Boatyard Bar & Grill (MD - Eastport)

In a part of the World that caters primarily to tourists and lobbyists, the Boatyard has a refreshing, "locals only," feel to it. Unlike many other restaurants on that side of the Spa Creek bridge that seem to have zip code envy at their neighbors across the creek, the Boatyard proudly stands as a place by Eastporters, for Eastporters.

Their motto says it all: "Where local sailors, fisherman and those who love the Chesapeake Bay come to relax and enjoy pint drinks and great food."

Forget the image of people in topsiders and Hawaiian shirts - this crowd is sun bleached red Mount Gay Regatta hats, shirts with the name of your boat on the chest, a table for eight occupied by people wearing shirts emblazoned with the label "crew" and on a recent Saturday evening, a slightly intoxicated girl with a red "port" sticker on her left breast and a green "starboard" sticker on her right breast.

People flock here for the casual "come as you are" atmosphere, great food, and cold drinks.

[With respect to the drinks, I can honestly say that the Boatyard serves the coldest beer in Annapolis. In fact, I haven't had beer this cold since I moved out of my fraternity house - and our taps were in the basement, in New Hampshire, with a boiler that was almost always on the fritz in the dead of winter.]

On recent visits, I have sampled the crab dip, burgers, crab cakes, calamari, the turkey club and the blue crab sandwich. All are very good, but the crab dip deserves special mention.

This is the best crab dip around. Period. This is jump blue crab, parmesan cheese, spinach and onions combined and tossed in the broiler. Lots of places serve a similar sounding dish, but too often they are just cream cheese with a few odd chunks of crab meat. The Boatyard version is mostly crab meat, spinach and onions, with just enough cheese to hold it all together. The inclusion of onions - which caramelize in the broiler - adds body that is lacking in other, lesser, versions of the dish.

The dish is so good that they also offer it as the "Blue Crab Sandwich" - an open faced creation consisting of bread piled high with the aforementioned crab dip and topped with tomato slices and cheddar cheese before heading into the broiler. Decadent.

The turkey club is another stand out. It consists of smoked turkey piled high on challah and topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado slices and a spicy red pepper mayonnaise. The result is a delicious sandwich that is so thick it almost requires fork and knife eating.

The burgers and crab cakes are also terrific. The burgers are thick, fresh and cooked to order - a rarity in today’s e-coli panic stricken restaurant world. Last Saturday my wife ordered hers rare and it was actually served red in the center. The crab cakes are exactly what you would expect - all jumbo lump crab, no filler, perfumed with Old Bay and cooked to a beautiful golden brown - crispy on the outside and juicy in the center.

Most people have trouble deciding between the burger and the crab cake, so you will frequently see couples get one of each and split them. I wonder if there is a way for the Boatyard to order tiny rolls and offer a Chesapeake surf and turf - 1/2 burger and 1/2 crab cake sandwich?

I have long said that the best food in Annapolis is outside of Annapolis and the Boatyard Bar & Grill in Eastport is case in point.