Cookie Hooky, the Target's notes.

Driving rains ensured no Winterfest this night. Dark entrance to Northside Park, north OCMD, 12/15/2022.

Well, the man said, "You know, I'm from Maryland,
And them crabs is what I'm itching for.
Don't you know, Santa Dear,
With steamed crabs and a beer,
It would be like a trip back..."

"Oh, I want crabs for Christmas.
Oh, only crabs will do.
Oh, and with crabs for Christmas,
My Christmas wish'll come true."
-David DeBoy

 

     We have written about this. This has not been our normal year. We stop, start, wait, restart and just try to find some type of normality. However, this is our special end of year meeting. A "can't miss." Even when the Watt moved to Chicago, somehow we always had some kind of Christmas event. Despite our clash with schedules, we headed back to where it all began- that's right, to the pub formerly know as Smitty's. Getting to our destination should not be life threatening, that evening it was raining so hard and visibility so poor we should have called the whole thing off. Personally, I can honestly say there was one thing that drove me that night. It had been a tradition that LWatt made me a batch of her famous homemade chocolate chip cookies for my birthday. It is well known about my desire for chocolate chip cookies, and looking forward to the annual batch kept me on the road. Yet the one constant is change, and this season has been notorious.

Got wet? Mid-town Ocean City.

     Smitty's is no more. In it's place was a local brew pub outfit with several locations called Fins Ale House & Raw Bar. They repainted, put in an oyster bar, and revised the menu. All things that needed to be done at least a decade ago.

The downpour of biblical proportions continued all evening and with the rain so steady it was not surprising there was a very small crowd. We grabbed seats at the bar that we had pretty much to ourselves, and started to catch up. With so few customers you would have thought the service would have been outstanding, but it was only average at best. The evening continued with more disappointment when I was informed that they were out of Miller Lite.

Nevertheless, there was a large selection from Fin's partner Big Oyster Brewing which was promptly taken advantage of. While they did spray the glass with chilled water, an iced glass would have garnered higher accolades. After reviewing the bill of fare, we ordered Old Bay Wings, Seafood Skins, and Fin's Famous Crab Bruschetta. The wings looked and tasted fantastic but had little Old Bay flavor. The potato skins were small in size, and over-cheesed to the point of dominating the shrimp and crab. The bruschetta was the biggest disappointment. Although served with big chunks of backfin crab, the bread was hardly toasted, and became pulpy from over saturation by the balsamic, tomato, and crab causing it to fall apart and making it hard to eat. A shame...hard to beat a crab dish on a Christmas menu.

Our meal now over, we started our exchange of gifts. To my chagrin, my cookies were nowhere to be found. LWatt's busy work timetable made it difficult to get any baking done. I was disappointed, but I could not really be sad. She and Wattman made up for a missing cookie or two with a great birthday/Christmas combo gift of an Ugg's blanket... guaranteed to keep me warm at night while watching Christmas movies on my couch. As we ended our night we had one final disappointment. With all the wind and rain

the Winterfest display had been closed for the night. No tour for us, and thus we all headed home. Now, with all I related one might think we were disheartened and sad. But this was not the case. You see we spent the evening together; dear friends that celebrated Christmas with joy that few can understand. We hope that you find the same and wish you and yours a Mele Kalikimaka and a better next year!

THE RATINGS-

Beer: B

Old Bay Wings: B-

Seafood Skins: B-

Crab Bruschetta: C

Atmosphere: B

Value: C

Overall Score = 2.58

Out Of Practice, from the Watt's notebook.

Winds outta the nor'east gave sectioned waist high surf over the weekend. Talbot Street break, 12/10/2022.

      As we were leaving Shotti's Point one evening in October, Target quickly stopped us and brought up the fact that we had forgotten to do the ratings critique of the restaurant. Jump to early November- the last surf of the year and a true kook performance on my part. Then the other evening- LWatt was on a business trip, Target and I met for a couple brews, a couple apps, and as we were closing out the tab I realized I didn't get a pic of the pizza and we didn't have paper for the ratings. Target looked over at me..."we're out of practice." It struck me, it's been a disrupted year. We needed to work on it. A resolution to add to our list of resolutions.

     So yeah, Burnish Beer Company. The newest brewery in Salisbury, MD. Open about a year now. A nice selection of beer with a couple interesting names. I had kept it simple... a grapefruit version of their IPA, Shine. Target, ever looking for that next original Blonde (Ale) without over-extending his palate, chose Jellyfish Apocalypse- an ale based on the strawberry mojito. Must've been okay, as he finished the pint. Our biggest concern was that the glasses were not chilled, or even refrigerated. We prefer our beer icy. We also ordered the evening special, a 12 inch Cheese Pizza, and the house BBQ wings.

The pizza was about basic as one can get; not much more than a store bought, although better than a frozen. The wings were good sized, and had a great flavor, but we found a few undercooked, which was a definite ratings takeaway. As we caught up on the last couple of weeks, we had good service at the bar, extreme sports on the tubes, and Christmas music accentuating the décor. This time of year, that will win us every time. The place was cavernous with bags game boards set up inside, and outside in their beer garden (when weather permits). Future opportunity to check out will be the beer garden during the warmer months. After we had paid the tab, which was not too painful, we made a discovery. Turns out our silverware was served in white paper bags. Boom! Paper for our ratings. We may be out of practice, but we still know how to improvise. LWatt would've been impressed. Maybe. 

Burnish Beer Company, 12/8/2022 

THE RATINGS-

Beer: B (Icy please)

House BBQ Wings: B-

Cheese Pizza: C

Atmosphere: B

Value: C+

Overall Score = 2.60