It’s a question many of us face: When you have summertime guests in town and you want to show off the Chesapeake Bay lifestyle, where should you take them?
We’d be willing to bet that you’d go looking for a crab deck or a place to get an icy drink outside. What better way to be immersed in Bay living than by learning to crack crabs, or by sipping an orange crush while gazing out at the water?
While going to college on the Eastern Shore, I happily introduced students from New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to the crab-picking experience. (And I’m proud to report that at least one of those Yankees settled in Maryland after graduation, and now hosts her own crab feast every Labor Day.) Later, when I married a Midwesterner, we brought his Missouri family to Baltimore to, yes, pick crabs along the water. I still chuckle at my sweet mother-in-law, who thought the crab seasoning was called “Oh Bay” instead of Old Bay.
We all want to find those go-to spots we can rely on when family comes to town, or anytime we have a hankering for good crabs and drinks. The search for these in-the-know spots is the inspiration behind a Maryland couple’s Crab Decks & Tiki Bars of the Chesapeake Bay edition. They’ve just released their fourth Maryland edition, the first update in a decade, aiming to introduce Bay lovers to a new crop of restaurants and bars.
Bill Wade, a longtime Maryland boater, recreational crabber, and hard crab speed-picker, welcomed his wife, writer and editor Susan Elnicki Wade, into the Chesapeake Bay lifestyle. From their home in Washington, D.C., the couple loved discovering bars with great atmosphere and crab decks they hadn’t tried before. They began to keep detailed notes on their finds, and after friends started asking for their recommendations, they set out to write a comprehensive guide for everyone along the Bay.
The Wades brought their two young sons on a restaurant blitz to visit as many establishments as possible to include in their book. Susan recalls, with a laugh, the exasperation their children felt one day after they were taken to a county fair, only to get stuck stopping by three or four seafood restaurants for book research afterwards.
The first edition of Crab Decks & Tiki Bars of the Chesapeake, released in 2011, included writeups of Maryland destinations and listings from Virginia. The Wades followed it up with two in-depth Virginia editions and updates to the Maryland version, with the most recent edition published in 2015. The series became a handy guide for tourists and boaters alike, often stocked by marina ship stores. It even holds appeal for biker groups, who are always looking for good roadside hangouts. “We need to get the flies out of our teeth,” one quipped to Susan once.
Nearly a decade after that 2015 edition, the Wades realized it was time to bring Crab Decks & Tiki Bars back. Sensing that the conception of a “staycation” was becoming popular again, and responding to major shifts in the restaurant scene since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wades went back to work canvassing the Maryland section of the Bay. Their new 2025 edition includes 200 crab decks and tiki bars. 79 of them weren’t around 10 years ago. “Some things are the same,” Susan says, “but COVID really put a dent in things. There were a lot of changes in ownership I wasn’t expecting, but also a lot of cool, new places opening up after the dip from COVID.”
They turned the book around in just six months, hitting as many spots as they could along the way. The Wades claim they consumed about 11 gallons of crab soup, 100 oysters, 85 crabcakes, 40 pounds of mussels, 25 rockfish, 200 steamed shrimp, and an “undisclosed amount of beer and rum.” We have no way of fact-checking these numbers, but it’s safe to say they ate a lot of seafood.
The Wades enjoy the process (who wouldn’t!?), saying it’s fun investigating renovations and trying out new things on the menu.
So what determines whether a local spot counts as a “crab deck” or “tiki bar”? Susan tells us, “Our criteria for inclusion in our books is simple: Destinations must be located on/near the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and serve crabs and other local seafood. Our goal is to find a wide variety of places to accommodate every mood and budget.”
The book does encompass a wide range of geographical locations, price points, and levels of formality. The book is organized into 14 regions in Maryland’s part of the Bay, from “Upper Potomac River” and “Headwaters of the Bay” all the way to “Lower Eastern Shore”.
Each entry has a rating on the “Atmosphere Meter”, ranging from casual to formal. At the casual end, for example, you’ll find Courtney’s Seafood Restaurant in the low-lying St. Mary’s County town of Ridge ( population: less than 1,000). Courtney’s is noted in the book for its “simple country living”, cauldrons of soup and huge, fresh crabcakes at reasonable prices. Another example is Bull Lips Dock Bar on the Wicomico River, so named because bull lips are often used to bait crab pots. With colorful hammock swings in the sand, it’s an ideal beachy spot for rum punch buckets.
At the other end of the Atmosphere Meter is Oxford’s Financier Restaurant at the Robert Morris Inn, the 1710 home of a Declaration of Independence signer. A new chef creates meals to be enjoyed in the elegant dining room, or even delivered to your boat at one of the local marinas. Equally wow-worthy is the Sagamore Pendry Baltimore hotel’s Rec Pier Chop House. The famed Recreation Pier in Fells Point is home to the hotel’s Beaux Art style restaurant, with cozy, circular leather booths.
The book makes each kind of restaurant sound appealing in its own way, and has indices listed by both restaurant name and by body of water—for cruisers. It even includes a “Personal Crab and Tiki Tracker” with space to write your impressions of each place you try, This year’s edition includes notes on pet-friendly spots, too, a handy piece of information for those who don’t like to leave the house (or boat) without their pup.
Given that the Wades have so much experience trying every waterfront restaurant they could get their hands on, we had to know what they rank among their personal favorites. Here’s what Bill and Susan had to say.
Bill Wade’s Picks
For Bill, it starts and ends with one question: where can you pick crabs? He sticks with the classics.
Harris Crab House, Kent Narrows. Bill says, “It just seems the freshest. There’s something about it I love.”
Fisherman’s Inn Crab Deck, Kent Narrows. Bill says, “It’s a classic Maryland place, family-owned. All kinds of people are going for the same reason—to pick crabs.”
The Crab Claw, St. Michaels, which celebrates its 60th year in business, managed by the same family. “Your lips get all burned from the crab seasoning,” Bill says. “We love supporting small businesses.”
Susan Elnicki Wade’s Picks
Susan admits she’s not a diehard crab picker like her husband. Instead, she thrives in the “down and dirty tiki bars.” She points to the Middle River area as a hotbed of great waterside bars: Tiki Lee’s, Charly’s with its yard games and mini-golf course, or Bowley’s on the Bay with its plane-landing views. She is partial to some other spots, too:
Hard Yacht Café, Dundalk. An old favorite, this is where the Wades went to celebrate the return of their book.
Little Havana, Federal Hill in Baltimore. She admits it’s Cuban-inspired, not exactly a tiki bar. But she raves about the food, and notes its urban feel.
Tickler’s Crab Shack, Tilghman Island. This small waterfront restaurant at the Wylder Hotel on an Eastern Shore peninsula has good vibes, Susan says. She watched kids taking sailing lessons while she ate her meal.
Boathouse, Deale in southern Anne Arundel County. There aren’t too many spots where you can sit around a bar that is a repurposed 1961 deadrise workboat, but you can here.
Chesapeake Inn, Chesapeake City/ C&D Canal. With its nicer restaurant, outdoor deck, and tiki bar, Susan points out that this spot can match any mood you’re in. She raves about Chesapeake City, where you can watch ships travel through the canal or check out Conowingo Dam. “There’s something about the headwaters [of the Bay]… it’s a different groove and such a cute town.”
If you’re already getting excited to plan an outing with friends or family to a Bayfront destination, you can order Crab Decks & Tiki Bars of the Chesapeake Bay Maryland Fourth Edition on Amazon or at crabdecksandtikibars.com. The Wades hope to bring it to independent bookstores and ship stores in the Bay region in the coming months.
In the meantime, we’d like to hear from you. What’s the ultimate crab deck or tiki bar you love to visit on the Bay?
