Skipper's Pier's outside patio and dockbar.
Photo: Flickr/Oblivious Dude
As far as restaurants in Deale go, if you're crazy about fried seafood, you're in luck. If you're looking for something a bit more sophisticated...be prepared to drive to Annapolis.
Happy Harbor: This cheap beer mecca is popular with the charter boat captains. It lies right on the water at Rockhold Creek and if you sit on the dockside patio, you'll instantly feel like you're on vacation. Land of the $2 Budweisers and $3.50 Sam Adams seasonals, Happy Harbor is a great place to get a cheap beer along with a burger or fried fish sandwich.
Calypso Bay: A goofy tiki bar on Rockhold Creek with not-great food, the place nevertheless seems popular with young people. If you like frou-frou drinks and neon palm trees, you'll feel at home. The roomy sports bar happily eschews the tiki theme and feels like a normal bar, complete with pool table and several televisions.
The restaurant food is sub-par, although standard bar fare like buffalo wings is passable. Avoid the gooey, sweet coconut shrimp. With the raspberry coulis that accompanies them, they taste like shrimp-flavored jelly doughnuts. On the plus side, Calypso Bay offers $1.50 crabs on Wednesday nights in summer, and 25-cent oysters the rest of the year. You just can't beat those prices.
Skipper's Pier: Skipper's is terrific: good seafood, expansive modern menu, and a reasonably-priced Friday night seafood buffet that isn't half-bad. The fish tacos are so tasty that it's hard to order anything else, unless it's the perfect seafood platter, which has the crabbiest crab cake plus fried oysters and shrimp.
But the setting is what makes Skipper's stand out. Skipper's straddles Rockhold Creek and the Chesapeake Bay, and you can eat on a huge patio over the water. Even better, there is a double-decker bar at the end of the dock. As many people arrive at the dockbar by boat as by car, which is very appealing if you can ignore the gratuitous and prolonged engine-revving of people calling attention to million-dollar speedboats.
In addition to the gorgeous setting, the outdoor bar gets a constant cooling breeze that makes it easy to sit outside for hours, even in August. The great sound system, crowd-pleasing tunes, and engaging bar staff make Skipper's a fun place to spend a weekend night. Start early at Skipper's, because the 30 and 40-something crowd trickles out by 9 and the bar closes by 10:30pm on weekends and 9:30 on weeknights. If you're young enough to think that 10:30 sounds too much like your parents' bedtime, and bored enough to withstand the mating calls of scantily-clad 22-year-olds, you can always head to Calypso Bay after hours. Personally, I have to be pretty desperate before going that route.
Pete Green's (but more affectionately referred to as Petie's): Locals LOVE this dive, which features -- what else? -- fried seafood and crabs. As with many Deale haunts, this restaurant/bar offers quite a few beers, but nearly all of them are domestic. Who knew there were so many flavors of Bud Light and MGD? The restaurant not only lacks a waterfront location, it's also ugly, dark and tiny. However, the terrific food and convivial company make up for the lack of ambience. Petie's menu is on the expensive side, but the quality and portions justify the prices. Eating the well-seasoned, perfectly-fried food reminds me of living in New Orleans, which is a pretty big compliment to any restaurant.
The Happy House Pizzeria is a fairly typical local pizza joint: think friendly owners, grinders, gyros, lots of sandwiches with cheese and tomato sauce, and Greek salads. Try the eggplant parmesan sandwich, which is one of the best I've ever tasted. The thinly sliced, crisply fried eggplant avoids the usual eggplant sogginess. The sauce tastes heartily of tomatoes and the sandwich is served toasted with golden bubbling cheese. What's not to like?
The Greek salads, which feature dark green lettuce, juicy tomatoes, olives, an oregano-flavored vinaigrette and loads of feta cheese, are huge and tasty. But avoid the steak subs, which are greasy and unappealing.
Nearby restaurants:
Pirate's Cove in Galesville: Gorgeous waterfront setting in the beautiful sailing town of Galesville 10 minutes north of Deale. Average food and decor, huge portions, reasonable prices. (I almost feel like I could stop there). Two could easily split the smoked bluefish appetizer and a salad for dinner. Pirate's Cove is a nice place to get a cold beer and share a platter of fried fish while looking at the water in the summer, or eat prime rib in the cozy ambience of its two fireplaces in the winter. Warning: the restaurant's website implies that it's a romantic place. As I found out on an anniversary date with my husband, it is not.
La Fiesta in Edgewater: A cute place for a strip mall, but don't expect authentic Mexican food -- or prices. The margaritas aren't bad, but they're not great either.
Friendly's in Edgewater: Home of the Happy Ending sundae. Now, some people can't hear the words "happy ending" without giggling, but the "happy" innocently refers to how you will feel when scarfing down a petite sundae after your meal. (But since I have to titter each and every time I see a "speed hump" sign -- whose idea was that, Maryland? -- I guess I shouldn't judge).
Friendly's features middle of the road diner-style food in a sanitized, family-friendly atmosphere. Their sundaes are pricey and diabetic shock-inducing, but I have to say, delicious. I recently ordered one of their candy-style ones, and it oozed with hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, whipped cream and, the pièce de résistance, hot marshmallow sauce. I remember loving the marshmallow sauce as a child, but naturally assumed I would hate it as an adult. Revolting, right? But I'm happy to report that marshmallow sauce is still pretty awesome in its warm, sticky glory. And the peanut butter sauce is a salty-sweet dream.
Friendly's menu also features something I'm longing to try but haven't quite been able to justify, even after a year of fantasizing: all manner of pancakes and french toast topped with ice cream and sundae toppings!
About Deale: This tiny boating, fishing and farming community on the Western Shore of Maryland is about 25 minutes south of Annapolis and 45 minutes from Washington, DC.
Photos
Skipper's Pier photo: Flickr/Oblivious Dude
