Stoney’s Seafood House Clarke’s Landing, St. Mary’s County, Hollywood, Maryland

Fresh seafood prepared just about perfectly: that was our experience at Stoney’s Clarke’s Landing.

Hollywood, Maryland, is right next to California, Maryland, just across the bridge from Solomons Island. My son-in-law Michael Boyd and I went down to see how much damage a storm and an extraordinarily high tide driven by persistent southerly winds had done on Cove Point. For us, the answer was “not much.” For others, it was “a whole lot.” We did some clean-up and were ready for lunch.

We’d heard of a relatively nearby place across the bridge in Hollywood, which is just west of California, Maryland. Tony Pompa and Stacey Leavandosky gave us the restaurant’s name, and off we went. Clarke’s Landing is a couple of miles off MD 4 (turn off just north/west of Bruster’s Ice Cream). It’s a pleasant drive past homes, farms, and the Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ huge William Winpisinger Education and Technology Center. I vaguely remember Winpisinger as an aggressive labor leader, one of the Middle-Aged Turks back in the day. You continue a few hundred yards farther and there Clarke’s Landing sits on the inlet of (gulp) Cuckold Creek looking out over the river from the high Patuxent bridge up past Asbury Commons.

We arrived at a slow time, with lots people home bailing out their houses and surveying the damage, so Michael and I had our choice of seats outside on the large patio. We picked a table right on the water. That’s not a floating dock. The water was over it earlier.

Michael ordered the rockfish gyro, blackened.

That’s an Old Bay dusting on the fries

I thought about getting a burger with bacon and a fried egg, one of my favorite combinations, but in the end ordered a rockfish bites basket.  

That’s a blue cheese sauce above the cole slaw, and there’s the container of hot sauce that I promptly spilled.

Michael and I bit into the food and we both had the same reaction: The fish was fresh and perfectly cooked. It was delicious. “Perfectly” is a bold term, and both of us could think of a better preparation of rockfish on this earth — this comes to mind — but “perfectly”was the word that sprang to each of our minds. It was really, really good. And Clarke’s Landing gave us both a lot of food. Michael was surprised to get a whole filet, and equally surprised and pleased to have it seriously blackened. His mother’s family is from New Orleans, so his expectations are high.

My rockfish also was a very generous serving of fish, and each of the bites had a crisp crust and an oh, so tender center. I may have eaten half of the fries, but no more than that, even though I’d skipped breakfast.  It was a lot of fish.

I returned the next week with Nancy. It was a cold day, so we sat in a spacious glassed in sun porch overlooking the water. Nancy ordered the blackened rockfish with potato salad and cole slaw

and I ordered a dozen oysters ($15!) and a bowl of cream of crab soup.

Nancy praised the rockfish and the very lightly dressed and very healthful-looking slaw. She noted that the potato salad was overdressed. I tried it and agreed, even though the dressing was quite tasty.

The oysters were not as cold and briny as the Double T oysters at The Reluctant Navigator, but they were fine. The soup, on the other hand, was delicious. It was rich, thick with crab, and very nicely seasoned. All in all, it was another fine meal.

Stoney’s Clarke’s Landing has been renovated recently, and is roomy and pleasant inside as well as out. Stoney’s is part of a small local chain. We used to go to the Stoney’s on Broome’s island, just down the creek from our good friends, Joyce and Wille King. The Broome’s Island location is closed now, and Clarke’s Landing is now the Stoney’s flagship.  This has been a tough time for restaurants, with the lockdowns and the stampede of people out of the work force. There are indications that the other Stoney’s have had uneven service and performance, but at Stoney’s Clarke’s Landing, both service and food exceeded our hopeful expectations. We definitely will return, and you should go there, too.

UPDATE: After another visit, I can add that you need to order the green beans — very good Southern style green beans. They’re great.

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