Pusser's Caribbean Grille…

Where the restaurant (Pusser's Caribbean Grille in Annapolis) we visited after our day in Washington was located (at the palm I think). Here is the menu.

Yes, the restaurant laid at the waterfront and had a really outstanding view! It was a magical evening.

On its homesite it stands:

“Welcome to Pusser's Caribbean Grille, a premier Annapolis restaurant, bar and retail store on the waterfront. It's the only ‘true’ waterfront restaurant in Annapolis! This unique restaurant offers a 'taste of the real Caribbean' featuring unique, high quality, moderately priced, and freshly prepared Caribbean cuisine, along with taste-tempting Annapolitan favorites, at an exclusive dockside location on ‘Ego Alley,’ in the heart of downtown./…/

With its tropical, nautical décor and outstanding view of the harbor, Pusser's is a favorite of visitors and locals alike.”

(Steve's addition--10-5-2008):

For many of us here in the US (including myself) it's hard to think of a story more powerful than that told in the John Huston-directed movie featuring Hepburn and Bogart, from the C.S. Forester novel, “African Queen”. I don't think any of us really cared that much about the WW I-era conflict of colonial interests that existed then between the German and British empires. But being stuck deep in an African rain forest with a broken boat propeller and no way to weld a piece back on—that we can relate to! Even if we've never been on a boat, which many of us haven't. I hope I never forget how it was actually Hepburn's naiveté about welding that saved them that time really, or at least that combined with her amazing optimism and unending faith and trust in her companion—whom in my opinion she'd already seemingly tried to ruin completely by pouring his booze overboard in a fit of righteousness about a day earlier. Bogie had been so happy, dancing around on his deck that night before, master of his own destiny and captain of his ship! So what if he was dirty, smelly, unshaven and unfit for decent company? We Americans have rights, and even though Bogie was actually playing the part of a Canadian (and even though I didn't know he wasn't an American until I just now checked Wikipedia!) the right to be filthy disgusting slobs if we want to is right there in our Constitution somewhere, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, even though booze is not a big part of my own lifestyle, I don't believe I'd ever felt so outraged or personally violated, even, as when I saw Kate dumping Bogart's stash. Good thing for her that she was a girl, is all I can say! But of course everything worked out all right, finally, Hepburn redeeming herself by just showing what an actually pretty great person she was despite her flaws, the rest of the trip. I think probably the main points I took from the story were that life can truly be almost impossible, that Bogart couldn't possibly have survived the trip without Katherine (something difficult to swallow for us free and independent types, but undeniable!), and that being in love with somebody might just be about the best part of being alive that can possibly be, the part in fact that might just make the rest of it worth it.

In any case: Pusser's Annapolis Pub and Restaurant was fantastic. I've forgotten what we ordered but I remember the plates were overflowing with really great stuff. One of us ordered Caribbean Blackened Mahi-Mahi, I'm pretty sure: “Fillet of fresh Atlantic Mahi dredged with eastern Caribbean blackening spice and seared in the cast iron skillet. Accompanied by steamed vegetables and rice with black bean sauce and garnished with mango corn relish.” Otherwise, I have a hard time believing that crabs weren't involved as well. When I get there again I'll make sure they are, because to me that's what Maryland is about, really; crabs cooked in Old Bay seasoning, which was invented there just years before The African Queen was released. I experienced that once, in about 1958: crabs cooking in large black kettles on the beach there, the seasoning could be smelled for probably hundreds of yards.

But here's the thing: besides a shop that sells sportswear, hats and accessories, Pusser's has a 200 print photo gallery and a collection of ship replicas—including one that so far as I'm concerned is no replica at all. It's the actual stunt double—twelve or fourteen feet long—that was used in the film African Queen during the dangerous rapids shots. You can walk over and touch it! I didn't, at first, because once I realized what it was it stopped me in my tracks, stunned, every bit as much as if I'd just bumped into Lauren Bacall at age twenty, wondering coolly if I ever was bit by a dead bee. And I guess you can tell I'm a landlubber since I just called a boat 'it', four times, instead of 'she'. (Or maybe I'm just a crafty pirate aimin' to avoid detection on the Internet! Arrrggh!)

So—I like to consider myself anything but superstitious. Still sometimes it seems like there really is “symbolism” or something out there, going on. I can't quite name it. I guess it would belong in the same department as déjà vu. The dinner was great there, but seeing the African Queen is something I'll never forget.