The world's best crab cakes? Quite possibly at Smith Island's Drum Point Market

Call it the little market that could.

The Drum Point Market in the tiny Smith Island village of Tylerton is hard to reach, only open five hours a day and has limited inventory, but it has become a go-to lunch spot for weekend boaters, fishermen and tourists lured in by the crab cakes and soft shell crab po’ boy sandwiches.

The market’s crab cakes in particular have brought a lot of attention to the store which is a short walk from the dock, past neatly kept houses and yards and the Tylerton Post Office, in a building not much bigger than a garden shed. 

Last year, Drum Point’s crab cakes ranked No. 6 in USA Today’s Best Crab Cake Sandwich in Maryland poll, even though the market was in the running against a lot of bigger and better known restaurants in the state.

“I thought that was pretty cool,” said Duke Marshall, the store’s owner. “There was a lot of big ones from Baltimore.”

And last month, the market hosted "American Idol" season five winner Taylor Hicks, who was  filming the Maryland episode of his show "State Plate."

“He’s a very delightful person,” said Mary Ada Marshall, Duke’s mother and maker of the now-famous crab cakes, who showed Hicks how to make a Smith Island cake before he headed over to the market for lunch.

The crab cake recipe was created by trial and error, and taste tested by her son and husband because she is allergic to seafood. Part of the secret is the use of meat from the entire crab, not just the lump meat. But don’t expect her to give up any more of the recipe.

“You can forget that one,” she said. “I’ve been offered money.”

In addition to making crab cakes for the market, Mary Ada Marshall, who just turned 70, was busy baking enough Smith Island cakes to make 900 slices to be handed out at the J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake in Crisfield.

She also cooks for groups staying at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s education center in Tylerton and is the star of a cake-making demonstration video on You Tube.

“For an old woman, I keep going,” she said.

Duke Marshall, who lives on the mainland and returns to Smith Island on weekends, said he started the market in 1994 out of necessity. Tylerton had been without a store for more than a year, leaving residents without a place to pick up a few staples in between trips to mainland grocery stores.

Marshall said his parents owned a store on the island years ago and he knew a little bit about how a store should be run, so he thought he’d give it a try.

His mother remembers the old store as a place where men would eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. It was heated in the winter months by an old pot belly stove and cooled in the summer by a window air conditioner.

“So we’ve come a long way,” she said.

Customers who choose to sit down to eat at the market can do so at one of the tables on a screened-in porch out front or inside where there are chairs marked “Evelyn” and “Capt. Larry,” and reserved for the regulars.

Summer weekends are the busiest, when pleasure boaters out on the Chesapeake Bay decide to stop by Tylerton to grab a bite to eat.

While Duke Marshall is away, the market is run by Tylerton native Patty Laird, who fries up crab cakes, bakes Smith Island cakes and makes sure the store is well stocked.

“I tell Duke I’m the boss and he has to keep me happy,” she said.

Laird, who has help from Salisbury University student Taylor Corbin, tells Marshall what she needs and he puts items on the ferry that runs out of Crisfield. She tries to stock items that residents request.

“If someone wants something, we’ll get it,” she said.

While the crab cakes and sandwiches are a big part of the business for both locals and visitors, the market also stocks grocery items that residents require. Baskets of onions, potatoes, apples, oranges and other produce are on display at the front of the store, while in the back, shelves hold a variety of cereals, soups, salad dressings, cake mix and other staples. Nearby, a small refrigerated case stocks milk and eggs.

The grocery items are particularly important in the winter months, when the winds pick up or the bay freezes over and it’s harder to get to and from stores on the mainland, she said.

The market also has a gift shop section offering Smith Island T-shirts, hats, mugs, postcards, books and other items.

“Tweny-three years later and we’re still going strong,” Marshall said.

Twitter: @LizHolland5