Rehoboth Beach DE

Claws Seafood House sits on Rehoboth Avenue, two blocks from the sand. It is the only place inside town limits where a server drops a dozen hot blues on brown paper. Everything else happens out on Route 1. The Crab House holds down the strip across from the Tanger Seaside outlets. It runs paper-covered tables, crab hammers, and 36 draft lines. Both rooms belong to restaurant groups rather than watermen. Claws is Jeff Hamer's Fins Hospitality operation, the group behind Big Oyster Brewery. The Crab House belongs to the Sugrue brothers, who started Big Fish Grill down the road in 1996.

The house format here is all-you-can-eat. Both crab rooms run a nightly feast with corn and hush puppies on the side. The posted per-person number moves each season with the price of a bushel. The crabs come in from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. Light crabs in June. Heavy ones from late July into October. The Route 1 spots go dark from roughly October to spring. Expect heavy Route 1 traffic and a wait on summer Saturdays.