Soon after Crabby Dick's opened on South Broadway in 2000, co-owner John Buchheit started catching one of the best compliments a restaurateur ever gets.
"I would sit on the bench out front and hear people say, `Oh yeah, Crabby Dick's -- they been there forever,'" Buchheit said. "That's what you want to hear."
In a couple of years, Buchheit and business partner Dale Slotter built a Fells Point tourist staple. And when the restaurant closes Sunday, they'll be leaving Baltimore the best possible way -- on top.
"We're closing on a high note," Buchheit said. "It's not a depressing, `We're sad to go.' It's all good."
Buchheit and Slotter began their business ventures by buying real estate in the early 1990s. They boast having owned a building on every block of downtown Fells Point at one time or another. In the mid-'90s, the two opened a coffee and Italian ice store called Java Squeeze and a T-shirt store, the Admiral T. They decided to open a small chain of retail shops through Greater Baltimore, using a double entendre that's become their trademark: Crabby Dick's.
They've got a whole family of characters, including Crabby Dick himself, his wife, Anita, and their children. There are a slew of T-shirt slogans that we need not mention. You get the picture.
"It's a cute double play on words," Buchheit said.
Where did it come from?
"I don't know you well enough," he said.
In 1999, Buchheit and Slotter bought the space at 606 S. Broadway that would become the first Crabby Dick's restaurant. Around that time, they sold Java Squeeze, closed the Admiral T when its lease expired, and started folding the retail stores to focus on Crabby Dick's.
Before Buchheit and Slotter, the restaurant had been a "hoity-toity" place called Baltimore Jacks, Buchheit said. They ripped up the carpets and filled the place with crab traps, old business signs and fluky decorations they found at such places as Dixon's Furniture Auction in Crumpton. The recipes came from Buchheit's mother, Charmaine, and Slotter's improvisation in the kitchen.
The restaurant opened in May 2000 and was immediately robbed, Buchheit said.
At the end of the restaurant's first night in business, Buchheit, Slotter and a few other Fells Point business owners were sitting in the bar talking about the day's sales. Three people walked in -- two decoys who distracted Buchheit and Slotter and a third who sneaked around the counter and stole the cash drawer.
"That was an eye-opening experience," Buchheit said. "But you know what? It can only get better from there."
And it did.
Sales grew by double digits each year Crabby Dick's was open, Buchheit said. After several years, the two partners opened a sister Crabby Dick's in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
The Baltimore Crabby Dick's isn't technically closing -- it's moving to Delaware City, Del. Buchheit and Slotter said they feel it's time for a change, and they've grown tired of Baltimore's small-business regulations.
"I love Baltimore. I don't want to beat up on Baltimore, but it's not small-business friendly," Buchheit said. "We have lost that."
Buchheit and Slotter installed goose-neck lights that hung over the sidewalk outside and were slapped with a $1,100 fine for not having a permit, they said. They said they also paid fees for multiple false alarms set off by people pulling the restaurant doors early in the morning.
"For me to get hit with a $250 fine in the dead of winter, when sometimes people are not walking the street, I'm losing money," Buchheit said. "That's not what I'm in business for."
The new Crabby Dick's will be at 30 Clinton St. in Delaware City and will have a 250-seat outdoor deck and an 11-room bed and breakfast.
"Now we're going to feed them our [crab] balls and let them spend the night," Buchheit said.
Crabby Dick's Last Supper, with live entertainment by Shawnna Alexander and food, drink and merchandise specials, will be Sunday. The restaurant is at 606 S. Broadway. There will be an auction at 10 a.m. Feb. 8. For more information, call 410-327-7900 or visit crabby-dicks.com.
sam.sessa@baltsun.com
