Afternoon Delight

A friend had recently told me about a terrific restaurant in Frederick, Maryland. Last week we decided to drive up for lunch at Volt to celebrate a visit from our daughter and an amazing accomplishment of one of our good friends.

Our daughter was quite excited to go because Bryan Voltaggio, the chef-owner of Volt, was the runner-up (amazingly to his brother) on Top Chef several seasons ago. She made sure we saw a past episode before our little road trip on Wednesday.

The restaurant is housed in a beautiful old stone building in the middle of historic Frederick. I’d never done more that wave in the direction of Frederick as we hurried up I-270 to someplace west of here. It’s a quaint little town with no shortage of interesting stores and restaurants.

We were seated at a table near the front window, giving us lots of natural light. A host of staff pampered us just to the right degree during our 3-course lunch.

We decided to order a variety of things and share so as to experience as many dishes as possible. I was quite happy with all of my choices, but really enjoyed tasting everyone else’s.

As an appetizer I ordered “cherry glen farm goat cheese ravioli butternut squash, maitake mushrooms, sage air.” We quickly learned that an air is something frothy adorning the top of the dish. Everyone seemed to have a different air. My ravioli were not only beautiful, but every bite was mouth-watering.

As a main course I ordered seared scallops that came with 4 colors of roasted cauliflower. The verjus, or finishing sauce, made the dish.

For dessert I ordered “goat cheese cake d’anjou pear, spiced vanilla ice cream, citrus tuille.” It was a combination of ingredients that worked well, but one I would never have thought of.

The signature dish of the restaurant is the chocolate swirl, advertised as “textures of dark chocolate ganache, chocolate carmel, raw organic cocoa,” clearly a chocolate lover’s paradise. My taste of the chocolate dessert was like getting a chocolate infusion.

We finished our gourmet lunch with Kona coffee before heading back down the highway.

It was a wonderful way to spend the middle of the day on Wednesday, enjoying all aspects of our eating extravaganza. Just in case we got hungry on the ride home, we all were given a cinnamon muffin in a little Volt bag.

We will definitely make this trip again, perhaps with a little time to walk around Frederick and explore.