Hidden Harbour, Solomons, Calvert County, Maryland

Hidden Harbor isn’t quite hidden, but finding it requires a mixture of faith and persistence. You drive down Dowell Road, the one that goes past Annmarie Gardens, and keep going until you hit a poorly maintained gravel road — the one to the World War II memorial. Then you keep going. You bounce past a marina or two and then you see a swimming pool ahead on your right (it’s associated with a marina) and you turn in and there it is. We’d been there a couple of years before, and I’d enjoyed my crab cake.

I was eager to return. It’s a fairly small, nondescript place.

There are maybe five tables indoors

a larger seating area off to the side outside.

The outside seating was full, so I sat inside in air conditioned comfort and looked over the menu. I saw crab cake sandwich (now a half pound for $30) and ordered one. Sold out, alas. (They do run out of food more often than run of the mill restaurants.) I studied the varied offerings on the menu more carefully and saw the Harbour Hot Dog, a prodigious hot dog “stuffed with PepperJack Cheese, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried, served on a toasted bun, topped with coleslaw, onion straws, and Secret Sauce.”

Why would I order that? Why do people climb Mount Everest? Because it’s there. I ordered one.

There was a lot going on in that sandwich — the hot dog, the creamy, crunchy coleslaw, the bacon, the crisp onion rings, and the Secret Sauce — enough that it was hard to sort things out. The onion straws were very nice, as was the coleslaw. The bacon was great, of course, and the big thick hot dog was well seasoned. The Secret Sauce had a mild pleasant flavor, but the ingredients remain a secret. Somehow it all clicked, and I enjoyed it.

The hot dog and other sandwiches came with potato chips cooked in-house. The potato chips were fine. A few weren’t completely crisp, but that added to the in-house feeling.

Hidden Harbour serves an attractive breakfast, one that’s popular among the boaters. They close early, at 7:00 pm, I think, or earlier if they run out. The Solomons marinas attract a surprising number of people who live on their boats full time, including a good number of families with children. They’re an eclectic and interesting group, and the menu has something for every taste. You don’t see Spam or bologna on any Washington area menus, or pork roll or scrapple, for that matter. The live-aboards tend to rise early, so go early.

I like Hidden Harbour. The food is good, the service is friendly, and if you leave your hat on the table, they’ll run out with it to greet you when you return for it. I don’t suggest that you order the Harbour Hot Dog in particular. But after all, it is there, and if you don’t get one, you won’t know what you missed. You should try Hidden Harbour. Just save the last crab cake for me.

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