Plump lump-blue-crab cakes bound with the lightest possible mayo-and-cracker mixture and finished with Old Bay, the Chesapeake region's defining DC restaurant plate.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
The Chesapeake blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) has been the regional shellfish from Maryland to Virginia since pre-colonial times. The modern crab cake template, mostly meat with a near-invisible binder, dates from the 1930s Chesapeake Bay seafood houses; the Old Bay seasoning that finishes the cakes was invented in Baltimore in 1939 by German-immigrant Gustav Brunn. In DC, the high-end crab cake became a power-lunch dish in the postwar Capitol Hill steakhouses and seafood rooms. Today the Old Ebbitt Grill, founded 1856 and the city's oldest saloon, serves more than 1000 crab cakes a week, and the dish appears on every Chesapeake-leaning menu from The Salt Line to BlackSalt to Hank's Oyster Bar. A standard order is two cakes broiled, never fried; the test of a kitchen is how invisible the binder is.
Common allergens: Shellfish, Egg, Gluten
Tip from the editors. The binder should be just enough to hold the lumps together when nudged. If the mixture feels wet enough to scoop with one hand, you have used too much; pull crab out, not crumb in.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington DC is the city's oldest saloon, founded 1856 and now serving 1.5 million guests a year across four bars at its 15th Street home near the White House.
Signature: Crab cakes, Oyster Happy Hour
Order: The crab cake plate; the kitchen runs through 1000 cakes a week and the binder is invisibly thin.
Tip: The 15:00 to 18:00 oyster Happy Hour is the city's best seafood deal at $1.95 each; sit at the Old Bar.
The Salt Line in Washington DC is the Navy Yard New England-style seafood room overlooking Diamond Teague Park, with Connecticut-style lobster rolls and a 30-oyster raw bar selection.
Signature: Lobster roll, Oysters by the dozen
Order: The hot Connecticut-style lobster roll on a butter-toasted bun; the menu favourite since opening.
Tip: Patio runs from April to October and faces the Anacostia; book a sunset slot and walk to a Nationals game after.
More cities are in research. Want chesapeake blue crab cake covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.