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How the Hard Yacht Cafe Came to be... |
 Back in the 80's those of you dining on our lovely deck listening to the music and enjoying our wonderful food would've at that time been swimming. Anchor Bay "East" Marina was founded by Art & Tina Cox and Art's parents Ron & Ruth Cox. When they first opened, this establishment was nothing more than a trash pile for debris that was pulled from the rest of the dump-like marina. Immediately, Art wanted a deck in this area and Ron thought he was absolutely crazy! Which those who know Art know that is absolutely true. Ron didn't think that was a priority. But it very soon became an uncovered area for picnic tables. Great idea, but as you can imagine it was pretty deserted on a day of bad weather. Our first plan was to put it under cover, as we did! This turned into a great hangout for our slip renters in semi-decent weather. After much of that wind and rain on Art Cox (Owner)'s face we all knew this place was going to go a little further. Eventually, our picnic area became the CrabShack! Our 10 picnic table deck became a room with a door and even windows! Boy, were we excited! Our coffee stayed warm and our feet stayed dry! The CrabShack was taken over by the slip renters as we had hoped. They all put in there ideas and donations until we had heat/AC, tables, chairs, microwaves, coffee pots, refrigerators, counter tops, and even a woodstove. As you may or may not know a woodstove these days can get a little tricky and unpredictable. Well our late, slip renter and great friend, Dale Raub (fireman) found that out and did manage to catch our CrabShack on fire. Nothing too serious we patched the roof and were back in business the next evening! Ok we had a swimming pool too. But that was short-lived. By now were into the 2000s and collectively had a great thing going on the weekends. Everyone in the marina got together for "Friday Night Dinner". This was not your ordinary hamburgers and hot dogs meal. Lets give credit where credit is due here these meals were communally paid for but the brains and sweat came from Chef Sam Anderson of the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel! Yea, we really lucked out on that one! But some of our all time favorites did come from our old recipes, before the CrabShack. Like the delicious Seafood Chowder made by Fred Raynor of the Portside Pub in Essex. (Now that is an old recipe!) Tragically, in 2005 Isabel hit us pretty hard. After 72 hours of no sleep and constant swims out to check everything it was finally over. To everyone's surprise we had no real damage and two days after, the CrabShack was back in business, again! Now that's commitment. Inside you'll see watermark plaques that show the actual height of the water during the storm. After all of our ups and downs and plenty of drinking nights the Hard Yacht Café idea was being discussed more and more. All it finally took in the winter of 2006 was the help of Brett Austin formerly of Cactus Willies, County Executive Jim Smith, his staff, and a few others. Before we could realize it the Hard Yacht was getting ready to open for business! Art's daughter Courtney (your chef) sat down with Brett and brainstormed our menu pretty close to the one you have or will order from. Honestly to myself and many others the rest of the details all blur together in a huge rush. We have a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and bruises that went into our establishment. Did I mention tears? |