Diners, Drive-ins and Dinner

A few weeks ago I was watching reruns of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with that slightly wacky but always entertaining Food Network star Guy Fieri.  Back in 2008, he and his pretty red camaro went to a place known for their seafood specialties (Baltimorons call this a crab joint) not far from where I live called the Stoney Creek Inn.  Well, I figured if this place was good enough to be on Guy's TV show, it had to be something special so one recent evening a friend and I decided to try it.  Puzzled as to how I had missed this when it first came on as I watch it a lot.

From the outside, this place definitely fits into the dive category.  It sits off the main road right next to a marina on Stoney Creek, not far from the Chesapeake Bay.  Looks like a little dumpy bar with neon beer signs in the window and at first glance, really not much better on the inside.  It was pretty small and where they seated us obviously used to be some kind of porch, now closed in with cinder block and formstone on the walls.  But, after looking around, even though it was small it was clean and homey looking.  They had a large outside area with picnic tables that is probably used for steamed crab eating that had a nice view of the marina.

We had a wonderful appetizer called shrimp and crab toast, which was lump crab and shrimp on a sub roll with cheddar cheese on top.  Then I had a crab cake, baked potato and corn on the cob.  Great crab cake, nicely seasoned and big pieces of lump crab.  It was an excellent dinner, a little expensive, but seafood always is and it was large enough to bring home some leftovers.  Wish I had room for dessert because they had some homemade ice cream on the menu that really sounded good.  So I have to agree with Guy, what might look like a dive on the outside could really be quite the gem.  You just have to go in and find out for yourself.