The humble crab has been a staple of Maryland’s food scene and culture for hundreds of years—only eight U.S. states have a designated state crustacean, and the blue crab is Maryland’s. Crabs are an important export for the state because the Chesapeake Bay provides an ideal environment for them, according to the Maryland State Archives.
As such, trying a dish made with Maryland crabs is a popular bucket list item for tourists vacationing in the state. And while there are plenty of big seafood restaurants popular with tourists, Ocean Pride in Lutherville is a place that both tourists and locals swear by.
With the awards of “Baltimore’s Best Crabs” and “Maryland’s Top Places to Eat Steamed Crabs” under its belt, Ocean Pride has been serving up seasonal seafood dishes since its founding in 1971. The York Road building, emblazoned with a giant painting of a crab on one of its sides, is a popular spot for rockfish, oysters and, of course, blue crabs.
“We’ve been here so long that we’ve had parents come in and work for us, and their kids grow up and they work for us,” says Ricky Bielski, one of Ocean Pride’s two owners. “My daughter just got married three months ago, and she married a guy she met working here while she was a hostess and he was a busboy.”
Ricky Bielski and his brother, Randy Bielski, started working at Ocean Pride shortly after it opened under its original owner, Robert Curreri. Curreri was a family friend, and secured them summer jobs there while they were in high school. The Bielski brothers left in 1980, but after several years managing other restaurants, including the Charles Village Pub and the Bagel Works franchise, they returned in 2004 and purchased Ocean Pride.
The restaurant is largely family run—Randy Bielski’s daughter, Katie Merson, serves as its general manager.
“I’ve worked at all three [Bagel Works] locations, and several other restaurants, but Ocean Pride is my favorite so far,” Merson says.
Ocean Pride resides in a building that used to be an old house, so the Bielskis have put a lot of work into renovating and refurbishing it. They expanded its bar, which occupies the right side of the restaurant.
Most recently, they started work on a built-in outdoor patio, which is currently under construction. Merson estimates that Ocean Pride had a tent in its parking lot for outdoor dining for the past 14 or 15 years, but its popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic was what made them decide to install a permanent outdoor seating area.
Ocean Pride’s menu changes about every six months, depending on what seafood is in season. But the restaurant sees the bulk of its activity during summer, while blue crabs and soft-shell crabs are in season.
“The main change is when soft-shells go out of season, and when fried oysters go back into season,” Merson explains.
A lot has changed about Ocean Pride over the years, but one thing remains the same: Its crab dishes are far and away its most popular offerings. The restaurant brings in fresh live crabs every day, often from local fishermen. These are steamed at the on-site boiler system.
Crabcakes are always popular, and for crab dinners, the larger the crab, the better.
But Ricky Bielski notes that while crab has always been popular, the way people eat it has changed—something they’ve had to adapt to over the years.
“People don’t eat crab the way they used to, I guess because of the price. Back in the day, you would get two couples come in and order two to three dozen crabs, and just sit there and eat them all,” he says. “Now, it’s more like a dozen between four people, and they’re more interested in appetizers and shareable plates.”
So Ocean Pride does not only limit itself to seafood, also offering bar food. Its buffalo wings are especially popular. And in some ways, it combines those two specialties, like with the Crab Pretzel—a jumbo soft pretzel heaped with crab dip.
Ocean Pride’s Lutherville location is not the only place people can get their signature dishes, though. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they opened a food truck to bring their food to local events.
“We did a food truck, and [Katie] opened an outdoor bar in the back,” Randy Bielski says. “She would sell Orange Crushes and Grapefruit Crushes by the quart, and people would just drive up to our driveway.”
They also do a catering service, bringing crab feasts to public and private events as far away as Virginia and Pennsylvania.
“We don’t have as much press and social media presence as a lot of places get, but we hold our own. The catering service helps us get our name out to different places,” Merson notes. “So when people come to Maryland, they think to come to us.”
Randy Bielski adds that he’s proud of the restaurant’s status as a local institution, and the community that it’s built over the course of over 50 years.
“We have a huge following of regulars that come in,” he says. “Everybody knows everybody, and they know they can always come here and have somebody to talk to.”
