While on vacation in Virginia with my bride, we were driving down around Newport News and decided on a crab shack for dinner. As luck would have it, the one we selected as at the tip of the coast, without clear markings to get there and we ended up on one of the longest bridges I have been on. (one of, not the longest, but loooong)
For those of you who know me – you know this is not a thing I seek out. So, here we are on this bridge to…. no idea where.
We look it up and it turns out we are headed for a somewhat famous place called the Isle of Wight. Now, I learned a bit of Ham trivia here. It turns out that there is a pretty selective process to get a ham called Smithfield Ham, and this is the only place to garner that distinction.
The ham history goes back to the 1700’s and if you are ever in the area, look it up and have some Red Eye Gravy while you are there. That’s a good story in itself. So – back to the original mission, finding dinner.
We are now on this island and looking for some dinner so we hit up the GPS and see what is around. We settled on Captain Chuck a Mucks, sight unseen and made our way there. The journey on the island was interesting and for a bit there it felt a little like a scene from a deliverance knock off or something. Tiny little towns, abandoned homes, twisting into the backwoods of this island.
After twisting around the island for a while, we ended up pulling into an almost empty parking lot and a river dive kind of first impression.
We got in and found we were just a bit early as they were in the process of opening for dinner, but the staff was great – friendly and making us at home from the get go. We got our menus and went with the seafood – kill your diet kind of dinner, but hey, it was vacation.
We took a few snapshots outside as well while there and were pleasantly surprised by the general location and atmosphere. It is worth making it over there if you are ever in the area, and they get fresh fish and serve customers right from the attached dock. We also learned about the fire that shut the place down for some time due to a boat incident that the waitress shared with us along with a photo album. Very Chummy!
The dinner at Captain Chuck a Mucks was unexpected and unplanned, but a good time – sometimes serendipity is the best way to experience things.
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