Starboard Claw
Known for steamed blue crabs by the three, six, or dozen, claw bar with oysters, clams, and crab legs, Dewey crab fries.
Stop 11 of 13 on the coast run, south to north
Dewey Beach DE
Starboard Claw is the only place in Dewey Beach steaming blue crabs. The group behind the Starboard opened it at 1818 Coastal Highway on Memorial Day weekend 2023. It is a sit-down seafood room with a raw bar and indoor and outdoor tables. Crabs sell by the three, six, or twelve at whatever the market allows that day. Before 2023 Dewey had bar food, not crab houses. Dewey itself is a few blocks wide between Rehoboth Bay and the ocean.
The other crab order in town is the crab cake at Woody's, the bar and grill at 1904 Coastal Highway. Since 2009 it has built a regional reputation on a jumbo lump cake with barely enough filler to hold its shape. The Best of Delaware wins have stacked up. Woody's stays open all year. That matters in a town that mostly goes dark after Labor Day.
The crab houses of Dewey Beach
Woody's Dewey Beach
Known for jumbo lump crab cakes, burgers and beach-bar cooking, open year-round in a seasonal town.
Stories from Dewey Beach
The bar town gets a crab house: three summers of Starboard Claw
Dewey Beach never had a proper steamed-crab room until the Starboard's owners opened one in 2023. Three summers in, the menu runs from a $13 blue crab soup to steamed blues at the day's price.