Restaurants in Havre de Grace

The Havre de Grace Seafood Festival has been showcasing seafood, locally made products, and the scenic seaside at Havre de Grace for 30 years. Festival-goers can peruse the extensive selection of oceanic eats and sample East Coast classics such as crab cakes and clam chowder, ideal for quelling hunger as well as ongoing West Coast feuds. The festival hosts nearly a hundred local arts and crafts and commercial vendors, who will be selling a bevy of precious objects, such as jewelry, clothing, pottery, and sculpture. Let the crisp bay air ruffle your tresses while you check out the festival's live music, which encourages the twisting of torsos and the coordinated shuffling of feet or flopping of mer-tails.

After filling Baltimore’s Little Italy with the aroma of freshly baked bread, Italian-born baker and chef Pasquale “Patsy” Chiapparelli transformed his dough into pizzas and turned the bakery into an Italian restaurant in 1938. Pasquale passed on the restaurant gene to future generations–today his grandson Bryan Chiapparelli portions out old country staples at Pasquale's Italian Grille.

The chefs make many of their dishes from scratch, including the bolognese sauce that blankets the gnocchi, the meatballs in the meatball-and-cheese sub, and the raviolis stuffed with shrimp, crab, and scallops.

In 1957, while in the twilight of their careers as Baltimore Colts in the burgeoning NFL, Alan Ameche and Captain Gino Marchetti opened up the first Gino's with their pal, Louis C. Fischer. Through the years, the crew helped innovate the restaurant industry, especially with the Gino's Giant burger in 1966, whose triple-decker design arguably went on to inspire the multipatty burgers of other national fast-food chains. Ahead of their time, the team later cobranded with Kentucky Fried Chicken to bolster their menu and widen their appeal to the public before Gino's was acquired by the Roy Rogers brand in 1982, leaving many nostalgic for one of the fast-food industry's originals.

It wasn't until 2009, when Tom called up Gino to pose the idea of bringing Gino's back, that fans of the eatery could begin to quell their well-documented nostalgia in anticipation of enjoying Gino’s special recipes once again. Today, the menu boasts off-the-grill burgers, real ice-cream shakes, and the return of the Gino's Giant, slathered in a secret sauce that was kept secret all these years by hiding it inside a modern-day football.

From a kitchen inside the Clarion Hotel, executive chef Jeff Kirby concocts a diverse spread of southwestern-influenced dishes from sandwiches and Tex-Mex favorites to tender, perfectly cooked steaks. Kirby and company keep the Maryland crab soup and other crowd-pleasing dishes on the menu, but conceive new menu additions and daily specials to keep diners on their toes and to prevent cooking utensils from dulling due to complacency.