Folks don’t dress up for seafood in Baltimore.
There, as in New Orleans, it’s an ordinary part of everyday life, not something that calls for nice shoes and something a step up from a t-shirt. Sure, there are fancier spots, but there are also neighborhood hangouts and restaurants folks say their parents took them to when they were kids. Conrad’s Seafood Restaurant, in Perry Hall, one of Baltimore’s northern suburbs, feels like that sort of place. (Baltimore, like St. Louis, is a city not in a county – although, strangely, there are no incorporated municipalities in it.) They’ve only been open since 2003, though, when Tony Conrad, a commercial waterman, decided to open his own spot. Now there’s his seafood market, which also serves food, and this restaurant.
Our clan ended up here to celebrate the biggest and the last of a series of three graduations over the spring and summer. As the matriarch, I was under considerable pressure to lead them to a spot that worked on multiple levels, including for my two vegetarians. But it was Baltimore. Surely we had to have seafood at least one night! The careful choice of Conrad’s turned out to be a hit.
The feel is deeply casual, with a busy bar, a couple of dining rooms, a rooftop dining area and sinks in the dining room for post-prandial cleanup. An order of steamed crabs is preceded by a large sheet of heavy brown kraft paper that’s laid over the table, the easier to clean things up with. For good measure, there’s now an in-house bakery that serves desserts a step beyond what you might expect in such a place.
Things kicked off with a couple of baskets of popcorn seasoned with what turned out to be the house version of crab seasoning, similar to Old Bay brand, but with less celery seed. The crab neophyte and the vegetarians agreed with the Old Hands that this was a tasty start.
The rather Greekish Conrad salad wore feta bits mixed with tomato, cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives and greens; its dressing used white balsamico, producing a mildly sweet note to go with a little oregano. Housemade Caesar dressing was deeply savory, the croutons were crisp but not tooth-breaking, and the romaine lettuce chilly and crisp, a fine version of the classic.
Crab wontons? Yes, indeed, obviously made by hand, absolutely delicious because they were very crabby, with the proper dipping sauce of soy and some black vinegar, although the sauce was superfluous. Littleneck clams on the halfshell didn’t fare so well, simply because they had been carelessly opened with bits of shell in more than half of them.
The Young Carnivore had his first encounter with steamed crabs. Next time he and I will split a bigger order of larger crabs, but these were an encouraging introduction, the house seasoning sprinkled generously over them rendering things spicy but not palate-numbing, the shellfish carefully cooked. Wooden mallets are the instrument of choice; I admit on these little guys I missed having a pick to winkle out bits from the carapace.
And then, sweet heaven, there were the crab cakes. This is the reason people who know get so fussy about crab cakes. Large lumps, barely held together, not a huge amount of seasoning, just molecule after molecule of delicate, briny flavor, rich and satisfying. The menu says it’s a 5-ounce crabcake, and I think that’s accurate. To touch these with tartar sauce or cocktail sauce would be desecration. Maybe if you lived next door and could eat them every day, it might be okay. Otherwise….
Cioppino, the fish stew from the Left Coast showcased a lovely seared fillet of rockfish, plus mussels, more clams, shrimp and plenty of calimari. The seafood broth was a dark bronze and slightly thick, a change from the usual, a little peppery and clearly seriously full of seafood juices. In any other place, it would have been a star; here, it took a back seat to the crab dishes. Our vegetarians fell all over themselves with the pasta primavera, fettucini with things like broccolini, spinach, peas and several cloves of sweet roasted garlic, all lightly hit with pesto, a very different version of the dish.
The french fries are house-cut, piping hot; it was difficult to find time to eat the equally skinny roasted asparagus that our consciences made us order, too. Jambalaya is available as a side, a Creole version since it includes tomatoes. Moist as a risotto, the holy trinity of Louisiana cooking, onion, bell peppers and celery, giving lots of flavor, it probably should have been an entree.
In a move vaguely reminiscent of dessert time at Pastaria, the Young Vegetarian and I went trooping off to the bakery case near the front of the house to inspect our options. Someone is doing some serious pastry work there. I’d hoped for a version of the multi-layered Smith Island cakes, but since this isn’t a place that caters to curious tourists, I suppose it would be coals to Newcastle. What we did find was more than worthwhile, ranging from the traditional to contemporary.
Closest to the usual was a large chocolate eclair, very proper with its chocolate glaze and vanilla custard filling, the choux pastry damp and chewy from living in a refrigerator case for a while. That’s an accepted deviation from the norm. In fact, the chewy factor is part of the charm of an eclair. Very tender indeed was the coconut custard cake, its narrow vertical slab having crunchy sugar sides, the top showered with coconut shreds. “Tastes like the Zinger of your dreams,” remarked someone.
The king of the course, though was titled merely “Lemoncello”, although if there was any of the increasingly popular Italian liqueur in the dessert, it wasn’t noticeable. No loss, though; there was plenty of serious lemon flavor in the layers of cake, lemon mousse and a shiny lemon layer thickened with gelatin on top. Lovely textures and still moist despite having been assembled an unknown amount of time previously, it beguiled.
This is just the sort of place that ought to have reliable help, the sort that stays on the job for years, both in the front and the back of the house. Our server certainly filled that bill despite her youth, answering newbie questions and able to go into deep detail on certain dishes, keeping things moving although it was a busy weekend night.
If you’re considering a visit, remember, this is a menu with plenty of options for non-seafood eaters, rather than just that obligatory pasta dish. (Fajitas? Rack of lamb?) We did make reservations, and were glad we did; people were waiting when we arrived. For a party of six, as we were, it’s foolhardy not to unless you’re eating at a very odd hour. There’s valet parking. Belair Road is a commercial street but it’s surrounded by neighborhoods and the parking lots are smaller than the capacity of the restaurant.
Next time: Both kinds of crab soup. More crabs, more crabcake, and possibly the softshell crab Cuban sandwich. More fries and that lemoncello!
Conrad’s Seafood Restaurant
9654 Belair Rd., Perry Hall MD
410-529-FISH
Lunch and dinner daily, Sunday brunch
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Fair
Smoking: No
Entrees: $15-$29 and crabs at market price (just ask)