Make Your Next Crab Dinner A Fancy Feast

Roll up that newspaper and spread out some creativity

Newspaper. A roll of paper towels. Wooden mallets and plastic pitchers for cold drinks. The elements of a traditional Maryland crab feast could not be simpler to gather.

Or more uninspired.

Crab feasts are family affairs in Maryland. The adults linger at the table, talking and picking, while the kids play in the yard. Dusk arrives and empty crab shells and corn husks are rolled up in the soiled newspaper and dropped neatly in the garbage.

"You are meant to get your hands dirty," said Andrew Zill, design director for Feats Inc., an event-planning company in Baltimore. "But that doesn't mean there can't be some refinement. That you can't bring the indoors out."

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