Motorcycle Road Trip for Coastal Cuisine, Day 1

Our motorcycle culinary road trip began early on a Friday morning with breakfast at Hank's Place in Chadds Ford, PA. Hank's is a small, roadside restaurant located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA. Be advised, Hank's is popular with the locals and seating can be a bit tight.

Hank's Place has built its reputation on serving quality comfort food in generous portions. Their signature mushroom and cheese, three egg omelet is exceptional-- overflowing with fresh, Kennett Square shiitakes. The earthy mushrooms and sauteed onions lend a perfect balance to the decadent, creamy cheese melted inside. If you're extra hungry, try an order of the local favorite-- Scrapple. If you don't know, don't ask. Just enjoy.

Good food and friendly service is status quo at Hank's Place. Despite being crowded, service is quicker these days due to a recent expansion. Thanks to hearty appetites and an energetic waitress, we were back on the road with the fender pointing south by 7am.

We made great time and missed most of the traffic as we travelled down Route 13 toward Dover. We opted to skip Route 1 and took the more scenic route through Smyrna on Route 113. We rode through Lewes around 9am, then did some drive-by window shopping at the Rehoboth Outlet stores.

The desk agent at Victoria's Boardwalk Hotel noticed that we were travelling by motorcycle and allowed us to check into our room more than four hours early. Our ocean-front accommodations were top notch in every possible way. Pre-season room rates made our stay at Victoria's an even bigger bargain.

Victoria's Boardwalk Hotel's location directly on the boardwalk offers an unparalleled view of the ocean. The room's furnishings were elegant and the room spotless. It's hard to ask for more in a resort hotel.

After relaxing for a short time in our room, we hit the boardwalk. By mid-June and throughout the summer months, vacationing families seem to fill every available inch of space. Pre and post season, however, the Rehoboth boardwalk is an entirely different place. Crowds are virtually non-existent and the pace is leisurely.

We grabbed a couple birch beers, turned at Dolle's and walked the boardwalk from Rehoboth Avenue to the end and back. The ocean was relatively calm and the beach empty, save for a few diehards on boogie boards. Counted among Rehoboth's greatest treasures are the beautiful beaches, the clean ocean air and Dolle's salt water taffy. Over the course of an hour or so, we enjoyed our share of all three.

Friday Lunch: Seacrets, Ocean City, MD - Seacrets.com

We hit the road just after noon and arrived at Seacrets Bar and Grill in Ocean City, MD about 45 minutes later. A visit to Seacrets is probably the closest you can get to Jamaica without a passport and a visit to Negril. Forget chic-- Seacret's facade is strictly "shack". Enjoy a plate of jerk chicken and a cold Red Stripe while looking out over the Assawoman Bay, amid tropical plants and swaying palm trees.

We decided on a lunch of appetizers and started our meal with the Maryland crab soup which was a hearty and brightly flavored blend of tomato, vegetables and jumbo lump crab. The house specialty, jerk chicken is not to be missed. The meat is marinated for 48 hours in "de secret sauce", a flavorful mixture of pureed scallions, allspice, habanero pepper, sea salt and a hint of lime. Seacret's jerk chicken is served with a honey mustard dipping sauce, which is tasty-- but best skipped if you want to enjoy the true, authentic jerk flavor.

Due to its proximity to the ocean, Seacrets has the advantage of access to the freshest, locally caught yellow fin. We shared the tuna starter and found it just as described on the menu, "smoked to perfection". Seacrets tuna appetizer is served chilled with red onions, capers and a Dijon mustard sauce. For us, Seacrets is memorable for the great tasting jerk chicken, incredible view and the two ducks that walked past us in the restaurant while we were eating our meal.

After a slow-paced lunch, we headed down Coastal Highway toward the inlet and Ocean City boardwalk. As fans of roller coasters, we never miss a chance for another ride on Trimper's Tidal Wave. The triple loop roller coaster takes riders through all the usual thrills of twisted turns, hills and loops-- then stops and repeats the ride in reverse. How cool is that?

We also took a ride on Trimper's famous haunted house. It's a nostalgic classic that's been part of the Ocean City, MD boardwalk for nearly five decades. Trimper's haunted house was built in 1964 and is one of an ever dwindling number of "dark ride" attractions.

Riders are seated in individual cars shaped like antique coffins complete with the obligatory "Rest in Peace" send-off. The several minute long trip winds through such features as a spinning vortex and a near collision with an oncoming train. Trimper's haunted house offers the opportunity to experience a rare, antique dark ride-- and maybe steal a kiss or two with your special someone in the darkness.

Outside the haunted house, the boardwalk is alive. Many of the seaside shops are open on the weekends, long before the season gets into full swing. Don't miss the Ocean Gallery and their truly wild, eclectic art collection.

You'll also find no shortage of souvenir shops, arcades and snack stands. Be on the lookout for those offering fresh-squeezed lemonade. It's the real deal and somehow, like all of the burgers, fries and pork roll sandwiches sold on the boardwalk, always seems to taste even better when enjoyed along with ocean views and breezes.

We left the Ocean City, Maryland boardwalk around 4pm and headed back up Coastal Highway towards Fenwick Island. Our next destination was the Seaside Country Store. While the store offers an array of clothes, collectibles and specialty food items, the sole reason for our visit was to acquire what is arguably the best fudge to be found anywhere. Seaside Country Store offers dozens of flavors, but the chocolate with marshmallow and peanut butter fudge were our choices du jour-- and the perfect snack for later, back in the hotel room.

Friday Dinner: Catch 54, Fenwick Island, DE - Catch54.com

We explored the back roads bayside for more than an hour before stopping at Catch 54. The tastefully decorated, nautically themed restaurant is on Route 52, just off Coastal Highway on the site of the former Shark's Cove restaurant. With commanding views of the bay, the pastel sunsets at Catch 54 are absolutely amazing.

Our starters consisted of a bowl of creamy salmon corn chowder and the buffalo fried oysters. My dining companion described her soup as "rich, thick and perfectly seasoned". Catch 54's plump, golden brown, fried oysters appetizer offers a unique twist on buffalo wings, fittingly accented with an excellent, creamy blue cheese dressing. The pickled vegetables though, seemed more like an afterthought than an integral component of the dish.

For dinner, we both chose the baked jumbo lump crab cakes. The flavor was balanced with the delicate crabmeat prominent and not overwhelmed by spices or fillers. The crab cakes were served with crisp and flavorful green beans and what tasted like parmesan mashed potatoes, although the menu description of "mashed potatoes" made no such claim. The accompanying tartar sauce had a decent, mild flavor, but as I preferred to taste crab and not mayo, my Chesapeake twins were consumed sans sauce.

Dinner at Catch 54 can best be summed up as good food served bayside with no extra charge for the incredible views. After our meal, we headed back to Rehoboth, parked the bike and went down onto the beach for a walk along the water's edge. An hour later, we were back in our room, watching TV and snacking on the fudge from Seaside Country Store.

With refreshing, nighttime ocean air filling the room, we went online and planned the next leg of our journey. We decided that a combination boat ride-bike ride would be a great finish to our road trip and reserved our spot on the Cape May-Lewes ferry for the following day. The cost for two adults and a motorcycle to cross from Delaware to New Jersey was $39 one-way.

Read Day 2 of our Motorcycle Roadtrip for Coastal Cuisine which includes fine dining on the Rehoboth boardwalk, a rushed lunch in Lewes, loading the bike onto a ferry and an incredible bowl of chowder on the 146-foot Schooner America in Cape May, New Jersey.