Gary & Dell’s: a Maryland Mosaic of Crab & Pad Thai

Written By Lisa Breslin

About five miles up Littlestown Pike – as you drive from Westminster toward Pennsylvania -you can find an all-you-can eat crab house called Gary and Dell’s that offers a unique blend of American and Thai cuisine.

Gary and Dell’s is a place where customers boast about eating as many as 20 crabs while still paying the same price as friends who were content with six and the all-you-can-eat salad bar and fried chicken. Refills on drinks like sweet tea and soda are free.

It is a place where brown paper is rolled out for tablecloths on every table. Plastic crabs, fishing nets, oars and signs boasting about the Peanut Butter Pie hang above the booths. In addition, it is also a great example of the American cultural mosaic. Paper fans hang next to the plastic crabs and oars, and a Thai statue welcomes customers to the lobby.

A big screen television, which usually plays news or sports, spans one corner of the room. Across the floor is a boat-shaped salad bar filled with items like watermelon slices, peaches, cottage cheese, green bean salad, macaroni salad, egg salad, lettuce and salad fixings.
A pot of Maryland crab soup is always steaming among the all-you-can-eat specials. And Thai coffee and tea are offered, too.
“It’s the place to have a family picnic inside,” said George David Brown (“Brownie”), who has worked as a chef at Gary and Dell’s for more than 14 years.

Long-time customers still relish being in a place where they can whap and pick crabs for hours while they talk to family and friends. And since the place was purchased in 2001 by JC and Anna Chanyasulkit, it is one of the few places in Carroll County that offers such Thai cuisine as Mussamun Curry (a beef or chicken stew flavored with a Thai Indian curry paste), Siam Fried Rice (stir-fried rice with egg, carrots, peas, onion and a special Thai sauce) and Pad Thai (stir-fried shrimp with rice noodles, peanuts, bean sprouts, spring onions and tamarind sauce).

Employees often use nicknames rather than full names: “Brownie” (George David Brown, chef) “Minteen” (Methintown Sawdviphachai, dining room manager), “Sam” (Somsak Tangtrongwan, bartender, purchaser), “Bon” (Vatana Born, crab steamer), and “Mama” (Dell Riley, former owner).

The restaurant’s namesakes, Gary and Dell Riley, are still around. Though they enjoy retirement during the cold months at their Daytona, Florida home, at least six months out of the year they are as connected to the crab business as Old Bay and paper towels.

Dell greets customers while she pours refills or helps clear tables. Gary steams crabs with Bon downstairs and helps him load them onto the dumbwaiter for journey up one flight to the wait staff.

On a busy night it is not uncommon for 50 bushels of steamed crabs (approximately 3,000 crabs) to travel up that dumbwaiter. Gary and Dell’s crabs come from Maryland when they are plentiful and North Carolina or Texas when they are not. The ideal crab, said Brownie, is “meaty, sweet, tender, and juicy.”

By steaming and loading that many crabs together, Gary and Bon have formed a business partnership and a friendship that is unshakable. They work and play hard together

One night when crabs were getting low, Gary jumped into his car, drove to the Bay Bridge to meet the crab truck from Tilghman Island and then hauled several bushels back to the restaurant. Not a big deal. In turn, Bon and his family have joined Gary and Dell at their Florida home. Gary and Bon also enjoy Atlantic City and fishing trips together

The 20 employees at Gary and Dell’s hurdle language and cultural barriers to work as one family. Customers are considered family, too.

“It’s the customers who make my job worthwhile,” said Ashley Stewart, who began bussing tables and is now a waitress at Gary and Dell’s. “Chris and Richard come in on Tuesday, Barb and Matt are regulars, and I have a photo on my cell phone of one guy who ate 30 crabs. Everyone is so friendly.”

Over the years, politicians have put on fundraisers in the restaurant’s large banquet room, which comfortably seats approximately 175 customers.

“I can’t say enough about the people who work at Gary and Dell’s – or the food,” said Nancy Stocksdale, who has held fundraisers that have lured as any as 200 people to Gary and Dell’s for more than seven years.

At times, the entire restaurant is open for invitation-only crab dinners sponsored by local fire companies or businesses that want to say thanks to employees or loyal customers.

Companies that have played host to 100 to 250 guest appreciation banquets include CJ Miller and Bowman R.D. & Sons.

“Every other year for about five years we filled up the whole place with dairy feed customers,” said Dirk Bowman, co-owner of Bowman’s. “Every time the crab feed came around, everybody talked about it – the group kept getting larger a – larger than the place. But it was fun.”

JC and Anna are ultimately in charge of ensuring that the business runs smoothly. And they are always running.

In addition to working full-time jobs – JC works at the Shady Grove Post Office in Germantown and Anna is a meat cutter at the local Giant – the couple not only owns Gary and Dell’s, but also a similar restaurant called Lu and John’s in Mt. Airy, MD.

A typical day for JC and Anna begins at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and may not end until 12:30 p.m. or 1 a.m., and JC estimates that they work between 100 and 120 hours a week.

Married for 35 years, JC and Anna are quietly proud of their two daughters: Chris, who is in the political science PhD program at Northeastern University, and June, a recent Georgetown graduate who works at Boston University Hospital.

“We do this for them,” said JC, “and for our loyal customers.”

The Chanyasulkits take pride in providing employment for local residents – and in accommodating work schedules around students’ studies or employees’ family time.

“God has blessed me with opportunities – I want to help others,” said JC.

From Christmas until February 1, Gary and Dell’s closes for maintenance – and to give the employees some well-earned time off.

“As soon as the doors open, we’re here,” said Fred Gebhart as he cracked open his sixth crab. Fred, his wife, Diane, his daughter, Samantha, and daughter and son-in-law, Angie and Jared Mays, confess that they are crab addicts. They visit Gary and Dell’s at least once a week.

“I love the stuffed flounder and now the Thai food, but we are addicted to crabs,” said Angie.