The Cracked Crab
751 Price Street
Pismo Beach
805-773-2722
www.crackedcrab.com

By Teresa Mariani

Photo by Teresa Mariani

"It was the first time I'd ever had a waitress throw a bucket in the middle of the table - but everyone loved it.

"It" was dinner at The Cracked Crab - a true experience, even for those who don't think they like crab.

"Our concept is largely based on dumping a bucket of various shellfish on your table with a mallet, crab crackers, and tools to get the job done," explains owner Mike Lee. "It can get messy, but we clean it up."

Along with the bucket comes bowls of melted butter, tartar and cocktail sauce for dipping. What's in the bucket? Well, that depends on what kind of crab and shellfish are "in season" and available. The menu changes daily at the Cracked Crab to reflect the fresh local fish that's in, as well as the crab menu for the day (you can check out the day's menu at the restaurant's website, www.crackedcrab.com).

The Saturday night we went to The Cracked Crab (two couples, all looking to get away from the teen-agers and have some grown-up dinner fun), the menu featured a near-dizzying array of crab.

We decided to go for a double-bucket order, big enough for four. All of the buckets include steamed corn and sausage, and a "You Pick" array of any 3 of the 10 shellfish on the menu. That night, the choices were Snow Crab, Dungeness crab, Jonah Crab, King Crab, Local Rock Crab, shrimp, Slipper Lobster, Clams and Mussels.

"What's the difference?" we asked. Actually, according to our waitress, plenty.

"The Snow Crab and the King Crab are probably the mildest. The Dungeness crab is probably what you think of when you think crab; it has a strong crabby flavor and it's more of a 'San Francisco' style crab," she told us. And a Slipper Lobster? It's a small lobster, she told us - but bigger than, say, a Louisiana crawdad.

As the crab wimp of the group, I insisted on the shrimp, Snow Crab and King Crab. Our friends ordered the Mussels, Jonah Crab and slipper lobster - and we chose a Sauvignon Blanc from the Cracked Crab's wine list to go with it all.

We knew we were in for something different when the waitress returned with plastic bibs, bowls of melted butter, dipping sauces - and a roll of paper towels. Next came the bucket, dumped with fanfare in the middle of the table.

No plates. No platters. Just hot steamed crab, shrimp, lobster, sausage and corn on the cob dumped onto the butcher paper covering the tablecloth. Cracked Crab etiquette says you reach to the center of the table for your crab leg, crack it open, use any number of surgical-looking cutlery and forks to get it out...then dip it in the nearest bowl of drawn butter or home-made mustard sauce. You toss the empty shells into the now-empty bucket.

It's fun. Lots of fun. After all, when was the last time, as a grown-up, that you've had to eat with a bib?

Turns out the waitress was right: the Snow Crab and King Crab have a delicate, sweet light flavor compared to the "crabbier" Dungeness crab. The Slipper Lobster looked and tasted like Lobster tails, only at about a quarter of the size. The shrimp was perfect. And there was something nice and primitive about breaking open crab claws and having to work a little to get at the meat.

Kids seem to love it too: the restaurant was full of families, with kids enjoying picking their food off the middle of the table. The families, twenty-somethings on dates and older couples out for a treat give the Cracked Crab a fun, noisy atmosphere. The restaurant itself is cozy - blue-checkered tablecloths under the butcher paper tabletoppers and hardwood floors give the dining room a warm glow.

After dinner, the wait staff came and rolled up the mess in the butcher paper and cleared it all away. We didn't need to, but we ordered dessert anyway: a great homemade apple cobbler topped with home-made vanilla ice cream.

If you're not in the mood for a bucket of shellfish dumped on your table, the Cracked Crab has neater fare too: clam chowder ($3.95 - $5.95), fish and chips ($12.95), fresh sautéed Halibut, and swordfish, and even a crab-stuffed Petrale sole ($12.95 to $19.95). The Prosciutto-wrapped prawns ($19.95) looked good, as did the Crab Cake Dinner ($19.95).

The Cracked Crab also offers fresh fish tacos and sandwiches ($5.95 to $8.95) and if you've got someone in your party who just can't stand fish, don't despair: Cracked Crab offers filet mignon ($22.95) a blackened chicken sandwich ($8.95) and a double cheeseburger ($6.95) with fries, of course.

Aside from the novelty of the bucket o' dinner dumped on your table, the Cracked Crab is full of just plain great food.

Owner's Kathy and Mike Lee, it turns out, are restaurant veterans. Mike Lee fled his job as CEO of a national restaurant chain to hide out in Pismo Beach, live the California life, and run his own restaurant. The Lee's don't actually cook; they just run the place. Chef Kalen Walker selects all the fresh seafood, and runs the kitchen. Yes, the Lees love crab. What do they recommend you fill up the buckets with?

Well, says Mike Lee, "My favorites go in this order: King Crab, Spider Crab - it's a live, local crab - Blue Crab, Rock Crab - another live local crab - Snow Crab, and Dungeness Crab. I usually don't get much past those."

So if you're in a crabby mood, the Cracked Crab is the place to go.

Teresa Mariani lives on the Central Coast and didn't think she liked crab at all until she went to dinner at the Cracked Crab.

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