Bay Atlantic Club

Shhh. Knock three times, and you may or may not be admitted into this secret Baltimore lunch society. Step back a few decades and enter into the old Merchants Club where you can still have a couple of martinis for lunch.
Ok, anyone can walk in off of the street, but it doesn’t feel that way.
Eager culinary students at the Baltimore International College steer this restaurant/​training ground. Crab is everywhere on the menu at ridiculously low prices. Excellent MD Crab soup, cream of crab soup, crab cakes, fried green tomato salad topped with crab, chicken chesapeake, rockfish, and other Maryland classics are cranked out by the supervised kids in the kitchen classroom.
Shrewd business types packed the Friday dining room to the point of turning away walk ins. The student server was overwhelmed, but I’ll wait fifteen minutes for the soup again if the tradeoff is having her on the corner in the hood.
You won’t be paddled when you join the club that delivers an inspirational Baltimore story with every entrée. These are motivated kids, and their vibe is contagious.