Leonard Copsey's

29004 Three Notch Rd., Mechanicsville, MD - (301) 884-9529

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Posted By Michael Stern on 9/3/2010 7:14:00 PM

Leonard Copsey’s more a seafood market than it is a restaurant; so if you have a nearby kitchen in which to cook hard-shell crabs, flounder, or shrimp, it’s a great place to shop. With the Chesapeake Bay just to the East and the Atlantic Ocean just a short hop over the Eastern Shore, Mechanicsville is in the heart of Mid-Atlantic seafood country, where the exalted culinary rituals include steaming crabs and shrimp with peppery spice mixtures, stuffing flounder with fresh crabmeat, and eating oysters by the dozen.

For those of us without someplace to cook, Leonard Copsey’s place (not to be mistaken for the also very excellent restaurant, Copsey’s, which is practically across the road) is well worth a stop for take-out food. Here you can get heaps of steamed hard crabs coated with hot spices but loaded with sweet-meat that is ready to be picked and plucked from within the shell. You can buy bushels of clams and oysters, ready to eat or to cook, and you can buy pints or quarts of excellent hot crab soup.

Virtually all of this food demands large quantities of beer; and lucky for hungry passers-by, Leonard Copsey’s place sells Bud and Bud Lite by the 6, 12, and 18-pack.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"The spicy crap soup is tomatoey and laced with plenty of crab."
Cliff Strutz

"A pound of the jumbo boiled shrimp, ready to eat!"
Cliff Strutz

"A blow-up crab balloon will be hanging over your head when you place your order."
Cliff Strutz

"There is nothing particularly charming about Leonard Copsey's place, but the seafood you buy here - either raw or ready-cooked - is exemplary."
Michael Stern

"Note the boatload of mollusk shells under Leonard Copsey's sign. In this region, many parking lots are paved with shells in lieu of gravel."
Michael Stern

"You know you are in crab country when you see a dapper crustacean such as this one, painted on the side of a barn wall near Leonard Copsey's."
Michael Stern