welcome to sassafras
Sassafras is a cottage restaurant in Betterton, Maryland, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and Sassafras River.
We are currently sold out through November. December seats will be released on September 15th at noon.
Join our mailing list to receive advance notice of seat releases, notes from Paul, and updates from Sassafras.
We welcome guests to our Chef's Counter—an intimate front-row seat for just eight guests each service. There, guests are served directly by Chef Paul Edward and the Sassafras team and enjoy a twelve-course tasting menu that reflects the tides, forests, and farms of the Chesapeake region.
Our menu celebrates hyper-seasonal, modern Chesapeake cookery. All seafood is wild-caught from Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake waters, with the exception of a stunning caviar sourced from wild Mississippi River sturgeon.
The earth is warm and the summer bounty is being harvested. Tomatoes and beans and peppers and melons and wild berries and squash and blue crabs and rockfish… Rejoice.
Dinner begins promptly at 6:45pm; doors open at 6:30pm.
Lunch begins promptly at 12:15; doors open at Noon.
Beginning in November, we will welcome guests for dinner Wednesday through Saturday, with one intimate seating each evening at 6:45pm.
The experience lasts approximately 3 hours. For frequently asked questions visit our FAQ page.
Reservations are required.
About Chef Paul Edward
My food is largely influenced by the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the people who’ve lived along its shores for centuries. When I was a boy I visited Historic Mount Vernon, where a farmer prepared Johnny Cakes over embers right there in the field along the bank of the Potomac. After having journeyed far and wide I think back to the time when fish was roasted over fire and corn was made into batter and baked over coals and the smoke of oak perpetually perfumed. I created Sassafras so I could penetrate time and stay there. Join me, won’t you?
Read more from Paul on The OverSoul Blog.
Proprietors: Paul Edward & Caroline Benkert