The time has come to pack up the car and head back over the bridge. It was nice to get away for a week from customers who leave lousy tips, trendy topics like sous vide cooking and foam, and crab cakes. Oh wait. I guess we didn't get away from crab cakes.  Still, you know what I mean.

But now we have to get back to work.

I have a Top 10 coming up Tuesday that I haven't even thought about. 

The following week I'm on vacation, and while I'll have my trusty laptop with me, I wouldn't mind having one easy post a day I could write in advance.

One vacation I did "Second Helpings," where I repeated posts. Did I have a feature one time called "Stupid Easy Food Questions" and make you do the work, or did I just think about it and discard it?  Anybody have any new ideas?

And, of course, Fourth of July is looming. I could do a Top 10 on the best places to watch fireworks in the area, but are there 10 of them? I couldn't name them, but maybe you can.

And what about Fourth food itself? Anything to discuss there?

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I've felt bad about not having more hard and fast information for you for Beach Week. That's why I particularly appreciated this e-mail from Andy, who seems to know what he's talking about. EL

I've got a place in Bethany so I go down often but mostly eat around there.  I've got three recommendations for you that are "nice beach eats" -- they are not nostalgic like JR's Ribs, Dumser's Ice Cream, Thrasher's Fries; but they are really good restaurants no matter where you put them (i.e., they'd all succeed in Baltimore or any other city). ...

Continue reading "Andy's favorite beach eats" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

When the Sun sent me down to Ocean City recently to write a Bloggers at the Beach story for the Travel section, I didn't do any reviewing.

I did, however, have dinner at Jules Restaurant. Its strip mall exterior doesn't prepare you for the handsome dining room inside.

I had the luxury of ordering exactly what I wanted from the small, somewhat unusual menu created by owner/chef Jules Adam Sanders and changed frequently. That turned out to be an artichoke with butter and grated parmesan cheese and his version of oysters Rockefeller. ...

Continue reading "My dinner at Jules Restaurant" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Jon Parker came through for us last minute with exactly the kind of guest post I was hoping for: a short, entertaining beach anecdote. It proves that being a native of the Chesapeake region is a state of mind, not an accident of birth. Here's Jon. EL

This is pretty late for Beach Week, but I have no idea what beach I was at. I think it was in Virginia, but I'm not sure. ...

Continue reading "Crab cake memories" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Owl Meat says he has no Funtastic Thursday for Beach Week, and in fact doesn't particularly like beaches, so he's letting Amanda C. write a guest post for his guest post spot. Here she is. EL

My stepbrother says that Clambake is his favorite Elvis movie. That seems odd to me, since my first memory of a clambake involved him, and my first success at thwarting his tyranny (not to be my last).
 
Our families were, as they say now, blending, and all of a sudden I had two stepbrothers. One of them was a sweet grumpy little boy named Liam who was three years younger than me. I nicknamed him "Bear." The other was Bobby, an obstreperous boy slightly older than me. We just didn't get along.
 
So we all went to Dewey Beach, Del. Previous outings were iffy at best. Bobby was either moody/sullen or mischievous/mean. Boys! I adored four-year-old Liam, because, well just because. The Other One was a major pain. ...
 

Continue reading "Clambake at Dewey Beach" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (166)
        

The comments under the earlier post today from Bethany Beach people were great.

For one thing, they jogged my memory about the Parkway Restaurant, which for some reason I didn't include in the 2006 story I quoted earlier. Could it have been closed when I was there last?

Once I heard the name, I remembered that Gailor and I had gone down and stayed for a couple of days on the Sun in 2000.

She was in college and writing freelance for the paper that summer, and I was doing a story on a family that had a reunion each year in Bethany.

We had a blast, and one of the highlights was dinner at the Parkway. In fact, I came back and wrote this item for my Table Talk column: ...

Continue reading "The Parkway Restaurant in Bethany" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

No one has said much about Bethany Beach this week, but when I went a couple of years ago for the beach guide, I liked it a lot.

I can't, however, remember anything about my meals there. And I can't imagine Bethany having a Restaurant Week.

So I went back and looked in the archives. Here's what I had to say about the restaurants in my beach guide story:

Here are a few highlights when you're looking to eat out in the Bethany Beach area: ...

Continue reading "The Bethany Beach dining scene" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I love the tone of this guest post from Dave, one of the readers who responded to my request for beach memories or recommendations in honor of Beach Week. I like it because I think of Rehoboth as full of chic, trendy, very unbeachy restaurants. He remembers when it wasn't. Here's Dave. EL

I have fond memories of traveling the Rehoboth Beach for summer vacations.  When I was young (single digits) we would rent a house with my aunt and uncle and stay a week.  Food-wise, we ate in, but would get sticky buns for breakfast at a bakery on the shore side of the canal. ...

Continue reading "Rehoboth Beach food memories" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Is the sunset bar a concept that's unique to Ocean City? I haven't heard of it anywhere else.

I love the idea, and I don't see why we can't have sunset bars in the Inner Harbor, although if we did, I'm not sure which ones would have the best view.

Maybe you have to have that endless stretch of water with nothing blocking the horizon to have a great sunset bar experience.

Not to mention a mango margarita. ...

Continue reading "The best sunset bars in O.C. and elsewhere" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

One thing I'm struck by as I think about boardwalk food because of Beach Week is that a lot of it isn't what would appeal to me after hours in the sun and surf. Caramel corn is a very good example.

And isn't fudge a popular boardwalk food? Weird.

The ideal boardwalk food to me would be, say, a grape popsicle. (OK, the ideal boardwalk food to me would be a frozen daiquiri, but I'm trying to speak to the child within.)

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (41)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I'm no expert when it comes to Ocean City restaurants, but I have eaten at a few, and I did talk to residents who eat out all the time when I was down there recently. They helped me make up this list.

Don't get all excited if you don't agree. That's what I'm hoping for. Just let us know which places you would substitute for each best.

The following are my suggestions of best places for certain things in and near Ocean City. What you won't find here are restaurants that are all round good, like the Marlin Moon Grille, but don't happen to fall into one of these categories.

Here's my list: ...

Continue reading "Top 10 Beach Eats" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (45)
Categories: Beach Eats, Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Misha was one of the first readers to respond to my request for a beach memory, and I do like this one. Alas, I don't have the right art to go with it, but a nice photo of a beach scene is always a good substitute. Thanks for the memory, Misha. EL

I saw the post for reviews/commentary/memories just after having a chat about Eastern Shore fried chicken with my boyfriend. When I was a child one of "the places to go" for dinner was English's in Ocean City. I remember waiting in long lines just to get in the shade of the porch. ...

Continue reading "English's in Ocean City and Eastern Shore fried chicken" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I know that everyone who has ever spent his or her childhood in Ocean City feels this way, but I don't get it.

Nothing against Thrasher's, which has been around since 1929. If you love fries, these are good fries. The fact that they are supposed to be eaten with vinegar raises them even farther in my estimation.

But what is it about Thrasher's that makes them so much better than other fries?

Is it that your family went to Ocean City every summer when you were a kid and you still remember your first hot, salty taste of those fries? ...

Continue reading "Happiness is a bucket of Thrasher's fries" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

The car is packed, we've got the suntan lotion SPF 45, and the weather for our week at the beach is looking great. We've got plenty to talk about: the restaurants, the boardwalk food, what you eat at the beach if you fix meals where you're staying.

My time at local beaches has been limited, so I'm relying on your input. Because I most recently went to Ocean City, that will be my focus, but it doesn't have to be yours. I've also spent time in Bethany and Rehoboth for stories, and loved them both. Rehoboth in particular is a restaurant-goers' dream beach town.

If you want to talk about the Jersey shore or Virginia beaches, that's fine with me.

My childhood beach memories are mostly from Pawley's Island, where my brother and I caught crabs with chicken necks and gave them to my mother to steam. Naturally we didn't eat them. Yuck.

Any beach food, on whatever coast you ate it, is on the table for discussion.

And if there's anything beach-food-related you want to make sure we talk about this week, please post your suggestions below. ...

Continue reading "Welcome to Beach Week" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

As Beach Week approaches and the anticipation mounts, I have great news. I have a prize.

When I went down to Ocean City recently for my story, I also had to come up with an Under $20 "find," part of the ongoing Bloggers at the Beach feature. Mine was supposed to have a food- or restaurant-related theme and be unique to Ocean City.

This was trickier than you might imagine because it was Ocean City. Finds there are more along the lines of a great raft or a funky T-shirt. There didn't seem to be any upscale gift shops where I might buy, say, some fabulous mugs with a hardshell crab design on them. ...

Continue reading "The Beach Week prize" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Lissa's mini-review of her recent meal at Rehoboth Beach reminded me that I want to ask anyone who wants to participate to write a guest post for Beach Week. If you have a photo as well, all the better, but you don't have to. The main requirement is that they be about beach food, the second that they be short.

It could be an observation, a memory about beach food, good or bad, or a mini-review like Lissa's. In fact, if I had caught hers in time I wouldn't have published it as a comment, but used it for an entry. ...

Continue reading "Send me your memories" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I just finished lunch at the Sunset Grille in what they call West Ocean City. I know I said I wasn't going to blog about the food until Beach Week, but this was so surprising I have to write something.

The menu the waitress put down in front of me just had the $4.99 lunch specials on it: the Italian chef's salad, the fish and chips, the half a tuna sandwich with a cup of soup, the barbecued ribs and homemade macaroni and cheese and...the six-ounce char-grilled filet mignon with maitre d' butter, french fries and cole slaw?

For $4.99? ...

Continue reading "$4.99 filet mignon at the Sunset Grille" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Like I said in my earlier post, I don't want to do too much blogging about my meals here because the Dining@Large Beach Week is coming soon. But I will tell you about my breakfast.

In a minute.

But first I have a beach deep thought.

Nothing has illustrated for me how times have changed for me as much as coming down here. When several of you urged me to have a nice, relaxing time while I'm at the beach, it occurred to me that that's exactly what I would have done three years ago. (And actually did do three years ago when I was sent here for a story.) ...

Continue reading "Eating down at the ocean" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I appreciate all the nice things people said yesterday about Dining@Large reaching its two-year mark. I don't know if you noticed, but the best part was that a lot of the praise was directed at the community at large (no pun intended), as opposed to the comments under last year's anniversary post. That's very gratifying to me.

But as Kimmer1850 so wisely pointed out, it is the terrible twos. I expect there will be some growing pains this next year. ...

Continue reading "Beach Week, Top 10 and the terrible twos" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (57)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I'm glad you asked, Stacy. Rehoboth is one of my favorite restaurant towns in this area, by which I mean a reasonable drive away. Unfortunately I haven't been there in a couple of years, so my info is almost certainly outdated; but this will at least get you started. I'm hoping readers will tell us where I've gone wrong.  ...

Continue reading "Beach eats" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
Categories: Beach Eats