Gateway Restaurant and Lounge, Port Republic, Calvert County, Maryland

I’ve always liked Road Houses. I remember Joe’s Ranch House on 31 south of Vestavia Hills, Alabama, when I was a kid, and Lillo’s, an Italian place near Leland, Mississippi, I frequented during my voting rights career. You sometimes see them in old films.

The Gateway Restaurant and Lounge is a Road House — not a Road House like the Patrick Swayze movie with its fights, nor a Texas Roadhouse with those great yeast rolls. (Have you ever had a few?) The Gateway is set in a very rural area on a road all by itself, about four miles off MD Route 4. Unless you’re from there you don’t know it’s there. The building is not especially distinctive, just a plain structure with a parking lot to one side. The entrance is off the parking lot rather than the bare front of the building, and if you step in out of the bright sunshine, the entry initially seems a dark and not especially welcoming. Nothing daunted, Nancy and I kept moving and just a few steps forward (and adjusting eyes) transformed the place.

The light progressively brightened as we entered the bar area where we got a friendly welcome from the staff and pleasant looks from patrons. This is a friendly place. You can stop at the bar or proceed straight ahead or to the right into dining areas. The tables were well spaced and, at least for now, the staff steers people to tables for additional distance among diners.

Gateway is a family-owned place that’s been around for around 50 years. It’s had a major remodeling at some recent date with a modern look. 

At the same time signs, posters, and mirrors from beer distributors keep Gateway grounded. Gateway has a full bar, and the rotating taps always include something local. I had a Route 4 IPA as Nancy and I settled back to decide what to order for a late lunch.

Nancy went with a Cobb salad with grilled rather than fried chicken.

I ordered the breakfast cheeseburger, with bacon and egg. I asked for the egg over easy.

Nancy was very happy with her salad. She remarked on the chicken, which was not dried out and had a good freshflavor. And the Cobb salad had just right amount of bacon crumbles, hard boiled egg, and cheese — all of those good flavors, but not so much meat, egg, and cheese that it isn’t really a salad, as at some places.

And I enjoyed my burger. The hamburger was more tightly packed than I like, but the bacon was crisp and the egg was nice and runny. A fried egg really adds a lot as, of course, does bacon. The egg yolk can make a burger tricky to eat without getting messy, but this wasn’t my first rodeo, and I avoided any stains. And let me say a word for the potato chips, which were standard potato chips. That’s the kind of potato chip I prefer. If you pay more, you get something too thick and … abrasive, but the standard chips are so good that I betcha can’t eat just one.

As we were leaving Gateway, I belatedly noticed a handwritten sign announcing that they had oysters on the half shell. I really need to pay more attention. Gateway also offers some shrimp and other seafood, and in Southern Maryland, local seafood is about as good as it gets. Sometimes they have snakehead, and your order helps combat an invasive species of fish. I’ll have to try some oysters on a future visit, maybe a “country” surf and turf — a pork chop and shrimp — or just stop in for a dozen on the half shell and some snakehead bites, a local draft, and some local conversation.

There aren’t that many Road Houses these days, alas. It’s good to come across one and a good one at that. Gateway is well worth a try. Let me know what you think about it.

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