⚓Crab Depot turns 30 this month!
The Tale of 2 Captains
What served as a perfect ending to a day boating and water skiing on the Severn River, freshly steamed blue crabs from the local crab house meant one thing for Captain James Norton, a time gathered around the picnic table with Nana and crew. Yes, a family event, a blue crab feast brought pride in James’s eyes as he demonstrated the removing of the top carapace and scraping away the inedible parts of the blue crab. The process was exact and even his mother, Nana, sat in attention for the lesson. The love of the feast took James on a dream of supplying a fresh catch to his fellow Baltimore Crab Fans. Since he had many years in the restaurant business for the Holiday Inns, he decided to start his own restaurant as a crab house with the finest blue crabs, salads, soups, and crab cake recipes. In fact, many of these recipes were borrowed from Nana or Evelyn, his mother. Time honored, trusted, and traditional, these recipes, coupled with his Vice President of Food and Beverage days for the Holiday Inns, making a crab house like no other. This first captain of The Crab Depot raised the Maryland flags on the Ritchie Highway crab house back in 1995. 
Each year passed with renewed fervor to keep those crab feasts true to the early day’s excitement around the picnic table. Captain James teamed up with crabbers from the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico to ensure 12 months of the year, he had the finest crabs. In fact, The Crab Depot received a rightful place as a go-to spot for authentic steamed blue crabs and sides. Once the calendar turned to January 2007, however, Captain James’s health started to turn for the worse and he searched out another experienced restaurant entrepreneur to take over the “ship.” Captain Greg Daley, well versed in hospitality and seafood gladly purchased The Crab Depot and promised Captain James to continue the Blue Crab Legacy.
With a renewed drive to reach surrounding communities, even to Ocean City, Captain Greg opened multiple brands connected to The Crab Depot in order to reach a wider market of blue crab fans. Crabcatering.com for bringing the steamers to your venue and Mid-Atlantic Crab Co. that ships to all 50 states accompanied The Crab Depot Crab House, which now also developed a website to ship to all 50 states. The business grew as the internet became a part of every American’s daily life. Captain Greg nurtured his son Max to accompany him with the demands of the business growth. Surrounding businesses have teamed up with Greg’s desire to offer the finest seafood on a national level. The company has matured into a business that supports a resilient, hardworking crew and serves as a “home” to Pasadena and surrounding communities by holding crab feast fundraisers for local charities. The calendar has finally turned to November of 2025, marking 30 years since the first day of The Crab Depot. Captain Greg shares how he keeps his crew in check each day to deliver the finest Chesapeake Bay and beyond seafood. He smiles, scans over the fleet of crab trucks and says, “Let’s meet up again today to see how we can do it even better.” And so, the steamers turn up, and the crab smells continue to bellow from The Crab Depot’s crab house. 
