Worth A Drive: Mr. Rain's Fun House

Last month, we celebrated our anniversary at Mr. Rain's Fun House in Baltimore, and I walked away with a strong line to start the review.

Mr. Rain's is a terrific restaurant at the top of the American Visionary Arts Museum.  We had wonderful food.  Fun stuff like a twist on Hawaiian poke where a circle of raw tuna was topped with an avocado ice cream instead of missed with diced avocado.  Perfectly cooked stuff like scallops.  Delicious stuff like a plate where the meat, the vegetables and the sauces were each something special and nothing that I could make myself.

I had the idea to say that Mr. Rain's is the best restaurant that I never hear anyone talk about.  No one walks past.  No one could stumble on it.  But it's absolutely worth the drive from Howard County.  For some reason, that hadn't yet coalesced into a post for me, which is why you should go read what the professional thinks.  Richard Gorelick reviewed Mr. Rain's in the Sun and captured everything that I would have wanted to say -- plus writing with the cleverness of Mr. Rain's.  This is my favorite section:

This is an excellent restaurant that manages to be both part of a progressive culinary movement and its very own thing. The experienced staff members aren't shy about their sense of fashion, and Buszinski's kitchen isn't afraid of displaying flourishes of wit, just not at the expense of flavor.

Don't get me wrong. I love those wood-and-fire restaurants, where the spirits of the cow and the chicken hover over the plate. But Mr. Rain's is a chance to get out of your flannels, put on a puffy shirt and dine in a sophisticated and serene room where the predominant colors are orange and purple.

Consider stretching your evening by looking through the American Visionary Arts Museum.  It's a weird space, but it's fun art.  The museum gift shop is worth its own 45 minutes with books, art, and lots of crazy little items like colorful hats that we wore to answer the door on Halloween.  The one downside is that the museum closes early enough that our anniversary dinner was almost an early bird special.  So I could see going for dinner at a normal hour instead.