pool. From atop the lush fifth-floor ballroom of Poe's old haunt, you'll take in breathtaking views of the Inner Harbor and dine on a mouthwatering menu from Executive Chef Bryan Sullivan of Harbor Magic Hotels. Mingle with other foodies, bookworms, foodworms, and bookies as you visit the open bar and nibble on wheat and rye toasts with blood-red tuna and wasabi aioli. Warm up with potato and rabbit porridge and feast your eyes and mouth eyes on a colorful bruschetta of fall vegetables. Dinner will perk up your seasonal appetite with a fricassee of pullled chicken and butternut squash with crispy cinnamon-cookie and parsley puree. Next, stab your fork into a devilish salad of butter lettuce, candied cherry tomatoes, caramelized red onions, and bacon vinaigrette. Obsess over boeuf a la mode with cauliflower and veloute bake and spinach sautéed in white wine and garlic before the dish awaits you nevermore. Finally, indulge your sweet tooth with a dessert trio of Cognac coffee cake, ginger scone with orange jellies, and chocolate fudge torte. Each course is perfectly paired with a complementary wine, which will inevitably betray the dish only to find poetic justice lurking underneath the floorboards.
Though you're certain to meet plenty of colorful characters (C. Auguste Dupin is on Facebook as a maybe attending), the guest of honor will recite his notable poems with chilling authorial conviction. Whether you're a lover of poetry or just a lover of food and wine, your dinner with Poe is certain to be the celebrity sighting that will make you the envy of your friends and firmly cement you at the cool kids table in the break room at work.
My Dinner With Slimer
If you've never had dinner with a ghost before, you're in for a real treat. Most ghosts are translucent, so you can see entire pieces of cake and cherry tomatoes suspended elegantly in their ectoplasmic guts. Never mention this, however, as the ghost may become self-conscious, or even enraged, and you run the risk of being Drag Me To Hell'd. What other faux pas must be avoided when dining with the deceased?
- Never, ever walk through a ghost, regardless of its transparency, immaterialism, or blockage of convenient shortcuts to the restroom. Always announce your presence with "Excuse me," or, if the ghost is a non-lingual spectral energy cloud (poltergeist, thought-nebula, et al.), fan it away delicately with a small hand broom.
- Never ask a ghost how he or she died until they bring it up. This is the equivalent of asking a recent high school graduate where they are attending college, or asking a masterless Samurai, or "Ronin," why they are not out getting revenge, and whether they could be getting revenge right now.
- Don't ask if the ghost is friends with other famous dead people (Lincoln, Billy Barty, etc.), as this is an offensive generalization. Exception: All ghosts know Casper the Friendly Ghost, but that says more about the neediness of Casper.
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