First look: Miss Shirley's Pratt Street

Miss Shirley's soup and sandwich combo works for us. (Credit: Lisa Wiseman)

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Regulars of Alonsoville (a.k.a. the conglomerate of restaurants along Cold Spring Lane which includes Alonso's, Loco Hombre and Miss Shirley's) will be happy to know that the franchise has expanded to the Inner Harbor. A Miss Shirley's is now located on Pratt Street, just inside the Constellation Energy building. Currently, the Pratt Street location is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast and lunch. In April, the Harbor site intends to open Saturdays and Sundays as well, perfect for you weekend brunch types.

Crowd: With its downtown location, the majority of customers appear to be office workers. We arrived for lunch at five minutes before noon and found the restaurant completely empty. Within 15 minutes, however, it appeared that the entire Constellation Energy staff took a coordinated lunch break, as throngs of people exited office elevators and streamed into the restaurant through the lobby. There also seemed to be a few tourist types looking for a break from the Aquarium and Harborplace. Yet, even with the sudden crowd influx, the staff at Miss Shirley's handled things expertly—seating folks quickly and never slowing down with service. Throughout lunch, we found the staff to be friendly and attentive. You'd never know they were in the middle of a lunch crush.
 
Food: We love places that let you choose between breakfast and lunch all day, because sometimes you just want a beef sandwich or hot dog for breakfast and sometimes you want pancakes for lunch. But don't expect the ordinary at Miss Shirley's. Here, the beef sandwich features fresh grilled peppercorn beef with blue cheese crumbles, grilled red onions and peppadews on ciabatta bread, and the half-pound all beef kosher hot dog comes wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and served with spicy relish. As for the pancakes—let's just say that these are basically dessert items cleverly disguised as breakfast. Go ahead and indulge yourself and try the upside down pineapple, chocolate chip, raspberry white chocolate, marble swirl or cinnamon Danish pancakes. If that's not indulgent enough, instead of maple syrup, top those pancakes with chocolate toffee crunch with caramel crème, fresh strawberries and whipped cream or pear ginger almond compote.
 
If you don't want to take the dessert-for-breakfast route, try one of Miss Shirley's three-egg omelets. We tried the Roland Park which included asparagus, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts and goat cheese. The eggs arrived warm and creamy and were served with seasoned hash browns with onions and a biscuit that tasted like it came from your grandma's kitchen (no Bisquick for Miss Shirley).

In addition to sandwiches, Miss Shirley's has soups and salads. Can't decide? For $13.99, try the side-by-side, which includes a cup of soup or salad and a half sandwich, or the triple play, which includes soup, salad and sandwich. We opted for Shirley's crab soup and a tuna sandwich. The soup was spicy and filled with lumps of crab meat. The tuna was your standard mayonnaise and relish combo but was served with mixed greens and a yellow tomato slice on one slice of white bread and one slice of brown bread. No matter what you choose off the menu, portions are large. Expect to take some of your meal home.

Drinks: At press time, the restaurant didn't have its liquor license, but a bar is scheduled to open by mid-November. In addition to $7 wines by the glass and bottled beers ($4 for Miller Lite, Sam Adams and Yuengling and $4.50 for Heineken), the restaurant has several in-house cocktail creations including a house version of a bloody Mary, the spicy Shirley ($8.95) with Stoli citrus, green tomato slice, pickled okra and peppers. If you're feeling a bit indulgent, upgrade that cocktail to include crab meat for $3 more. Other specialty drinks include the staple of brunch everywhere—a mimosa for $7.95, along with spiked iced tea ($7.95) and cider ($8.95).
 
Digs: The restaurant isn't in a particularly large space, but the space is maximized with tables around the perimeter and a center island-style banquette. Windows line two walls, brightening the room and making the tomato-red walls look cheery. We found it interesting that the flat-screen TVs near the entrance were not tuned to a news or a sporting event, but instead were showing 24-hour food porn (a.k.a. The Food Network). While we dined, we watched Paula Deen whisking something in an excited manner. In a hurry and can't sit down for lunch? Just call ahead or visit the super convenient takeout window located outside the restaurant in the lobby.
 
Bottom line: You don't have to be some sort of downtown business type or power broker to enjoy Miss Shirley's, just a fan of good food and down-home hospitality.