Come Eat Some Maryland-Style Crabs

They don't boil blue crabs in Maryland.

Instead, they steam them inside a pot. The recipes usually call for some beer, a little water, a splash of vinegar and some Old Bay seasoning and dry mustard.

That's the Maryland way to cook crabs.

The most sought-after menu items at the Chesapeake Bay Crab House come from the coast of Florida. But once they enter the kitchen, they get the Mid-Atlantic treatment.

"We have a niche," said co-owner Bill Scarpo, a native of Ocean City, Md. "Nobody else has this food anywhere."

The menu items include steamed crabs, crab cakes, crab balls, cream of crab soup, crab fluff, fried hard crabs, soft-shell crabs and crab imperial.

There are several more items on the menu not centered on the two-clawed crustacean. The restaurant also serves pasta, chicken, soups, fish, shrimp, burgers and a variety of appetizers and sandwiches.

Scarpo, 54, has been in the restaurant business for 10 years. The co-owner, Jim Atkinson, 70, has worked in the industry for seven years. Both of them know their seafood.

The same goes for their customers.

Many of the regulars pack the bar/lounge area and watch their favorite football teams play on Sundays - usually it's either the Washington Redskins or the Baltimore Ravens. There is, after all, a lot of Maryland natives stretched from Hillsborough to Marion counties. Scarpo's crab house is a favorite of theirs.

The restaurant remains nearly spotless all day and night in spite of the specialty dish on the menu - steamed blue crabs.

Brown paper covers the table. Once the guests are finished cracking, splitting and nibbling, the paper gets rolled and everything is removed from the table top at once.

There is no sign there was ever a towering pile of shells, claws and balled-up napkins. It is just like the way they do it at Eastern Shore Maryland.

The kitchen makes up 25 percent of the 4,200 square-foot building. There is plenty of room to steam bushel upon bushel of crabs and still have enough space to grill a prime rib, fry some scallops and whip up a pot of crab soup.

Most of the blue crabs are found along the East Coast of Florida. They are harder to find in the Gulf, Scarpo said.

Those Marylanders who reside in or near Hernando County might be luckier eating them here rather than their home state. The crab supply along the Delmarva Peninsula has been reduced to the point where catching females is prohibited.

Any seasoned veteran knows the meat in a female crab tastes sweeter, said Scarpo, who claims to have the best crab cakes in Florida.

"People travel from far away to come here," he continued. "The Villages isn't close. Tampa isn't close. I'd say 40 percent of my business comes from outside Hernando County."

Food is served until 10 p.m., but the bar remains open until midnight every night.

Scarpo said the three keys to running a successful restaurant are good food, good service and cleanliness.

A third of the lounge was full Wednesday afternoon, long after the usual lunch rush and well before the packed dinner crowd.

The crab house also offers an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet available every Sunday.

Biz at a glance:

Name of biz - Chesapeake Bay Crab House.

Owners - Bill Scarpo and Jim Atkinson.

What it is - Maryland-style crab and seafood restaurant.

Where it is - 3095 Anderson Snow Road, Spring Hill.

Hours of operation - 11 a.m. to midnight, seven days per week.

Get in touch - 352-540-9760.