Bay Bites
Neighborhood Treasure Edgewater Restaurant
by Gabby Crabcakes

Edgewater is not a Mecca for trendy eateries. Instead, most restaurants cater to the families and neighbors who, for the majority, work hard and eat early. At Edgewater Restaurant, a family-run establishment founded in 1948, the crowds come early and don't hang around long after dinner.

The ambiance is warm with three separate dining areas decorated with knotty pine walls. The main entrance is through the bar/smoking room with several bar stools, vinyl-covered banquette tables and a sole television. To the right is a larger room available for private functions or nights when it's busy. The back room holds eight to 10 tables and the salad bar. The service is casual but good, the waitresses friendly and hospitable. It's definitely one of those places where everyone knows everyone else. Yet strangers feel immediately included.

The menu has good variety, with an emphasis on stick-to-your-ribs dishes like the Fried Seafood Platter (shrimp, stuffed shrimp, clams, crab cakes, and scallops: $18.95), Breaded New Jersey Pork Chops (lightly breaded and browned: $12.95), and Maryland Fried Chicken ($10.95). Dinners are served with your choice of salad bar or vegetable, French fries (home-cut with skins on), stuffed potato (my favorite, a delicious cheese-stuffed twice-baked spud) or the browned potato (which I've seen nowhere else, a peeled, boiled potato deep-fried just enough to give it a crunchy shell) and rolls. The salad bar is limited but fresh with iceberg lettuce and mescaline greens, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, pasta salad and the stand-by salad dressings. It is a nice option and lets more ravenous diners quench their appetite all the sooner.

I have never ordered an appetizer or soup at Edgewater Restaurant, probably because there's so much immediate gratification with the salad bar and the basket of crackers at every table. But they've got the goods with Cream of Crab, Maryland Crab and Vegetable soups, Crab Dip ($6.95).

On my most recent visit, my companion was in pursuit of the Thursday special: a 12-ounce New York Strip Steak or an eight-ounce Filet Mignon for $11.95. He decided on the Strip Steak, which was ample, cooked to order and tasty.

I was drawn to the seasonal special of Fried Oysters for $16.95. However, I was torn, having heard rave reports of the Broiled Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes (one for $12.95, two for $19.95). Facing this dilemma, I asked our waitress if I could get a half-order of oysters with a crab cake. "We do that all the time," I was told.

I'm thinking that I'll get three or four oysters with my crab cake. It was more than a dozen. They were so good! Not to diminish the crab cake, which was big lumps of crab with a light glaze. Needless to say, I was pleased and, in no time at all, full. All this cost only $14.95.

No wine list at the Edgewater Restaurant, but to compliment my entree I had the house chardonnay ($2.95 a glass), while my partner had a Michelob ($2.25).

Be sure to seek out the regular specials, especially Sunday when just about every entree is reduced. An excellent introduction is lunch Friday through Sunday, when the excellent second-best crabcake (large and creamy; fried only) is served with salad bar and fries for only $6.95.

Whenever you come, you will not be alone: the patrons of Edgewater Restaurant know a good thing!

Edgewater Restaurant

148 Mayo Rd., Edgewater 410/956-3202

WTh 4-9:30pm; FSa Noon-10; Su Noon-9; Closed MT.

Proprietor: Donald and Donnie Davis

Reasons to go: A true "family" restaurant serving down-home, hearty food with a smile. Plus, delicious oysters and crab cakes.

Something to think about: Jenny Craig would pass out if she so much as caught a whiff of this place.

| Issue 5 |

Volume VII Number 5
February 4-10, 1999
New Bay Times

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