Sonoma-Bodega Adventure 11: Spud Point Crab Company

When one hears about an outstanding place to get some outstanding food at very reasonable prices, one just has to try it out.

During my research on the Bodega Bay area, I read up on the Spud Point Crab Company after our Sonoma friend mentioned she’d seen it the last time she and her friend went to Bodega Bay. So naturally, I wanted to try it out.

Sometimes, however, I’m not too careful with my keying-in addresses; and I mix up names of destinations. This is what happened this time. The night before, I looked for Spud Point Chowder Company and found a business with that name. So I entered the address in my iPad.

The next day, off I went to that address. The address didn’t exist. But the GPS took me to Spud Point where I drove around looking for a place where I could buy chowder and crab sandwiches. Nothing but mechanic shops and mobile homes.

Back up the road I went, drove even farther north on California 1 until I reached a place called Miwok Beach to get my bearings. By the way, the view of the beach from the roadside, high up on the cliffs, is magnificent. In a way, it was a serendipitous stop and fulfilling for the soul.

But I digress. This time I found Spud Point Crab Company, and it had a different address than the one I thought was correct. So back we went to Spud Point. And then made a right turn where we should have the first time, on a road that had a different name than the one I was looking for, until the name changed about 100 feet down the road.

Don’t you hate when they do that?

Hallelujah, we were finally headed in the correct direction. When I got to where the GPS said to go, I looked and saw not a roadside shack, but a building that was the Spud Point Marina Offices. Finally, I put aside my manly ego and asked the nice lady inside where to find “the place that sells chowder.”

 

She pointed across the street. See? This is the second time that I looked for a place that I naturally assumed would be on the ocean side of a street. Blush, blush.

The Spud Point Crab Company is indeed a shack by the side of the road. But the tables outside were packed with people, the little parking lot was full, and I had to park across the street. The aroma of chowder was wafting over to us as we skipped over, trying not to get run over by other cars full of people looking for the place.

 

I wanted some crab cakes, but the nice lady said they only had them on Saturdays. Not to be deterred, I ordered five servings of chowder and four crab sandwiches to go, then went outside to watch six cauldrons of chowder bubbling away.

What a wonderful day.

Epilogue: The drive back home was a bit long, but pleasant. California 1 (Bodega Avenue) to Petaluma was uneventful, scenic and peaceful, and before you knew it, we were back in Fremont at my son’s house. Dinner that night was chowder (oh, so goooood!) and half of a crab sandwich (big and ultra-crabby).

I’d go back to Bodega Bay and that crab shack in a heartbeat.