GEE is dead on with the Obrycki's effect, and it's unfortunate. It's especially unfortunate because I think their crabs are rather poor.

I'd say there's a Wire effect, but I think that was people's perception of Baltimore before the show.

I know there's at least one great Afghan place in NY - Khyber Pass, in the East Village. Reasonable prices, good food, prepared differently than the Helmand's. Also, I would maintain that the Helmand IS a "truly outstanding local restaurant."

Also, the mention of Obrycki's is interesting - here's what the NYT wrote about the Helmand: "Had your fill of crabs? Make pretheater reservations for the Helmand (806 North Charles Street, 410-752-0311; www.helmand.com), an Afghan cafe that draws a well-dressed clientele and regularly makes the local best-of lists in multiple categories. It's surprising that this place has been in business 18 years because the dining room, hung with Afghan textiles, has all the buzz of a new hot spot. The prices are reasonable, the service is fast and helpful, and the food is inventive while consistently good. Start with the kaddo borawni (baked baby pumpkin drizzled with garlicky yogurt for $4.50) followed by an entree of aushak (leek-filled Afghan ravioli for $11.50) served with pallow (cinnamon-spiced rice). For dessert, don't miss the cardamom-flecked ice cream ($5.25)."

The complete article is here. Note they DO ACTUALLY MENTION Obrycki's as well! And Leadbetter's, the Horse, Blue Moon Cafe, Attman's, Brewer's Art, Owl Bar, & Cross Street Market.

Obrycki's is THE single most overrated restaurant in all of maryland, if not the U.S. They have been that way for the better part of 20 years. The service is fine, no problems there. But what you pay in relation to what you get is nothing more than greed on their part.

The crabs are way smaller and more expensive than a lot of other places. What Obricki's calls a "large" crab, most other places consider a "medium". But they still charge you for a "large" (even though it's "medium") , which is about $10-$15 more per dozen than a bona fide "large" at say Bill's Trerrace Inn or Costas.

But out of towners don't know any better when it comes to crabs. Better for us locals anyway. I'd much rather go to a place like Bill's, where they don't exaggerate the size of their crabs. I'll let the out-of-towners pay more for medium crabs (sold to them as so-called "large" sized), than what Bill charges for a true Large crab.

I've never bothered on even going to Obrycki's. In fact, I don't think I would ever eat crabs at any restaurant. This is not to say that I only steam my own, but if I buy crabs there is no way I'm going to hang out a restaurant for three hours and pay for beers one at a time.

I knew of the Obrycki Effect about Obrycki's. I've been there twice, both long ago, once to try it and the other time because that's where everyone else wanted to go. Most of the people were from out of town and thought that was the place to have seafood. They seemed happy. I've never been back.

For steamed crabs, we favored Hale's Seafood on Taylor Avenue. They would pack the bushel baskets (and then later boxes) to over-flowing. And they were some of the best steamed crabs anywhere. The Hale family owned it since the early 50 and Miss Mary would come in and make the salads and pad the oysters. The last time we went for oysters, it was closed.

A few weeks ago we saw signs along Perring Parkway saying Hale's was open under new management.
sigh...

I went to Obrycki's once many years ago and never understood what all the fuss was about.

Rosebud, have you been to the "new" Hale's yet? Let's hope that Hale's under new management is better than no Hale's at all.

if I buy crabs there is no way I'm going to hang out a restaurant for three hours and pay for beers one at a time

You're not supposed to get one beer at a time, you're supposed to get it by the pitcher. :-)

Obrycki's steamed crabs use a more old-fashioned black pepper-based seasoning, rather the the more modern Old Bay type seasoning. I like them just fine, they're just different.

That said, I pretty much always steam my own nowadays.

I couldn't agree more about the comments about Obricki's restaurant. Tourist trap all the way.

But back in the early 80's through sometime in the early-mid 1990's, Obricki's had a small carry-operation, on Sherwood Rd (which is The Alameda coming up from the city). It was just north of Northern Parkway & The Alameda, barely across the City/County line (on the county side)and just South of Register Avenue. Not far from Mercy High School. It was in the back of a house, across the street from a Domino's

It was convenient to the neighborhoods of Idlewylde, Anneslie, Idlewood, Stonleigh, and Rogers Fordge.

As much as a tourist trap the restaurant on Pratt Street is/was, this little carry-out was great. The crabs were good for the most part (with the good black pepper spice), and they had a dedicated group of young lads that ran the place. I never saw kids work hader on the big holidays (the place would be 30 people deep putting in crab orders). If the crabs were a little on the light side, they'd always throw in a couple extra and would remember to try and pick you extra heavy crabs the next time you came in. They were nice people, and they were indeed owned by the same people who own the restaurant.

But for some reason, it just kind of went out of business. I had moved out of the area for a few years and when I moved back it was gone.

Other places that get this treatment would include Hull Street Blues down in Locust Point--my mother, who'd never been to Baltimore before, saw an article or some such while at home in Florida. Apparently it somehow gets a lot of mentions nationwide.

I get the feeling she's going to make me take her to Charm City Cakes next time she visits.

IMHO, the problem that Maryland restaurants have is that, simply because they're situated in Maryland, they're expected to have crabs. Or, at the very least, crabcake. So you have all these places, which don't really care about crab, dragging down the overall average.