Betty’s Classic American, Rehoboth Beach

I’m not normally one to do a lot of restaurant reviews. It’s just not my thing and I often don’t want to carry my big camera into places. But sometimes I make an exception, like when I’m on vacation or meeting some really fun people!

Last weekend, I found myself at Betty’s Classic American on Route 1 in the Lewes/Rehoboth Beach, DE area with some really fun people. I brought my camera in to catch the people, but then decided to photograph the food as well. Why? Because Betty’s is a great place, but it’s a little out of the way and tucked into an odd shopping center (next to a movie theatre and a Planned Parenthood…yeah, that’s an odd combination!)

Betty’s describes itself as classic American, which is somewhere between what your grandmother used to make and upscale dinner food. Think big open faced sandwiches, great salads, and amazing classic desserts, all with a 21st century twist. You’ll see what I mean about the twist as I go through our meal…

We were all pretty hungry after a day on the beach at the BBC so we decided to start out with a few appetizers–onion rings and pretzel sticks. But in classic Betty’s fashion, both of these dishes had a great twist–buttermilk panko crusting for the onion rings, tangy honey butter for the breadsticks. Delish.

On the evening we were at Betty’s, they had a number of seasonal offerings in addition to their regular menu (which you can see here). I decided to go with the seasonal items, and ordered a creamy oyster stew, some corn on the cob and a house salad. That oyster stew was amazing. Creamy and rich without being too heavy, and fresh oysters so big you would have thought the were PEI mussels. And although it wasn’t a huge bowl, I think there were 8 oysters. Really a wonderful treat. The corn + Old Bay was like a revelation that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of before.

Others at the table went for more of the classic dinner food, hot roast beef sandwiches, crab cakes, hamburgers, meatloaf and the like. Everyone agreed they were excellent.

Finally, we capped everything off with two dessert–a fresh peach and creme fraiche plate and a piece of coconut cream pie. I’m sorry to report that the peach dish was awful since the peach was so unripe it wasn’t edible! But once we notified our server, he was happy to bring out another dessert of our choice, on the house! And since the first piece of coconut cream pie literally didn’t last long enough for me to snap a picture, we got another one of those!

All in all, a fantastic dinner with a lovely group of people. And who were the lovely group? My aunt and cousin (Hi Christi!) from Virginia. We all grew up together so it was lovely to have them for the weekend!

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