Fresh, Local & Fun at Libbey’s Coastal Kitchen & Cocktails

by

The Taste

It’s easy to spot Libbey’s Coastal Kitchen & Cocktails when driving over the East-bound span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The restaurant is just a quick right turn at the end of the bridge and its outdoor seating is situated only a few feet from the edge of the Bay.

Customers crowd Libbey’s, located adjacent to Bay Bridge Marina, in the warm weather for its scenic view and high-quality food. It’s popular and convenient for restaurant goers to dock their boats. 

“The view is second to none,” General Manager Bill Redmond says. “You are right there for the best sunsets unobstructed. This is the place if you are going to watch the sunset.” 

Libbey’s—located on site of the old Hemingway’s Restaurant—celebrated its two-year anniversary in April. Customers crave favorites such as delicious crab cakes, eye-catching oysters, fresh mussels, and a number of tasty fish dishes.

In some sense, it’s also two restaurants in one. It features two menus with the main one being seafood centric. “We have casual, fine dining upstairs,” Redmond says. “But the downstairs area we call ‘below deck.’ It’s more water-front oriented, outdoor dining. Not every restaurant has this opportunity.”

To learn more, we sat down with Redmond, an Easton resident, and Executive Chef Todd MacSorley of Kent Island to discuss.

Bill, there are a lot of good restaurants on the Eastern Shore. What separates Libbey’s Coastal Kitchen from the others? The dynamic we are looking to bring this coming season. We want to put our own identity on some Eastern Shore classics. Chef Todd will offer some new things. You are on the Bay. Everyone is going to offer crabcakes and rockfish. We feel our recipes are styles take a step above everybody else. It’s all about the quality of ingredients and quality of care. 

What impresses you about Chef Todd? When we hired Todd, the biggest thing I took away from him is, not only his culinary experience, but that part of his career was in education. So, when it comes time to train the staff and do so in his style, he brings more to the table than a lot of chefs I have worked with in the past. I also love his passion for food. He does a fantastic job. Every ingredient he sources himself to make sure the best possible plate is going out all the time. 

How is he with the customers? He has such a passion for the customer. I have worked with a lot of chefs that try to be the face of the restaurant. When he is in the dining room, he is just trying to get genuine feedback from the customers: what is working, what is not? What do I need to tweak if anything? His personality and organizational skills are his other strong suits. He is very regimented in what he does. When the product comes out of the kitchen, we know it is right.    

Todd, tell me about your background as a chef. Where did you work previously? I have been working in a kitchen since I was 15. That’s 36 years overall and 25 as a chef. I went to New England Culinary School. I started at Northwoods, went to Harry Browne’s, and then worked as the opening chef at Woodfire in Severna Park. Now, it’s Park Tavern. Working at the Hotel Culinary Arts & Tourism Institute at Anne Arundel Community College followed. It’s a culinary program there. I managed the facilities for four years as the purchaser of food, the scheduler, and an adjunct professor. That ended with covid. I opened 1820 at the Kent Island Resort and then came to Libbey’s in June. 

Who has had the biggest influence on you? Anthony Bourdain. He is the one who wrote the book Kitchen Confidential. He has the same outlook on culture and food that I do. That food is a unifying thing when it’s done right. Anybody can sit at any table. It’s one of those universal joys.    

What is your top-selling dish? Oh boy, crab cakes. We use very little filler and simple ingredients. I use a little bit of imperial sauce, a little bit of egg, a little bit of mayonnaise, and Old Bay of course. We let the crab cake speak for itself. They are juicy, buttery, and delicious. The customers love them. In the summer, we will go through 80 pounds of crab meat per day.

What else is popular?  Short rib ragu. It’s very popular. It’s short ribs that are seared and simmered with vegetables, tomatoes, and stock. It’s very tender. Then we toss it with Pappardelle pasta and finish it with some orange and lemon zest and fresh parmigiano Reggiano. 

What are your favorite ingredients to cook with?  It’s kind of like asking what your favorite song is. It depends on the day and the food you are cooking. I love making stocks—veal, chicken, and fish. It starts with absolutely raw ingredients. You have complete control over the end result and engineer it to whatever you need it to be. I also like using roasted mushrooms and roasted garlic. It gives you a real depth of flavor. It takes time and patience to get it where I like it. I think people appreciate that. I also like going slow, like cooking barbeque. I have multiple smokers at home.

Do you source your seafood locally? How about your meats? We have a local seafood distributor on Kent Island, BSA Seafood. I get local oysters, crabmeat, and rockfish. Whatever is seasonal we will get from them like blue catfish. I like invasive species. So, more people are fishing for them. It kind of helps the Bay out. I get my meats from Fells Point Meats. They carry stuff from local small farms. It’s a craft product. My favorite thing we get from them is Roseda Farm’s [in Monkton, Maryland] striploin steak.    

Shrimp and Crab Ceviche

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces raw medium shrimp, peeled and deveined 
  • 6 ounces Jumbo Lumb crab 
  • 3/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 8 limes) 
  • 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons), plus zest of 1 lemon 
  • 4 tablespoons orange juice (about 1/2 orange) 
  • 2 tablespoons shallots, finely chopped 
  • 1 Jalapeno, diced 
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced 
  • 1 Avocado, chopped 
  • 2 ounces finely chopped cilantro leaves 
  • Salt and pepper to taste 
  • Tortilla chips 

Directions

Chop the shrimp into small pieces and place in a glass or non-reactive bowl. Add the lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice, and shallots. Make sure the shrimp are covered well with the citrus juice. Cover the bowl and set in the fridge until the shrimp is fully pink with no gray or raw parts, 30 minutes to two hours depending on your preference. Once the shrimp is ready, add the jumbo lump crabmeat, jalapeno, tomatoes, avocado, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Mix. Transfer the ceviche to a serving bowl. Serve immediately with your favorite tortilla chips.

Libbey’s Coastal Kitchen & Cocktails | 357 Pier 1 Rd, Stevensville  •  410-604-0999  •  libbeyscoastalkitchen.com