Fenwick Island DE

Fenwick Island lost both of its crab houses in the past year. For decades the Fenwick Crab House at 100 Coastal Highway had the crabs and a much-awarded crab cake. Ropewalk at 700 Coastal Highway had a dozen on the bay at sunset. Both are gone as of this summer. Review platforms mark the Fenwick Crab House dining room permanently closed. The family's mail-order crab cake business carries on. Ropewalk's Fenwick location signed off with a farewell post to its customers. The town itself is a short run of Route 1 between the Ocean City line and the state park. Cottages hold the ocean side and a bayside strip runs along Route 54.

What remains is Harpoon Hanna's, the big bayfront fish house at the end of Harpoon Road. It has run 365 days a year since 1983. It does not steam blue crabs. Its broiled crab cakes and cream of crab soup are the closest thing to crab left in town. You can tie up a boat at the dock while you eat. For actual steamed crabs by the dozen, Fenwick people now drive. They head north to Mickey's or Claws in Bethany Beach. Or they cross the line into Ocean City's crab rooms.