Foodie Friday: Squeaky’s Cafe at the Washington Tavern

May 5, 2023

Hannah Cechini,

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Comfort food is something we all savor. Warm, sometimes cheesy, delicious, and full of love. That’s exactly what Chef Ed Wilkes served up for Foodie Host Hannah Cechini and Foodie Photog Mike when they visited Squeaky’s Cafe at the Washington Tavern.

Can-Do Couple

Chef Ed and wife Orleana Wilkes have been feeding hungry residents and visitors to Princess Anne for years at Squeaky’s Cafe; now, they have a second location in the historic Washington Tavern.

Ever since, the can-do couple has been breathing new life into the local landmark. When you eat at Squeaky’s, you’re not just treated like family; you become a part of it.

“It’s been such a pleasure being here and working in this space. Just coming into the space, and getting a feel of the kitchen, and the history of it all,” said Chef Ed. “We get a lot of stories from a lot of guests, who’ve been coming in since they were children, and now they’re grown up. We have a lot of local support here, as well. So, we really love it here.”

Seafood Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Chef Ed whipped up seafood mac ‘n’ cheese for the Foodie team on their visit. The dish is topped with a towering, and delicious, Crisfield crab cake.

A little fun fact: Foodie Photog Mike was actually the inspiration for the dish. Last time the Foodie team visited Squeaky’s, Mike suggested adding a crab cake on top of their seafood mac ‘n’ cheese. Chef Ed said why not, added it to the menu, and the rest is history. He says it’s now one of their best-selling dishes.

The key is to keep the crab cake simple, says Chef Ed. “Jumbo lump crab meat. We have our cracker mixture here. All we’re going to do is add them together. Then, we already have the sauce here for our crab cake,” said Chef Ed. “It’s mayo, some mustard, a few other ingredients to give it more of an enhanced flavor. Everybody has their own recipe.”

As Chef Ed crafts the crab cake, and adds it to the dish, Hannah remarks, “That is a very tall crab cake… You’re just getting crab, and that’s what you want out of a crab cake, obviously.”

After Chef Ed loving places the crab cake in the oven to darken into a golden brown, he starts on the mac ‘n’ cheese.

“Once that [pan] heats up, we’re going to add our shrimp, our crab meat, and then we want to add some wine, and cream, and then we have some pre-made sauce,” said Chef Ed. “We get so many orders for it, that we have to basically prepare ahead of time.”

A generous handful of large shrimp are tossed into the pan, with a satisfying sizzle.

“I can already smell that wine cooking down,” said Hannah.

“Yes!” exclaimed Chef Ed. “You want all that to come together. A little salt and pepper there. A little creole sauce added to the dish.”

“We don’t measure cheese here.”

Chef Ed adds even more crab meat, and some white wine. And of course, what’s mac ‘n’ cheese, without cheese? Cheese sauce, and loving fistfuls of cheese are gradually added into the delicious-smelling pan.

“It’s already got the cheese pull and everything, and you haven’t even finished it off yet,” said Hannah.

Tender elbow macaroni, and even more crab meat and shrimp, are added in, before Chef Ed tops it all with the crab cake, and putting the dish back into the oven. You can probably guess the last couple of steps, before the dish is complete.

“As it comes out [of the oven], we add more cheese. You want to get that cheesy, cheesy, cheesy,” Chef Ed said with a laugh, before saying “I’m going to add a little bit more cheese to it.”

“Who measures cheese anyway?” asked Hannah. “It’s about the flavor, not the amount.”

“That’s our rule,” replied Chef Ed. “We don’t measure cheese here.”

Finally, the dish is topped with Squeaky’s Old Bay sauce.

“O-M-G,” said Hannah as they watched. “It just keeps getting better, and better, and better.”

Celebration of Seafood, a Load of Love, and a Monument to Mac ‘n’ Cheese

“You look at it, and you already know you’re getting a bang for your buck there. There’s a ton of shrimp in there, this crab cake is… big,” said Hannah as they prepared to take the first bite.

Bite taken.

“Oh my god,” said Hannah. “I can’t even find the words. It just makes you want to smile, because it’s warm, it’s got a nice little crunch from the top of the crab cake there. The cheese is delicious. There’s just the slightest hint of spice to it, too.”

Hannah admired the dish for the different forkfuls of flavor delivered with each bite, and the beautiful simplicity of the crab cake.

“Every time you go in, you’re going to get something a little different,” said Hannah. “The thing I love about this crab cake, is it’s just the crackers, it’s just the crab, and then it’s just the sauce that kind of binds it all together. It’s so simple, but it’s exactly what you want out of a crab cake, because crab cake is about the crab. There are so many little flavors, and I’m hunting around for all that flavor.”

When Foodie Photog Mike tried the dish, he was equally as enamored.

“It takes a subtle hand to really coax all that flavor out of blue crab, and chef did an amazing job,” said Mike. “So many shrimp. I’m like dodging shrimp just to get to the mac ‘n’ cheese. If you like shrimp, you’re not going to be disappointed.”

As Mike took his last bite, with a hearty “MMM!” he said, “Tastes like inspiration.”

Squeaky’s Cafe at Washington Tavern

Squeaky’s Cafe at Washington Tavern is located at 11784 Somerset Ave, Princess Anne, Md. You can call them at 410-621-5276. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.