Apartment Showcase Blog

Pull here: Aida claims its unique tap system ensures a fresher glass of wine than the traditional "by the glass" serving method you'll find at most restaurants. (Google)

I haven’t written about Columbia, Md., in awhile, one of my former places of residence.

This planned community is a great place to rent an apartment. For one thing, you’re very close to Baltimore and Washington. But the town has so many amenities that you don’t need to venture to either metropolis to get your goodies or have your kicks.

[ Related: In Columbia, Everything Goes According to Plan ]

One of these goodies (and, depending on how much you like to eat, kicks) is Aida Bistro & Wine Bar, a classy Italian joint I’ve decided to let you in on.

Aida Bistro & Wine Bar is a well-decorated establishment, having been lauded in publications like Baltimore magazine, The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post.

The bistro “specializes in classic Italian favorites as well as an eclectic mix of non-traditional entrees & small plates from a variety of culinary & cultural backgrounds.” The menus (lunch, dinner) focus on fresh, nutritious, Italian and Mediterranean-style food that’s reasonably priced.

Spaghetti goes for $10.99, and if you add another three bucks you get it with meatballs. Cheese Ravioli can be had for $12.99, while Mikey’s scampi is a little more expensive at $18.99. Not cheap, but reasonable considering the quality of eats, as all pastas are handmade.

Aida Bistro is trans-fat free and offers something they call the FARM 2 TABLE initiative, which features ingredients from local farmers and producers. There are a few vegetarian/vegan options; check the servers for those.

Wine. You can’t really talk about an Italian restaurant without talking about wine, and this is where Aida Bistro is unique. They have a Wine on Tap System that pours 30 different wines.

[ Related: Hungry for Italian? Fairfax's Popular Bellissimo Makes a Beautiful Choice ]

Now, Norm Peterson might not be a fan, but lovers of fermented grapes will rejoice. The site claims that theirs is the largest such system in Maryland and the second largest in the States. Now that is something to blog about.

Bring your debit card though (or have sufficient funds in said account): An average glass of wine will set you back $8-$11. But because of the Wine on Tap System, it’s supposed to taste fresh from the vineyard. It better!

Another thing: In the popular imagination, you don’t necessarily think Italian restaurant and live music, at least not the coffeehouse variety. But Aida Bistro does feature it some strummers, so check out the events page for upcoming artists.

The restaurant recommends that you make evening reservations, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, and when they have live music scheduled.

Come out for a glass of wine and some great Italian food at Aida Bistro & Wine Bar.

With attractions like Merriweather Post Pavilion and the Summer Lakefront Festival, you might say that Columbia rocks.

A peripatetic sort (or maybe I just get run out of town a lot), I’ve lived in three cities in the Washington, D.C., metro area with Columbia, MD, being the first.

A planned community of the first order, Columbia is a great place to raise kids, or even yourself, as its No.8 ranking on CNNMoney.com’s list of the “Best Places to Live” in 2008 will attest (Columbia shared the honor with nearby Ellicott City). In 2009, Forbes.com did CNN one better, ranking the city seventh on its list of “America’s Top 25 Towns to Live Well.”

Looking for apartments in Columbia? The town has everything you’d ever need to survive:

• Essentials: Shopping, grocery stores, gyms, schools, churches, parks and tree-lined sidewalks (you don’t exactly need them to survive, but I thought I’d throw them in anyway)
• Exercise: A whopping 93.5 miles of biking, jogging and walking pathways
• Extracurricular: There’s also an art center, teen center, summer camps, two golf courses, 23 outdoor swimming pools and one indoor swim center.
• Education: And to be totally exhaustive, the city also houses facilities for Howard Community College, University of Phoenix and Loyola College.

Developed by Howard Research and Development and its founder James Rouse in 1967, Columbia is an example of the post-WWII New Town Movement in the United States. Today, while the city itself remains unincorporated, each of its 10 villages has independent, incorporated residential community associations.

Nine of the villages have local retail centers with various businesses sprinkled about, all grouped around Town Center Village, which houses the Mall in Columbia. The 200-store mall is anchored by, among others, Nordstrom, Macy’s and Lord & Taylor, and also includes an AMC movie theater. The “downtown” village also features several businesses and restaurants, and sits on Lake Kittamaqundi, one of three lakes in Columbia. There is also a big, triangular retail corridor between Dobbin Road, Route 175 and Snowden River Parkway.

Columbia, the second largest city in Maryland, sits snugly between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and is a little closer to the former. There are several population figures thrown around on the internet, with most being in the mid-to-upper 90 thousand range. For the record, the 2006-08 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimate puts Columbia’s population at 89,499. Either way, there are plenty of people here, and as a planned community, Columbia does a very good job of making each village feel like its own town.

Each year, the town hosts the Summer Lakefront Festival, a summer-long series of concerts and movies. And you can’t talk about concerts without giving a shout-out to Merriweather Post Pavilion, a world-famous amphitheater that regularly hosts national acts.