Dinner at Jake’s

We called Ben. He suggested Lucy’s Table. Lucy’s is closed Sundays, so we headed for a highly touted fresh seafood place, Jake’s Famous Crawfish. At Jake’s my laziness cost me. Beth and I are Dungeness crab fans – in the fanatic sense of the word – and they are in season. She ordered a whole crab. I ordered a Crab Louis, plenty of meat, no labor involved breaking into a crustacean. In my defense the choice was also influenced by a desire for lettuce. We had earlier had lunch at a Chinese restaurant near Reed College (a park like place that I’ve heard nothing but good things about all my life). There were several luncheon specials and I went for shrimp lo mein. The lo mein was tasty, and they served it with hot and sour soup, egg roll, fried wontons, and a hefty serving of pork fried rice. At $5.95 a plate, we hadn’t expected such bounty so we also ordered up an appetizer of crab puffs. Plenty of fried food, plenty of carbohydrates, generous fat and protein allowances, but the meal was short on leafy greens – which brings me back toward Jake’s, our dinner destination.

I had my first crab louis at a little diner on the square in Concord, California in 1964. Dave Brubeck was still kicking and serving up white folks jazz in those good old days. The salad comprised a generous helping of dungeness crab on a bed of fresh lettuce, slices of cucumber, fresh tomato wedges, a hard boiled egg halved and a straight-forward thousand island dressing that probably came straight out of a bottle. I’ve had the same salad all over the Bay Area and it’s simply the best.

Imagine my disappointment last night when my salad was served and they’d stylized the dressing with the addition of cumin. I suffered a classic case of menu envy as I watched Beth crack her crab and dip the meaty chunks in butter and savor every bite. To her credit, she shared a few bites with me, and to ease the burden of this disappointing review, one should be aware that Jake’s had served us the best fried calamari appetizers I’ve ever eaten before the disappointment of the Crab Louis. They served them with dipping sauces that included an oddly sweet pepper and marmalade decoction. And I had a cup of the best new England clam chowder I’ve ever tasted. Out of reflex I asked the waiter for Tabasco sauce, but I didn’t even open the bottle because I didn’t want to spoil a single smoky creamy meaty bite of that chowder.