Lunch at The Crab Claw – St. Michaels MD

…continuing with my coverage of our family road trip to the Delmarva Peninsula this past September.

We’d begun exploring the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels Maryland…but it was time for a lunch break!

Location, location, location!  When you have a restaurant located right next to a major tourist attraction like the Maritime Museum, it pretty much guarantees a steady flow of diners.  The Crab Claw has a waterside location on the town’s harbor, in an area known as Navy Point.  The location was originally a marsh that was filled in with oyster shells.

The Eastern Shore Clam Company, a clam and oyster shucking business, was located here in the 1950s.  Local watermen brought their daily catch of oysters, clams or crabs here for processing.  In 1965, the Jones family turned the location into a restaurant called The Crab Claw.  Today it is still owned and operated by the family.

While it was a ‘shoulder season’ and about 1 PM, The Crab Claw was fairly busy.  The restaurant does close during the winter season…but its opening again this coming Thursday.

The ladies both had a bowl of soup as their primary lunch item.  The first soup shown above is called ‘Half and Half’…half cream of crab soup and half Maryland crab soup. ($11.50 LY/$12.50 TY) ‘Half and Half is very popular in the Chesapeake Bay area.  The second photo is of the Cream of Crab Soup. ($11.50 LY/$12.50 TY) I didn’t hear any complaints from our wives but I know that Laurie would rather have a rich…standing spoon dense…bowl of New England clam chowder

Bill was at it again…loving his seafood and trying appetizers.  Consequently the table was graced with an order of Clams Casino. ($16.95) They were OK but not but not close to top notch.  They aren’t listed on the current on-line menu.

Then Bill ordered the Fried Oysters...5 to the order. ($17.95) He thought that they were alright but I can’t verify his input as I just don’t ‘do’ oysters… Pricing hasn’t changed as per the on-line menu. 

So I ordered what I knew that I’d probably enjoy…a platter of Fried Clam Strips. ($23.95 LY/$24.95 TY) They were certainly an improvement on any clam strips we can find in East Tennessee!  I’d give them an 8 out of 10.

Bill had to experiment and order a Fried Soft Crab Sandwich.  It came with French fries and coleslaw. ($26.95) This is a seasonal dining option and is sold at MP/Market Price.  He thought that it was a decent offering but just the look of it gives me the ‘hebbie jeebies’. 

I just had to include a photo of the pile of Hot Steamed Maryland Blue Crabs on a nearby table.  These crabs were hot steamed and seasoned by the dozen, then piled on the table of 8 diners.  Blue crabs are priced daily… If I had to guess, it looked like about 3 dozen crabs in the pile!

Blue crabs are Maryland’s State Crustacean.  Its scientific name translates as “beautiful swimmer that is savory”.  Its meat is sometimes compared to the sweetness of lobster meat.  Blue crabs are Maryland’s most valuable commercial fishery, with the annual catch from Chesapeake Bay accounting for more than 50% of all seafood landings.

So of course, we didn’t stop with our ‘light lunch’!  What the heck, it was a vacation for everyone… So Bonnie and Bill split an order of Key Lime Pie which came with a side of soft ice cream. ($11.95) They thought that it was very nice…

I’d seen a plethora of listings in Maryland for Smith Island style layer cake and I thought that we should give it a try. ($11.95) FYI, Smith Island Cake is the Maryland State Dessert.  Traditionally, the cake consists of 8 to 10 layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between each layer and then slathered over the whole creation.  To be honest, it was pretty, but at least this version of ‘Smith Island Cake’ didn’t wow us.  It was OK.

To learn more about The Crab Claw Restaurant in St. Michaels Maryland and to view the current rather extensive menu, just go to Home (thecrabclaw.com). 

This yacht was one of two moored neat The Crab Claw.  I couldn’t spot a name on this vessel but it is a ‘Navetta 68’, built in Italy by Absolute Yachts.  It’s not really my style but these yachts are quite luxurious.  To view some optional layouts and decor, just go to Absolute Yachts, the Italian company specializing in building luxury yachts.

The “Starr” is more my style.  This 82 foot long motor yacht was built in Taiwan by Horizon Yachts back in 2006.  She was originally named “Andrea V”, then “Silvana”.  She was last refitted in 2014.  She can accommodate up to 8 guests in 4 suites with a crew of up to 4.  I’d love to cruise the Intracoastal Waterway in a vessel like this… All it would take for that to happen would be for us to win the lottery!

Back to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in my next post.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we had for lunch!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave