Posts Tagged ‘Virginia seafood’

An Entertaining Lunch On The Island House Veranda In Watchapreague, Virginia

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Crabcakes And A View At The Island House Restaurant In Watchapreague, Virginia

Enjoying a meal at the Island House Restaurant in Watchapreague,  Virginia is not merely  about the food.   Definitely not !   Perched at  water’s edge  on Finney  Creek,  a  deepwater inlet from the Atlantic Ocean,  which  languidly winds its way through the emerald  green marshes and  out to  Metompkin Inlet,  a trip to the Island House offers a unique little peek  into  the Seaside on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.   Watchapreaque itself ,  now  a quiet little residential  town with a population of about 300,  was  the site of  the once bustling Hotel  Watchapreague,  now gone,  a well-known resort  frequented by all sorts of celebrities in the early 1900’s.   Now home to a  large private marina with an impressive fleet of charter fishing boats,  greater  ” downtown” Watchapreague also boasts  a town marina,  a marine railway and several  boat ramps,  all catering to those who love the excellent sports fishing and boating  nearby. 

A Toss Up - Eat Or Launch The Boat ?

Clearly,  after a brisk morning  out on the water there are going to be some mighty hungry people  coming ashore looking for  sustenance and who better to provide it than the Island House Restaurant    Needless to say,  it offers seafood of all kinds but specializes  in a  fresh catch of the day as well as local crab, oysters and clams.   My husband and I especially enjoy their delicious clam chowder and crabcake sandwiches,  a perfect lunch harvested from our salty Eastern Shore  waters.  And what better place to eat it than out on the Island House’s large veranda, watching all the activities going on around us.   The restaurant is nestled in between  a boat ramp and Watchapreague’s  largest marina  so there is always lots of interesting stuff  happening on all sides.  Smaller boats being launched at or being pulled out at the adjacent ramp,  little snatches of conversation and laughter floating up,  big  boats gliding  into the marina,  people waving and calling out to each other,  tides rising and falling,  seabirds on the wing  trying to catch a little lunch for themselves.  

 Looking to the horizon,  one gets glimpses of Cedar Island,  ( part of our off-shore  Barrier Island chain,  a United Nations Biosphere)  and also sightings  of what appear to be  boats traveling upon the marsh grass itself.    They are,  of course,  moving in the  water  but because the deep channel  winds through large  expanses of  marsh grass,  when  boats  are landward of Cedar Island,  the illusion is created that they are  floating upon the grass itself, quite an interesting phenomena .   Anyway,  there’s always someone or something to see or hear,  so definitely lunch at the Island House is quite  entertaining as well as tasty.?( http://www.watchapreague.com/theislandhouse.html )