Salt Waterfront Kitchen, Ridge, St. Mary’s County, Maryland

This one’s a keeper!

Michael and I took the girls to Salt for lunch and liked it so much that we went back right away with the whole gang. The first visit came about as I was finishing a wonderful breakfast at Hidden Harbour. Michael called about taking Ella and Lily to lunch at a new-to-us spot. Sure, I said, and followed them out to Salt. It’s located in Ridge at 16244 Miller’s Point Road at the Point Lookout Marina, very close to POV at Pier 450 and the great and wonderful Courtney’s. Tiny as it is, Ridge turns out to be quite the culinary destination.

You drive into the working side of the marina, which has an industrial feel, but Salt itself sets a very different tone,

and even moreso if you walk around to the the water side and this entry

with this view.

Gorgeous. The lawn offers the usual games in addition to a beautiful relaxing view. Inside there are many nautical-themed items but without evoking clutter. There’s a full bar that offers, as more and more is the case, nonalcoholic beers in addition to the usuals.

Particularly striking are the metal sculptures by Rob Seltzer of Herring Creek Furniture that are incorporated into the furniture itself, as here.

See how many objects you can find in there, or in this piece I could hardly wrench myself away from.

Salt sits on a point of land, so every table – and every bar stool – has a water view. Ella and Lily told us their orders and went out to play. We started with some hushpuppies, some of which were camera-shy, as always happens when hushpuppies appear before me. 

Ella was already back inside, but the mere mention of. “hushpuppies” brought Lily in at a dead run. These were quite good, with a great crust and and some whole corn kernels inside. They came with honey butter, of which I disapprove as gilding the lily, but Ella and Lily support it fervently. We also got an order of fried oysters. Here are some of them.

Delicious, plump and succulent, and nicely fried, these were delicious. The cocktail sauce could have used more horseradish, but the oysters really didn’t need anything beyond a light squeeze of lemon. On our second visit I did ask for some horseradish and promptly got a container twice as large as the cocktail sauce container. Excellent. I mixed them together and used some for the oysters and dipped them with my potato chips.

Ella and Lily continued their sedulous survey of chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and French fries around the world, while Michael ordered their smashburger with bacon and American cheese.  

A lot of places don’t really smash the patties in what they call smashburgers. It’s a little hard to see — I wasn’t about to move the lettuce on Michael’s sandwich — but they were well and truly smashed for a great crust of caramelization. The house-cooked potato chips were good of their kind, but I prefer Lay’s. I guess that indicates my lack of class.

I ordered a blackened grouper sandwich, which came with the same chips.

I started to shift the fish over within the bun, but it stuck out the other end as well, though not so far. So I ate my way from the outside, much as you have to do with a soft-shell crab sandwich. The fish was fresh and prepared well, cooked just through, and seasoned with that blackened bite. There’s a slice of red onion in there that added flavor and crunch, and it was dressed with a remoulade(!) rather than cocktail or tartar sauce for the win! And note the buttered bun. This is a sandwich to order again and again.

The second visit was much the same as the first, with some playing outside by the girls, then hushpuppies and fried oysters, more chicken fingers for Ella (Liza said that they were good!), and another smashburger for Michael that deserves a close-up. Now that’s a smashburger!

Lily switched to a grilled cheese that looked good and that I verified was indeed. Liza and Nancy both had blackened grouper sandwiches, Nancy with a side salad instead of the standard chips.

Since she’s avoiding carbohydrates, Nancy transferred the grouper fillet and the toppings from the sandwich to her salad. Clever.

I felt obligated to my readers to try something new and went with the fish tacos with the mahi-mahi blackened.

The tacos were good, with nice trimmings, but given a choice between mahi-mahi and grouper, I’ll take the grouper every time.

Salt impressed all of us. Nancy and Liza were very pleased with the decor and especially impressed with their grouper sandwiches. I wish it were closer to Lusby, but Salt definitely is well worth the drive. Make it a point to go try it.

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