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| Destiny and Buddy Christopher show off some of the restaurant's specialities -homemade rolls and prime rib. PHOTO BY CHRIS POLk Destiny's Posted: Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:45 am | Updated: 9:47 am, Mon Jan 18, 2010. By CHRIS KNAUSS Business Editor ST. MICHAELS Many fans of Old Salty's on Hooper Island aren't traveling as far these days for a taste of real Eastern Shore cooking. One of the former owners of the famous backwater eatery has opened a similar restaurant closer to a town. Destiny's restaurant quietly opened last May at 1216 S. Talbot St. (St. Michaels Road) where a waterfront view is not the top attraction. Buddy Christopher's menu is loaded with fresh seafood entrees, meat dishes, salads, soups, and desserts, giving residents and tourists a reason to park before they reach the town proper. Destiny's is family run and family friendly. Christopher said he "caught the cooking bug" as a kid, flipping burgers on the grill at Christopher's Grocery in Cambridge, which was owned by his grandparents. He has enjoyed cooking ever since. He worked for a while at Old Salty's, originally owned and operated by his aunt and uncle, and eventually became a co-owner there before retiring briefly to be "Mr. Mom." "I was looking for something closer to home," said Christopher, a Trappe resident. "I actually looked for two years to find a place. I was Mr. Mom for two years and one day I was riding through St. Michaels and happened to see a sign up here that the place was available. It looked like a good place to start, plenty of parking." The restaurant is named after Christopher's 11-year-old daughter, a fixture at the site when she's not in school. "She gets a huge kick out of a restaurant with her name on it," said Christopher. "She loves to cook, too. She wants to be a pastry chef. She walks around in chef clothes and she hands out the rolls. We make homemade biscuits and yeast rolls every day. She does the desserts, too." Christopher's sister, Wendy Shertenlieb, is the restaurant's manager. His sons, Howard III and Corbin, help out when available, and his father, Howard, works at the restaurant on weekends. "My father works full time at Airpax, but he works here Friday, Saturdays and Sundays beside me in the kitchen. He actually does the charbroiler and anything that involved sauteeing. It's a family thing. He and I, we just love being together, we just hang out." Destiny's large seafood selection offers entrees like fried butterfly shrimp, stuffed flounder, sea scallops and chicken Chesapeake, which is grilled chicken tenderloin topped with crab imperial and broiled. "The Destiny" features steamed shrimp, mussels and clams in a wine, garlic, and butter sauce. Meat dishes include pork loin, hamburger steak, chicken tenders, Delmonico steak and colossal prime rib. Entrees are served with homemade rolls and the choice of two sides (mashed red skin potatoes, candied yams, house salad, vegetable of the day, pickled beets, shoestring fries, or applesauce). Daily specials are offered such as chicken and dumplings and liver and onions. "Every day I have a $6 lunch, every night I'll have a $10 dinner, and that could be seafood, pork, chicken, rockfish, flounder," said Christopher. "I try to get a lesser price entree in there to appeal to some people. What amazes me is that Harold Baines, his family has been in a couple times, he actually came in, and that's kind of a big thing to get a baseball player. His wife actually ate from the $10 menu; that's what she wanted. "All my soups I make from scratch. All the bread I make from scratch. The pies ... everything's basically homemade. My seafood's hand-breaded. I kind of take pride in it. I'm not a trained chef, or anything fancy. Eastern Shore food is was it is. We do ... which is going well for me ... a huge prime rib. It's between two and three pounds. I slow cook it for several hours with seasonings and all. Each person gets a whole bone. It's at least three inches thick." Desserts include pies, brownies, ice cream and Destiny's Dessert of the Day. Destiny's is open from noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, the same hours as the restaurant's full bar. Reservations aren't needed, but if you have a taste for prime rib you may want to call ahead (410-745-5555) to make sure they save you one.
Review: Destiny's By Monserrat Urena
Photo by Tony Lewis, Jr. Destiny’s On a recent Saturday afternoon drive to St. Michaels with my partner, Fred, I looked forward to sampling traditional Eastern Shore fare in a new restaurant called Destiny’s. Named after owner Buddy Christopher’s daughter, it’s located on the outskirts of town in the space formerly occupied by Holy Mackerel. Family run and family friendly, the interior sports dark wood and a nautical theme with bar seating, booths, and tables of varying sizes.
Upon entering, the service was immediate and kind. We were warmly greeted and escorted to the table of our choosing. Our waitress, Jordon, quickly arrived and asked if we’d like something to drink. I was pleased to see that the wine list featured a number of selections from the popular St. Michaels Winery and that the beer selections included choices from regional breweries like Eastern Shore Brewing and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Believing not only in eating local, but drinking local, too, I ordered the former and Fred chose the latter.
Then I explored the menu—one of my favorite things about dining out. Merely holding a menu sends a rush of anticipation through my body; not only am I searching for that perfect dish to complement or even heighten my day, I’m getting a glimpse into the creativity and inspiration that’s at work in the kitchen. I was not disappointed with this particular kitchen’s approach to Eastern Shore cuisine. There was a little bit of everything, from seafood to homemade pies (I’ll be raving about the pies soon enough!).
Jordan returned with our drinks just as I’d decided among the dishes that had caught my eye. I started with a small cup of Maryland crab soup ($5) and an order of crab balls ($7). The crab balls were small morsels with an intense, authentic, crab cake flavor. I enjoyed the mild, hearty soup, which was full of fresh vegetables and a generous amount of lump crabmeat. For my next course, I opted for one of the lunch specials: a prime rib sandwich with fries ($8). Fred chose fried rockfish ($18) from the dinner menu, which included two sides. His two selections were an ear of fresh corn and a dish of sweet potato fluff—a variation on candied yams.
My prior experience with prime rib sandwiches has been that they’re usually every bit as messy as they are tasty. Don’t get me wrong; messy food is fun! I loved the way my French roll was cut, creating a neat pocket in which the meat and melted cheese had been carefully packed. I was not only able to enjoy the quality of the meat (perfectly cooked and very tender) along with the melted cheese, but I did so without any awkwardness or telltale mess. The petite French fries retained the natural sweetness of a good potato. The entire dish was simple, well-prepared, and I really enjoyed it.
Upon seeing Fred’s dish, I did a double take. The light, golden-brown rockfish fillets were larger than the dinner plate and enough to feed two people. As for the sweet potato fluff, it was topped with melted marshmallows and tasted like a delicate, homemade pumpkin pie.
Dessert proved to be the perfect finish to a meal that both of us felt had been terrific. From the list of homemade pies, I ordered a slice of coconut cream and Fred chose the apple pie. And there’s simply no better way to describe them than: absolutely delicious! The coconut cream pie was topped with an excellent, light meringue, which might seem like an easy thing to make. But those with experience know how well it speaks of the hands at work in the kitchen when perfectly executed. Despite finishing his extremely generous main course, Fred ate every bite of his apple pie in record time. I did manage to sneak one taste, which revealed a certain sweetness yet retained the natural tartness of apples. And our desserts were even more memorable since they’d been personally brought to the table and served by Destiny herself.
Why put up with the mediocre offerings of chain restaurants when this new, family-friendly establishment is nearby, convenient, and definitely worth the visit? Do yourself a favor: take time out of your busy schedule to discover Destiny’s. You won’t be disappointed. Contributing writer Monserrat Urena is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
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