Jessica F.
Yelp
I love Maryland. I moved there in 1990 after college to work with a friend founding a music and theater camp for kids. I liked it so much, I stayed for 7 years, and found it very hard to leave when career had to trump cherry trees and I had to come home to NY. One of the things I loved most and missed most was Maryland crab feasts. Mountains of blue crabs are piled on picnic or bar tables on top of brown or news paper, a small serrated knife and a mallet are thrown at the diner, pitchers of beer and plates of corn are tossed onto the table, empty bowls for shells, maybe a plate or two of shrimp, some white vinegar, extra crab boil seasoning, and then, you're on your own. Nothing indicates a murderous crab-eating spree more than piles of crab carcasses and red smears of Old Bay on everything within reach. If you can't feel your taste buds and your fingers are stinging from crab cuts and too much red pepper, you had a good time.
Yeah, I've missed it. I tried to recreate this myself with blue crabs from Chinatown a few weeks ago, but they were small, light and not really worth the effort or the mess, and it just depressed me. As he is easily the nicest man on earth, Peter put forth a Herculean effort to find a place he could take me where we could crab out, and after much mystery, we came down here to the Hideaway to have Maryland-style blue crabs. These are boiled in Old Bay or another kind of crab boil, and then hit with mallets, knives, crackers or really leathery fingers to get at the succulent meat.
The crabs are priced at market price, which fluctuated from $19 for three large crabs last Monday to $23 for the same on Labor Day. For large, heavy crabs, this isn't a terribly inflated price, but knowing that in Bethesda, I could get nearly a dozen for that price, it hurt a little. The crabs bordered between medium and large, sizewise, and most were fairly meaty. We ordered 12 to begin, with two platters of peel and eat shrimp, which were firm, fresh and deliciously spicy with tons of Old Bay. Blue Point, Stella Artois, several wheat beers, O'Hara Stout and a number of other faves were on tap, with about a dozen more available in bottles, including Red Stripe.
The partners/owners of the Hideaway are Virginia transplants, and apparently missed the crab fest thing as much as I did. They began offering Monday night crabs as long as they hold out and are in season, and the results are spectacular. The only complaint I had was the fancy-schmancy and rather superfluous crab forks provided, which don't get at the leg meat as well as intended, and the lack of small knives, which I think are indispensible for crab consumption.
I would also like to praise the bar itself. Clean, trim, tidy and elegant, the music selection is outstanding with emphasis, both times I was there, on the Beatles and classic rock that wasn't overly loud. Bathrooms are well-stocked, clean and friendly. Regular bar fare is a notch above the usual, with no gastropub illusions so much as upscale simple bistro fare. Prices were reasonable. Final tab for four of us eating about two plates of shrimp and twenty crabs ($90/dozen), and drinking a fair amount, was about $300 with tip. We tipped well....this is a messy business.
The crowd is rare for Tribeca, meaning, people at the Hideaway were as genuine and friendly as you would expect to find anywhere else, with none of the glamazon or elitist factor you tend to find in other Tribeca watering holes. Nice wine selection, good glassware, competent service, and a SMOKING HOT bartender all helped make this a special night. I could have lived without the Duke Basketball photos in the john, though. Go, IU!
