Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Summer 2021 - 26

w w w . B E R K SB A R .o r g
CRAB CAKES AND
BARSTOOLS
By Susan N. Denaro, Esquire
T
here's that moment in time when we realize we're becoming
more like our parents than we might want to admit. Exactly 10
years ago, in the Summer of 2011, I wrote my first food review
for The Barrister. It focused on crab cakes because I knew everyone had
an opinion on where to find the best in Berks County. In the review, I
recalled how my parents and their friends would regularly discuss which
local establishments had the best crab cakes and anytime they heard of a
new place that made good ones with no " filler " , they would flock there to
judge for themselves.
I described in that first review how, as a teenager, I never understood
their crab cake obsession until one night in the early 1990's, while dining
at the original Dans Restaurant, I ordered the crab cakes with tropical
tartar sauce, and I finally understood; that night my own crab cake
obsession began.
Now that I'm about the same age as my parents were in the 1990s,
it has dawned on me that perhaps I am becoming more like them
with each passing year than I previously understood: I now talk about
where the best crab cakes can be found with my friends and we make
reservations to not just go to dinner, but to meet for crab cakes.
During lockdown, I found I was really missing all things crab
because I don't cook shellfish in the house due to my spouse's allergy.
To placate me, on Mother's Day 2020, my family carried in dinner of
the lump crab cake from Willoughby's on Park, 305 North Park Road,
Wyomissing. It was lovely and featured the large lumps of top-quality,
succulent, crab meat bound only by a silky Béarnaise sauce. It is such a
large serving that it's my preferred crab cake during the fall and winter
months when I want massive amounts of comfort food to help me
hibernate better.
All through the dark days of COVID-19, I longed to be back at
my " happy place " , Dans at Green Hills, enjoying their lump cakes that
are still, all these years later, my preferred place for crab cakes in the
spring and summer. When I want a lighter version; I order the appetizer
serving of a single crab cake rather than the entrée version, which comes
with two and heavier sides.
On the first warmish night this spring we sat, fully vaccinated, by a
Dans at Green Hills
2444 Morgantown Rd,
Reading, PA 19607
dansatgreenhills.com
26 | Berks Barrister
heater on Dans patio and felt like we were getting our lives back. I had
a properly chilled Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc close at hand and a pillowy
tall crab cake in front of me. That crisp New Zealand white, with its
melon and citrus notes, has the right level of acidity to cut through the
sweetness of the crab appetizer, regardless of its seasonal topping. This
seasonal crab cake was topped with fresh fennel carefully shaved on a
mandolin and I was in heaven. Cutting into its evenly browned crust, I
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Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Summer 2021

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