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It’s almost time to head back to Salt Lake City, UT for another installation of the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, this time the Winter Market which features mostly winter sports equipment (think skis, snowboards, winter clothing, etc) but also many lines of camping and outdoor gear. One of the things we are doing different this time around than when we were in SLC in August is looking for more deals.

Unfortunately, going out to eat and restaurants and spending money is a part of traveling.  In August while in SLC, we relied on many recommendations for places to eat – whether it came from the guy behind the hotel desk, Twitter, or other tradeshow attendees. Now that we’ve got a better feel for the atmosphere and restaurant scene, I’ve been looking for deals online for restaurants or services in the area. This is a great way to save some cash in the pocket.

For our upcoming trip, I picked up two deals from Living Social. But I also watched Groupon and did random searches for deals in the area. Many of them were service related and things we were not looking for, but a few times restaurants popped up.

The first deal I picked up was for the SugarHouse Barbeque Company. With a wide selection of barbeque treats, this $10 for $20 worth of food will be great for dinner one night and save us a few bucks while at it.

The second deal I picked up was from the UPS Store. Crazy right? Since we’ll be at a tradeshow most of them time there, I’m going to be accumulating catalogues, swag, and sample products. But, we’re flying out there and back, so there’s no way I’m paying extra baggage fees to get the stuff home. So for $15 I got $30 worth of shipping supplies and services from the UPS Store that is right down the street from our hotel. Now I can just ship everything home before we head to the airport and have it in a few days.

Sadly, there were not more restaurant deals that came up on the daily deal sites, otherwise I would have probably gotten some more of them. But, even these 2 deals will save us some money. If you’re planning far ahead in advance enough and know where you will be, subscribing to daily deal sites for that city is a great way to save some cash, try some new places, and have a good time while traveling.

The Planned Route

At the beginning of August we are embarking on a 2 week road trip from Maryland to Utah and back going through 13 different states along the way!

Courtney and I are spending the holiday weekend down on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We’ve eaten all over the island and have our favorites but always try to get at least one new place in while we are down here. After arriving on Friday we were ready some lunch. Our normal stop is Spanky’s for some hot dogs and french fries but we decided to switch it up this time.

So, we wound up at Crabby Fries Carryout which is around the 9 milepost marker on the Beach Rd (Route 12 South). My brother and his wife had recommended it before and seemed to like it, so we figured we would give it a shot. Besides having the normal seafood you would expect from a place at the beach – fish, shrimp, and crabs, Crabby Fries offers a small breakfast menu (only 5 items), a kids menu (again, just 5 items) and then a number of pressed sandwiches. They also have hand cut “crabby” fries or “ocean” fries.

Courtney got the shrimp boat which was 8 friend shrimp and french fries. The shrimp were nicely breaded and well cooked. Her fries were soggy from being hot in the paper bag and steaming.

I wasn’t that hungry so just got an order of chicken tenders off the kids menu. It was just 4 small tenders that were over cooked and a little burnt. The breading/seasoning was nice, but they were just fried a bit too long.

We both had the “crabby fries” which were seasoned with a blend of crab seasonings. I’m assuming it was just Old Bay seasoning, but it was not very strong at all and most of the french fries seemed to lack any seasoning at all. Mine were a bit soggy as well, but that was to be expected being carryout and bring it back to our house. Crabby Fries served their fries similar to the way Five Guy’s does it – the cup is filled and then even more are dumped in the bag. The small order of fries would have been enough to share for two people. The fries definitely could have used from more seasoning or salt to make them better.

We didn’t try the ocean fries so I don’t know if they were any better.

My parents have tries the Pork BBQ sandwich and said they didn’t really like it, preferring Pigman’s Bar B Que over this sandwich. My brother and his wife have tried the pressed sandwiches and seemed to like they but I haven’t had any experience with them.

After reading some reviews of the food online, it sounds like the crab cake is their best item, so if we go back again, I’ll have to give that a try and see if it’s better. Being from Baltimore and having had some amazing crab cakes over the past years, it will have a lot to stand up against. However, the menu does state that the crab cake is made with lump crab meat and their own Baltimore style recipe, so it might be just as good.

The service was a bit hectic, but the owner was very nice and made sure we were happy as customers before leaving. The day we went there they were having issues with the cash register and had to add our order up by hand. Once they got the register fixed while we were there, the owner brought over the receipt to show that it matched what she charged us, so that was nice of her.

Overall the place is nice, it seems like the food is good – you just have to find the right items, and the prices are comparable to what you would pay at other sandwich/seafood places down here for a lunch. Try it out and let us know what you think!