And let the frenzy of crab arguing begin ... it's like the running off the bulls at Pamplona. I will now get out of the way and retire to my villa for a cafe carajillo.

I've always had a good time at the captain james crab deck off of Boston.

You are absolutely right. I should have mentioned it, but I forget about it because it's seasonal. EL

I have never visited the following place, but a FB friend always raves about the crabs at Tap's in Federal Hill.

I agree with Locust Point man. Captain James is great. It's closer than Canton Dockside and seems a little more Baltimore to me. Their prices are not outrageous either.

Totally relevant and on topic aside ...
If you like charts and graphs I have an interesting graph of Maryalnd and Virginia crab harvests from 1945 to the present. It's on my Crabs, Crabs, Crabs blog. That will give you an idea why prices are higher and are likely to keep increasing.

For some odd reason I have posted something there every day since June 22.

FYI - NY Times had a big article about crabs and Maryland crab houses in the paper yesterday. (Please forgive me if someone already mentioned this)
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/travel/12crab.html?pagewanted=1&em

I hope this discussion on crabs is able to segway into a talk about tipping and kids.

I smell a hatrick.

If the kids are riding a segway. there will be no tipping:-)

RoCK - We're already close. Remember the kids discussion last week in Richard's review of Piv's?

And i had such high hopes that FLIRV would babysit my kids this weekend.

Not much to work with
RoCK, you sneaky cutthroat you.
children tipping crabs.

Amanda - Only if you make them wear jackets!

They have lovely macthing seersucker outfits for the summer. Maybe I'll ask Lissa instead. Psst... they love Chuck E. Cheese. Just load them full of Red Bull and they will eventually punch themselves out.

Don't usually get this picky, but it's "segue", right?

Sorry OldPhil. You shouldn't be that picky.

OldPhil, please stop making me feel badly about myself for the inadequacies of my 2nd tier public school/3rd tier private school education.

Hmmm, go figure, I actually spelled inadequacies correctly.

I thought Robert was saying he wouldn't tip in a restaurant that allowed kids riding segways.

Segway gets you from place to place. Segue gets ewe from travelling saleman to punchline.

Sure, Amanda. I'll just go pick up a case of duct tape on my way home from work.

Lissa, just make sure you don't end up like Diana Trent did when she tried to babysit the bratty children. Although she did get her revenge eventually.

Oh Lissa, that's so unnecessary. They have very smart seersucker straight jackets.

Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver.

I know someone who spells it "duck" tape. Un-ironically. Drives me quakers.

I pronounce it "duck tape." Unironically.

Hal, I missed that episode! I must see it.

Seersucker is a rather delicate material for straight jackets, unless it is just a cover.

This is a double edged sword. A lot of tourists would rather not go to the "tourist traps", but at the same time, they don't necesarily have the capacity to go out and find Seaside, Bill's Terrace Inn, or Ocean Pride.

I still would tell them to stay away from Obrycki's and Phillips.

But Bo Brooks is fine with me. It's not as bad as a lot of people like to complain about it, and I've had decent crabs and service every time I've gone there. Plus, the setting is nice, it;s on the water, and you know going in there that's a little pricey. I don't mind pricy as long as the crabs and service are good.

I'd also reccomend Nick's, maybe Jimmy's. Too bad the old Bohager's isn''t open anymore. I remember they had a pretty good crab deck back in the day.

It was originally called Duck Tape.

The original use was to keep moisture out of the ammunition cases. Because it was waterproof, people referred to the tape as "Duck Tape." Also, the tape was made using cotton duck - similar to what was used in their cloth medical tapes. Military personnel quickly discovered that the tape was very versatile and used it to fix their guns, jeeps, aircraft, etc. After the war, the tape was used in the booming housing industry to connect heating and air conditioning duct work together.

Sounds like revisionist history to me, Owl.

I saw it on the History Channel, so it
's just history. :-)

Donny B, I wouldn't warn a tourist away from Bo Brooks either, but neither would I warn them away from Obrycki's. It's no more of a tourist trap than Bo's is.

Phillips in Baltimore isn't a crab house, is it? If it was, I'd still badmouth them just because I'm angry about what they've done to ruin the Maryland crabcake.

If by Jimmy's you mean Jimmy's Famous Seafood out on Holabird Ave., that isn't really much easier for a tourist to get to then Ocean Pride or Bill's Terrace Inn.

I'm sure any tourist would be happy with any crab house. They crab experience is going to to so weird to the novice that they won't notice small differences.

The $12 crab at the Scupper is hilarious and probably quite satisfying for the curious but unambitious tourist. When he gets back to Tucumcari he can say golly, guess what I had – a crab.

The Boy and I went to Canton Dockside for his graduation lunch. His family is from NY and wanted "Maryland Crabs." Being somewhat snooty and judgmental (at least his mother...don't get me started...) I didn't want to take them to a hole in the wall crab shanty, no matter how good the crabs were. I gotta say, I was really surprised by CD. The crabs were sweet and very full (even though they weren't technically from Maryland- it was early in the summer so they were mostly coming from the Gulf) and pretty reasonably priced. We ate on the deck, on a picnic table covered with butcher paper, as it should be. :)

I've always had a good time at the captain james crab deck off of Boston.

LPM is definitely correct. Captain James Crab Deck is a solid choice for the budget-minded family.

If the budget wasn't the driving factor, Cantlers or Mr. Bill's Terrace Inn.

Nobles on South Charles in Federal Hill has $2 crabs starting at 2pm on Sunday's. get there before we do because they tend to run out.

Segway is a proper noun, segue is a verb often misspelled since the invention of the segway.

Thanks for this. I tried the recommendations & they were great.

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