Restaurants

What was once a down-on-its-heels restaurant—complete with thin carpeting, peeling paint, and cramped tables—that drew crowds seeking its famous saucer-sized crab cakes and melt-in-your-mouth beef has been transformed into a contemporary (leaning toward high-end) establishment complete with polished wood, roomy tables, flat-screen TVs, and a two-story sports bar.

“I have one customer who’d always come here and he’d take home crab cakes,” says Kessler. “Since the renovation, he jokes and says, ‘Now I can bring my wife here, it’s so beautiful.’”

Not that G&M needed a facelift to maintain its line-out-the-door business. Ever since the early 1990s, when the restaurant was transformed from a pizza parlor into a seafood establishment, customers have sat in cars in the parking lot, waiting for the clock to strike 11 a.m. and the dining-room doors to open.

Even though carryout—which accounts for 50 percent of G&M’s business—starts at 10 a.m., there are generally at least a few people milling about outside well before the doors are unlocked.

What you see at this restaurant, though, is only part of the story. G&M has so many fans around the country—including one-time residents who’ve since moved from the area and others who’ve merely heard of the place’s reputation—that it now boasts a booming mail-order business.

Why? It’s simple.

“We serve quality,” explains co-owner John Zoulis, who partnered with George Ieromonahos to buy the restaurant in 1993.

“That’s the big secret. Everything is quality, quality, quality.”

Serving thousands of pounds of crab a week, a variety of pastas, succulent beef, specially created desserts, and more, Zoulis says nothing is taken for granted.

To wit, when crab or other food is delivered, the chef always insists on sampling it for quality. If it’s sub-par, it goes back.

“We are really tough,” admits Zoulis, who declines to share the cost of the recent renovation.

“We don’t go with the cheap stuff. If a sample isn’t right, I tell them we serve 6,000 pounds of crab a week and we don’t have time to go through every bit. Take it back and bring me the quality we paid for.”

That attention to quality doesn’t go unnoticed by customers, either. In fact, longtime patron Patty Endler of Laurel was so taken with the excellence of the food and service at G&M that she started a Facebook page so others could join her in celebrating the place.

Endler, who grew up in Jessup, discovered the restaurant some years ago when co-workers took her there for crab cakes. She quickly became a regular, introducing her DC-based parents and far-flung relatives and friends to its delights.

“My sister lives in Texas, and when she flies back up here, our first stop is always G&M,” says Endler. “Everyone knows the reward for flying into BWI is that you get to go to G&M.”

And what a reward it is.

The crab cakes—made from a secret recipe—are very lightly breaded and packed with high-quality meat. Each one is moist outside, lightly broiled inside, and bursting with extra-fresh flavor.

Although about 90 percent of G&M’s customers order the crustacean-filled specialty of the house, they have nothing but praise for the restaurant’s equally succulent jumbo shrimp, fresh clams, chops, steaks, Greek and Italian dishes, and homemade soups.

And sugar fiends aren’t forgotten, either: The restaurant takes its sweets as seriously as its savories, employing a pastry chef who ensures daily offerings of decadent cannoli, moist carrot cake, and more (with an emphasis on the word more).

“Don’t they look fake?” exclaims a server when a guest stares, amazed, at the massive dessert portions weighing down a tray.

It’s that kind of relaxed joking—along with the terrific food—that G&M is all about. And despite its impressive renovation, the place still has a casual, welcoming atmosphere, one where servers happily stop to chat with guests, whether they’re area residents, folks in town for the day, or even the occasional NFL star or other celebrity.

“We are here for everybody,” shrugs Zoulis, downplaying news that Steven Spielberg, Ben Stein, Ludacris, and other A-Listers are fans of G&M.

“We want to keep all of our customers happy all of the time. We’re never going to relax.”

G&M Restaurant & Lounge is located at 804 Hammonds Ferry Road in Linthicum Heights. The dining room is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; carryout is available daily from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, call 410-636-1777 or visit www.gandmcrabcakes.com.