Southern Maryland: western shore

[babka]

I'm taking my visiting mother on a daytrip Saturday through southern Maryland. Our tentative plan is to meander through Calvert and St. Mary's, with the historic whatchamagic in St. Mary's as the turnaround.

Past trips have been centered around _staying_ someplace, and past food (crabs. and more crabs.) has been found by asking whomever was hosting. Since we don't have that luxury of time and place--does anyone here have any suggestions?

(and, er, any non-food suggestions would also be appreciated....I love this part of the Bay, but that's based on many, many hours of sitting on porches and talking to the watermen next door....not sure how to encapsulate that in 12 hours.)

[jariggs]

I went to school at St. Mary's and visit occasionally. My knowledge about the general resturant scene is out of date, but here's a few places. Scheible's (map), one of my favorite restaurants is about 20 min south of St. Mary's city. It's a crabhouse type place with views of the water and also a motel and fishing center. A lot of the fish is brought in right there so is really fresh. A fancier place right near there is Spinnakers, though I haven't been there in a while. There's also the Brome-Howard house right near St. Mary's, another fancier place. I've never eaten there, but I've heard pretty good things.

Don't know much about Calvert County besides Vera's White Sands, a very interesting experience. It's been too long to give details, but Solomons Island has lots of restaurants some good, some not.

Sandgates, in Mechanicsville, is another good crab house but it's out of the way if you go down through Calvert county.

As far as non-food activities, check out Calvert Cliffs off Route 4 in Calvert, or if you go as far south as Scheibles and it's still light out, Point Lokout State park. Take a walk around the Campus as well as Historic St. Mary's, it's really beautiful in the spring and should be a beautiful weekend.

More info:

Spinnakers At Pt Lookout Marina - (301) 872-4340

http://www.bromehowardinn.com/

SANDGATES INN (Map) 27525 N. Sandgates Rd., Mechanicsville (St. Mary's County); call 301-373-5100

[babka]

Many, many thanks! Dutifully noted everything in my little cheat sheet, set merrily off at 10 am for a leisurely day in the Bay...

'cept you have to drive by ben's chili bowl on the way out of town, and my mom had never been there, and it's amazing how hotcakes, grits, eggs, and sausage will devour your gustatory intentions for the day. We had a lovely walk around historic St. Mary's, then on to Solomon's Island (where we inadvertently coincided with the opening of the Tiki Bar, a quick descent into hell which will never be repeated), and didn't get hungry for lunch until 7 pm. Annapolis was only an hour away then, so grabbed a stick of cheese and headed up to Jimmy Cantler's on Riverside Creek.

wow. Every table seemed to know--or at least holler greetings and queries--to at least one other table, and the hails between the outdoor tables and approaching boats seemed to extend the restaurant to the middle of the creek. We got off to a slightly awkward start after my mother assured the nice people sitting around us that she was visiting from Iowa but _I_ lived in D.C. and therefore was a native. I politely but very very quickly clarified I lived in D.C. and was not a native at all, which set heads to nodding. "We--most of us live here," said my neighbor, waving around the crowded restaurant. "But we're glad you came up to visit."

They walked us through a show-and-tell with the steamed mollusks and then provided crustacean directions, in between involuntary hoots at our ineptitude, anyway. (One guy told us to dig inside the corners of the crab back for the soft starting new shell and eat it, saying he'd learned that from a watermen years ago--we did it, but never quite figured out whether we were being played for newbies or not. tasted good, though.) The food was _good_ Sweet hot crabs with old bay; steamed cherrystone osyters, and a crunchy fresh soft-shell crab that would put a roll of spiders to shame.

[littlechinagirl]

jariggs- Spinnakers, one of my old favorites, fell victim to Hurrican Isabel. The old chef, John Spinnichia (sp?) is now teaching, I believe.

I also went to St. Mary's. Would you (or anyone) happen to know of any good caterers in that area, as I just got engaged and am in the throes of planning a wedding at the Garden of Remembrance?

Edited April 26, 2004 by littlechinagirl (log)

[jariggs]

Too bad about Spinnaker's. There seem to have been quite a few restaurants down there that were damaged or shut down by the hurricane.

I don't know of any good caterers in St. Mary's, but I'll be down there more often this summer (my gf's parents bought some land near leonardtown) so if I hear of anyone, I'll let you know. Also, check out/post on http://forums.somd.com/ and the St. Mary's college alumni forums.

Congrats on your engagement! The Garden of Remembrance is a beautiful place for a wedding.

-Jason

[littlechinagirl]

Thanks!! Any chance you went to SMC during... oh... 1994-2000?

I've heard that a fellow alumnus started a catering co. down there. I'll do some checking out. Maybe during Gov Cup. :)