Where to Eat on a Mid-Atlantic Golf Trip

Most golfers book the course weeks out and pick the restaurant in the parking lot. The meal is half the memory, and in the Mid-Atlantic the food is regional enough that the course and the kitchen belong to the same trip.

Every restaurant below sits within about 20 minutes of a tee box, and each one has a specific reason a golfer would point the car at it after 18 holes.

1. Concerto Fusion — Morrisville, PA (Bucks County)

Closest courses: Makefield Highlands (8 min), Yardley Country Club (10 min), Trenton Country Club (15 min), Jericho National (25 min).

Concerto Fusion sits on West Trenton Avenue in Morrisville, just across the Delaware from Trenton. It is a small Asian-fusion room with sushi, sashimi, hibachi, and a full hot-kitchen menu of pan-Asian plates. It pulls a group of four off the course and into a booth before the parking lot empties. Walk-in groups land within 15 minutes most weeknights.

Order the sushi and sashimi platters if you are feeding a foursome, the hibachi if the group wants the show, and the lunch bento for a single round and a 30-mile drive home. The kitchen runs a full bar, and the sake list is broader than a strip-mall location suggests. Service stays fast when the room is full. They move tables the way a good starter moves a tee sheet.

Makefield Highlands and Yardley are both public-access with decent weekday rates, and a 20-minute drive after the round puts you in a real dining room instead of another pub. Expect $30 to $50 a person before drinks. Open seven days; reserve on Friday and Saturday.

concertofusion.com

2. Council Oak Steaks and Seafood — Atlantic City, NJ

Closest courses: Atlantic City Country Club (15 min), Seaview (Bay and Pines) (20 min), Twisted Dune (25 min), Blue Heron Pines (30 min).

Council Oak is the steakhouse inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, attached to the old Atlantic City Country Club property. Fine dining: white tablecloths, dry-aged steaks, a serious wine list. It works after a Shore round that ended well or ended badly. Both kinds of days end up here.

Order the dry-aged ribeye, the seafood tower if the group wants to start big, and the smoked bone-in pork chop for whoever does not eat red meat. The sides are big enough to share. Plan $80 to $110 a person before drinks, tax, and the inevitable valet.

The Shore packs more good courses into a small area than anywhere else in the region, and most of them finish within a 20-minute drive of the Boardwalk or the marina districts. Council Oak justifies the drive. Open seven days for dinner; reservations strongly recommended.

3. Silks — Havre de Grace, MD (Bulle Rock)

Closest course: Bulle Rock (5 min), the Pete Dye-designed public course at the head of the Chesapeake.

Silks is the on-site restaurant at the Bulle Rock resort property, and the easiest meal here to plan: finish 18, walk to the car, and you are at the table in five minutes. The room is upscale-casual and the menu is Chesapeake, with rockfish, crab cakes, oysters, and soft-shell crabs in season. The kitchen sources from the bay it overlooks.

Order the jumbo lump crab cake (no filler), the rockfish on a summer evening, and the oyster platter if you want to start slow. The bar is generous with bourbon and Maryland rye. Plan $45 to $70 a person before drinks.

Bulle Rock is the best-conditioned public course in Maryland, and it sits five minutes off I-95 between Baltimore and Philadelphia. A round plus a Chesapeake dinner earns the drive from either city.

4. The ChopHouse — Rehoboth Beach, DE

Closest courses: The Rookery (15 min), Bear Trap Dunes (20 min), Kings Creek CC (25 min), Baywood Greens (30 min).

The ChopHouse is a USDA prime steakhouse in downtown Rehoboth, two blocks off the boardwalk. It is locally owned, runs a serious wine list, and ages its own beef in the back. Dark wood and white linens, and a foursome can walk in wearing golf polos without anyone blinking.

Order the bone-in ribeye, the dry-aged NY strip, the Brussels sprouts side (genuinely good), and a bourbon flight if the round ended with a back-nine birdie. Plan $70 to $95 a person before drinks.

Sussex County has become one of the best public-golf counties in the country, and Rehoboth is the only downtown with a real dining scene within 20 minutes of the courses. Open seven days; reserve in season.

5. The Black Olive — Baltimore, MD (Fells Point)

Closest courses: Forest Park (20 min), The Bay Club (35 min), Maryland National (45 min), Bulle Rock (50 min north).

The Black Olive is a family-run Greek-Mediterranean seafood restaurant in Fells Point, with a fish counter at the front and a serious wine list. The whole fish is the reason to go: you pick it from the case, they grill it, and it arrives at the table whole. It has been the most consistently good meal in Baltimore for 25 years.

Order whole branzino or dorade, the octopus appetizer, the lamb chops for anyone who does not want fish, and a Greek salad to start. Plan $55 to $80 a person before drinks.

Baltimore is the only Mid-Atlantic city with both a working harbor and a cluster of public courses within an hour. Pair Forest Park, the cheap and underrated city course, with a Fells Point dinner and the day costs a fraction of the same day in DC.

6. 202 Social — Oxford, PA (Chester County)

Closest courses: Wyncote Golf Club (15 min), Honey Brook Golf Club (20 min), Meadia Heights (25 min), Loch Nairn (30 min).

202 Social is a farm-to-table American restaurant in the small town of Oxford, in southern Chester County. The building is a restored 19th-century house, and the kitchen sources from the surrounding Lancaster and Chester County farms. The menu changes with the season.

Order the burger at lunch with house-cut fries. It is the only burger in this roundup worth going out of your way for. At dinner, the roasted half chicken, the local greens, and any of the seasonal vegetable plates. Plan $25 to $45 a person at lunch, $50 to $70 at dinner.

Southern Chester and Lancaster counties hold a cluster of public courses that DC and Philadelphia golfers drive past on the way to the Shore. 202 Social is the reason to stop. Open Tuesday through Sunday.

7. Valley Sports Grill — Middletown, MD (On-Site at Richland)

Closest course: Richland Golf Club (on site).

Valley Sports Grill is the restaurant at Richland Golf Club, and the only stop on this list with no drive at all. Finish 18, walk 30 yards, sit down. It is a full bar and grill: burgers, sandwiches, salads, a few entrées, and a real brunch on weekends.

Order the Valley Burger, the wings, the brisket sandwich, or the crabcake sandwich for a taste of Maryland without the drive to the bay. The bar runs local Maryland beer and a full liquor list. Plan $18 to $30 a person.

Some days the best call is to walk in, sit down, and stay put until the late groups come up 18. Valley Sports Grill is open to the public. You do not need a tee time to eat there, just a parking spot.

How to Plan a Mid-Atlantic Golf Trip Around Food

A few rules of thumb that come from years of doing this wrong:

• Pick the course first, then the meal. The course dictates the drive, and the drive dictates where you eat. A 35-minute drive to dinner after 18 holes is fine. A 60-minute drive is not.
• Tee off early enough to finish by mid-afternoon. The best dining rooms in the region stop taking walk-ins at 8 PM, and the kitchen you want is usually the one that fills up. A 7:30 AM tee time puts you in the parking lot by 12:30.
• Match the meal to the round. A big number deserves a steakhouse or a crab house. A grinding 82 in the wind deserves a tavern and a beer. The courses on this list are good enough to earn either.
• Skip the chain on the way home. The interstate exit food is the easy move and the wrong one. Drive 15 more minutes and you are at one of the rooms above.

The List at a Glance