(Credit: Mike Unger)
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Situated, as it is, just off the Beltway in a nondescript corner of Linthicum Heights, there’s a good chance the folks waiting in line drove well out of their way to get here. They’ve come for one thing: the most succulent, tasty crab cake in all of Baltimore.
Appreciation for crab cake perfection cuts across all ethnic divides. The persistent line at G&M looks the way we imagine the one at the United Nations cafeteria must. During peak lunch and dinner hours it winds outside, where people wait to be seated in the dining room or loiter in the lounge. An hour wait is no problem at all, so long as the promise of a G&M crab cake glimmers at its end.
The pace is much quicker in the carryout section, where dozens of other menu selections remain largely neglected. Lawyers and businessmen, cops and convicts, laborers and retirees all flock to G&M for softball-sized crab cakes, packed with unimaginable amounts of meat.
And so they wait. In just a few minutes, though, most will have made it to the promised land, eating a crab cake so perfect it's practically its own dessert. Once the sandwich is gone, the bottom of the Styrofoam tray is often covered with fat, white chunks of meat. For many people, this is the one chance they'll have to indulge an experience reserved for the insanely patient. Like those crab-pickers of unparalleled discipline who hoard the fruits of their labor in one giant pile, G&M patrons swallow handfuls of crab meat in a euphoric feeding frenzy.
Dish: G&M’s carry-out menu is as extensive as any delivery place in the city, yet most offerings are as irrelevant as vegetarian entrees at Ruth’s Chris. Ninety-nine percent of people at G&M clutch crab cakes with two hands, and you should, too. Appetizers like zucchini sticks and Cheddar or cream cheese poppers join the list of usual suspects, and for the seafood-disinclined G&M serves pizza, Greek and Italian standards and an assortment of hot and cold subs and sandwiches, many for less than $10. Are they tasty? Who knows? Who cares? At G&M, the crab cake is king.
Damage: The signature crab cake sandwich is $12.25, plus tax. It comes with a generous portion of French fries, a pickle and lettuce and tomato for those who want to (shudder) de-purify their cake with vegetables.
Decision: The search is over, the debate settled. Baltimore’s best crab cake can be found at G&M in Linthicum. Unfortunately, you’re not the first to find that out, so leave now, because no matter when you arrive there will probably be a line.
