Bring a Big Hammer to Dinner

A group of well-dressed Long Beach Marina folks, wearing silly lobster-print bibs, gleefully attacked a pile of steamed crabs with wooden mallets--just an everyday scene at the Crab Pot, a former Chart House recently converted to resemble a breezy oceanfront shack.

But this American eating ritual struck my European guests as impossibly bizarre. Later that evening, my German friend actually called her mother in Bonn to tell her about it. “Mutti,” she cried, “can you believe it? I just ate dinner with a hammer!”

Fresh crab in the shell is nothing new in the Southland, to be sure. Richard Nixon was a regular at the Crab Cooker in Newport Beach, and the local landscape is dotted with Chinese, Japanese and California-style restaurants where live crustaceans outnumber customers at least 10 to 1.

But the Crab Pot puts a slightly different spin on what we call a shore dinner back East. It specializes in gigantic meals, which it calls “seafeasts.” They’re easily big enough for two or more hungry eaters.

What transpires, essentially, is this: Waiters cover your table with butcher paper. Then you order, and they bring you a huge, gleaming, stainless steel bowl literally brimming with food. They dump the whole shebang right in front of you in one enormous, steaming pile. If you’re not prepared for the avalanche of protein, it’s rather a jolt.

In the simplest dinner, called the Cove, you get steamed clams, Penn Cove mussels, shrimp in the shell, bite-sized chunks of andouille sausage, corn on the cob and red potatoes in their jackets. For a little extra, the Westport adds Dungeness and snow crab to your feast.

The Downeastern is the real blowout, because half a Maine lobster is included along with everything else. Whatever you order, you’ll need a lobster fisherman’s appetite to eat your way through any of these feasts, all of which are served with drawn butter and first-rate homemade tartar sauce.

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The seafood is fresh and delicious, but I have one small objection: An order seems to be steamed as a unit, but different foods do require different steaming times, and occasionally a few of the components suffer. I like the shrimp in the shell, for instance, but on one occasion they came to the table mushy. The corn on the cob never seems to be cooked long enough; the ears taste practically raw.

Fortunately, these are minor objections. All the crabs I’ve tried here were cooked just right. The Dungeness crab was fresh and sweet, and even the troublesome Alaskan king crab, available a la carte, flaked out of the shell as if by magic.

This is also quite an attractive place. A fishing boat is suspended from the ceiling smack in the middle of the dining room, complete with a hand-carved replica of an ancient mariner displaying his daily catch as he stands in the boat. Next to the kitchen, there is a long ice-filled trough stocked with salmon, lobsters, several types of crabs, oysters and other shellfish. On sunny days, which should be more frequent now that El Nino is finally abating, the best tables are on the outdoor patio, facing the boat slips.

There is much to eat besides the seafeasts. The starter menu features a well-stocked white clam chowder and a smooth smoked salmon mousse made with cream cheese and fresh dill. Seafood and chips come in big piles, too. The best choice here would be the Cap’n Combination, a large platter of fried oysters, salmon, clams and shrimp.

The mesquite-broiled salmon and Canadian halibut are both fresh and fine. For landlubbers, there’s a lean, tender one-pound New York steak, also prepared on the mesquite broiler. The one dish I really did not care for was the cioppino. The portion was certainly generous, but the tangy red broth was quite sour.

There are two desserts. One, called cake-in-a-pan, is also for two or more. It’s moist, bland yellow cake with a strawberry rhubarb filling, and the best thing about it is that it’s served piping hot.

The second dessert is mud pie, served for one but easily enough for six. It’s a crumb-crusted mocha ice cream cake topped with toasted walnuts, whipped cream and fudge sauce. The Europeans didn’t take a hammer to it, but when my German friend called her mother, she referred to it as “Godzilla.”

BE THERE

The Crab Pot, 215 Marina Drive, Long Beach, (562) 430-0272. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Parking in lot. Full bar. Takeout. All major cards. Dinner for two, food only, $30 to $60.

What to Get: Clam chowder, smoked salmon mousse, Cap’n Combination, the Cove, the Westport, whole Dungeness crab.