When the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and the Maryland Oyster Tour intersect, we win. Finn McCusker continues a suburban seafood visit with Nestor, sharing more history of the Nacho Mama’s lineage and tales of his infamous father in Canton.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland crab cake tour, Owings Mills, Nacho Mamas, Scotty, oyster recovery, grilled oysters, soft shell crab, Baltimore sports, Oyster Recovery Partnership, raw oysters, fried oysters, seafood menu, Towson location, Chesapeake Bay, oyster tour
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Tesla, welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Tesla, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are positively not in the studio today. We’re doing a Maryland crab cake tour. We are out here, and I’m trying to think the last time I did a broadcast from Owings Mills. We used to do the show over at the Buffalo Wild Wings once in a while on Monday nights. But it’s been a while. We are at mamas on the half show. We’re here at Foundry row. The kids call it that. I call it painters mill because I saw Frankie Valley into four seasons about 100 yards over that way. So I brought you by the barrel of the lottery. Have Raven scratch offs give away. We have a lucky batch giving away. A whole bunch here at the bar, here at mamas on the half show. Hopefully we’ve got some lucky folks, also our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care. You know, I don’t come to Owings Mills as much anymore with the Ravens situation being the way it is with me. But Luke’s here all the time, and that’s powered up by Jeff. You do multi care. And I would drag him over here today, but I don’t want to talk ravens, because I got Finn McCusker here for your dad today. I I’ve gone old school. I first off, I got my skip Jack stuff on we’re gonna be honoring Jeff amder, super fan of the Baltimore skip jacks and hockey in Baltimore. Don’t tell hump and Howie, but I’ve even brought the Baltimore skip Jacks pennant that I bought out on the street in the middle of the oyster tour last month. I bought this in Hamden hunt, right up on the avenue. I was having a god. I had a great oyster there. I had an oyster fritter that was the oyster Benedict on French toast. It was good. That was outside. It was at the Urban oyster. So 26 oysters, 26 days, 26 ways, all for the oyster recovery partnership. That’s all brought to you by curio wellness and foreign daughter, as well as liberty, pure solutions, keeping my water clean and one 800 clean water. Now, last month, the oyster recovery partnership had an incredible event called the world is your oyster. I didn’t get the name of it right. I kept messing it up on here, the world is your oyster. And this young man, youngster, I looked at him and I saw Scott he’s face to some degree, but he’s wearing the mamas Nacho mamas mamas on the half shell thing. And I said, Dude, I gotta have an oyster with this guy, because I knew your dad. So I am just delighted to be out here. Dude, it’s a classy place. Man, I don’t know. Man, Scotty might look at this and say, this place too classed up. Man, it’ll play journey in here at 10 o’clock, right? Little too fancy for him, if
02:26
I’d say, Well, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 02:27
mean, it is kind of fancy. First off, thanks, man, thanks for having an oyster. I purposely just sort of set up talk to you briefly, but I’ve been looking at the people in here and looking at the menu and looking at the vibe I moved around. There’s like a fireplace in the back. There’s like cubbies back here that are, like romantic, like nice. You know, you couldn’t do this in a row house, not at all in Canton. This is a different What do I tell my wife? Because I don’t think we I didn’t, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a little more uplifted
02:57
than the one the original location down in Canton, that’s for sure. So anyone who comes around here, they definitely compare it down there, like it’s a whole lot different than the other one. So we love a little more uplifted.
Nestor Aparicio 03:07
Well, just soup to nuts. I mean, let’s just start with this. Anybody knew Scotty? Your Scotties kid? I knew Scotty when he met your mother. I was at his bachelor party. Parts of the bachelor party in Indianapolis on my birthday. October 14, 1996 so they got married sometime. October, November, 96 I guess, right. So that’s when the Ravens came to town. When did you
03:32
enter the Earth? June 14, 2000
Nestor Aparicio 03:35
June 4. I’m trying to think of where I am. June 14, 2000 so just in time for the ravens to win the Super
03:41
Bowl. Just in time, my dad was at the Super Bowl. My mom was home with me alone, all right.
Nestor Aparicio 03:45
Well, I probably have a picture your dad night at Oh, I do. I have a picture your dad attended my party at Whiskey Joe’s on Super Bowl Sunday, dressed as Elvis, of course, right? So I have a picture him doing the fat Elvis, as he would say. But your dad would I’m missing a finger, and scunny was missing a finger, and he would never let me and again, like so I didn’t hang in Mama’s First things first. It was sort of a newish thing for your dad. I hung in the nacho mamas in Canton. There was no Towson. I hang there now and get the Berea quesadilla. Ask anybody that see me in there, slopping it all up, taking a salsa home, and the chips and a fresh guac. But your dad, your father, was quirky. Can we say that?
04:31
There’s a word for it. I don’t know if quirk is a woman centuries a word out eccentric would
Nestor Aparicio 04:35
be the word iconoclastic. Is the word I would, you know, use at this point, but he was missing a finger too. And amidst all of the as I would say to your mother or him to all of the stolen memorabilia that was all over Nacho mamas from 33rd street and cold stuff and horse racing stuff, it’s certainly natty bow stuff and velvet Elvis is your dad. Dad would always when I was leaving, and he always had like a helper who was a special needs young man, Robert. Robert was his dude, right?
05:09
He was, he was a good one. He told me plenty of stories. He loved
Nestor Aparicio 05:13
Robert, right? But he would always say to me, we got to touch nubs. Let’s touch nubs. So, you know, your dad was always about touching nubs with my finger, and nobody’s allowed to touch my finger my wife, so, you know, but my love for your father and his passing. And I guess I remember I was in, I was in monton, New Brunswick, when we lost your dad that weekend. And I was seeing Bruce Springsteen, and it was right before the Ravens won the second Super Bowls in that sweet spot in September. And, you know, from the business standpoint, what you guys have done, Towson, you know, trying to branch out. And I’ve done the show, and I haven’t done the show, Nacho mamas and Canton, because it’s so small enough room. And I came out here and I’m like, wow, there’s some room is real estate. You know, going out here, I did the show at your place a couple couple years ago, looking into the mirror at the end of the bar, like we set up on the mirror and we talked into the mirror. And it was perfect, because the bar so long and sexy there. But it, I mean, your dad’s vision for that. I mean, I remember him taking me in there when it was messy in a construction scene, and see, this is where the raw bar is going to be. Come walk with me, walk. And he was always over there taking the trash out in the alley and doing the stuff on the side with a little the little door was but he had this vision of, like, seafood, right? Like, that was his deal. Even though he was a pizza shop dude that slung tacos and beer, right? Like and Baltimore memorabilia, but he had this vision for a different kind of brand, right?
06:47
Definitely, definitely, it was a lot of time him and my mother took trips to Boston, to New Orleans. They really tried to get that kind of New Orleans theme into there. Bring it to Baltimore. Is definitely a different thing for Baltimore that no one really had in there was one of the first raw bars in the area, and then it branched off from there and turned into the brand it is
Nestor Aparicio 07:04
today. Well, it was long and skinny and it had the upstairs the first year you opened on Mother’s Day. I took my mother in when she was alive. It’s i i know i have pictures of my family in in your place when it first opened up, but then you how long? A dozen years there before you you came to here to
07:24
owing smells. Yeah. Owings Mills actually opened last year, last
Nestor Aparicio 07:27
year. So 24 years, yep. So 20 years ago that that the half shell opened. Oh, three Yep. Wow. I’m I’m old. I’m all fin mccoskers Here, we’re doing a Maryland crab cake tour, brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I’ve been giving these things out and just trying to story tell a little bit, because I’m trying to get caught up, because I don’t know that I ever met you, or maybe as a little boy, you’re running around down there at some point. But I was never there at a point where, like, you probably would have been running around. Sometimes it’s hard enough to catch sunny right? When he was running around down there were two stores, actually three, if you you know the pizza shop as well, right? So, but he was ubiquitous there in the 90s when I was building my business, and amicis was next door. And you know, Bill Larney and Steve la trenta attended my wedding in 2003 when they were opening loonies. And now that’s an empire and lunacy and all that stuff. You have a different vision. I mean, Dad’s been gone a period of time. Now this is you and your family’s vision, right? Like I would think, in some ways you’re thinking, What would dad like, but in some ways he’s like, look at the garage door over there. He never would have thought about that, you know. Couldn’t have done that in Canton, you know. But your dad was a visionary, along with the late, great Mike Clark. We just lost him across the street over at Clara. But all the things that your dad did on a square about championing Canton and Santa Claus and just Elvis, all that goofy stuff, this is like a totally different vibe, and he’s gone, and this is your thing now, right? Yes,
08:51
sir, I give 99% of credit to my mother. She puts it all on her back. Does more work than anybody I know behind the scenes. If no one sees, she got the vision for this place they live, right across the street, actually, really close by. She would always drive by, always see this foot traffic. And she knew that this was the place she wanted. It turned out to be the old bar Louie that was here a good while ago. Once it went up, they were the first ones to jump on and it took a year or so to get the construction here. There was no second floor. It was completely revamped. I
Nestor Aparicio 09:17
still think this is a really new complex, 100% you know, I mean, the Wegmans here, and, you know, I don’t even know all of the shops here. And I said to you, were you? You weren’t the Italian place that was next door because I had come to the medical side here of life bridge. And we’re right by painters mill. We’re right at Reisterstown Road. If you don’t know, I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I told a couple people I’m doing the show at mamas in Owings Mills are like, I didn’t know. They had to know. You know what? I mean, like a lot of people do now, yeah, people do now, yeah, and that’s the thing about it, is that this is a different setup if you’re craving your food and parking in Canton, and I’m not encouraging anybody not to go to the city. I’m a city guy, but I do think sometimes when it comes to Nacho mamas as an example for me and like, I don’t have to you. Be here a little while, but, like, I don’t tell you how much I like to your sauce is in my refrigerator right now, and it doesn’t keep long enough. That’s why it tastes good, because it doesn’t have, like, preservatives and stuff in it. I think it’s bad, but honestly, because it’s like, 10 days ago, I went to nachos, but I love your brand. I loved your dad. I love you know, I mean, my wife and I, the night we were engaged, I asked her to marry me on Federal Hill in April of two. There was a cold night, one knee bench, the whole deal, underneath the cannons, and when we got back to the car, a little shivery. We’re supposed to go to Orio red sock game, and Pedro was pitching 2003 and it’s kind of cold to be at a ballpark. And we were feeling kind of like celebratory. And this wasn’t the time where you could even send a text to anybody, right, like, so we’re getting engaged. We want to tell somebody, your dad was the first human we told, of course, that we got engaged. We didn’t tell our families. Like we sat, we went in and he happened to be there. I sat in the third booth. We had little stubby natty bows because he insisted I was gonna say I was probably the first dad absolutely refused. Let me pay for it, although I paid for everything else, but, but, yeah, like, I mean, it’s an iconic part of, like, my story. And even then, I would say, do we want to go over to nachos today parking, because I lived at the harbor, so we would take a hearty walk sometimes, to Canton, to the square. I mean, we don’t have any problem walking. That was much more my preferred when I live downtown, definitely. Now I go to Towson all the time. I mean, I’m I’ve lived in Towson almost three years now. I’ve been in Nacho mamas 50 times in three years. Probably, you know what I mean. Of course, I still prefer my own margaritas, you know? But everybody likes that, but I can’t. Some of the recipes are your dads, and those I can’t shake, and some of them are and those, I look and I say, Well, I preferred the old thing, or, Hey, that new thing I dig.
11:47
Like, Berea quesadilla would blow your dad’s mind. He would have no idea where to start with that one. That’s for sure, dude, that’s like, the best, one of the best things in the city. I get it about two or three times a week down there. You get the quesadilla, Burri quesadilla every single time.
Nestor Aparicio 12:00
Yeah, I never, I got it on the nachos once, and I’m like, and now this belongs. This belongs to a sloppy Mexican pizza. Is what this belongs. It needs to be dipped. It needs to be and, and like we see B, I R, R, I A, and people mispronounce it. Or, you know, bar, you know, they would say Berea. Fine. Okay, now you know how to say it. We go to other places, and it’s on menus now, like it wasn’t 10 years ago. You didn’t see Berea. Basically, it’s just the big sloppy Mexican pot roast. It’s just flowing out, just deliciousness. And it came recommended your head bartender over there for a long time, we used to watch Orio games together. Recommend. He said, Yeah, you gotta, you gotta try this. And I got it, and you didn’t even have it on the menu in Canton, right? No, it
12:47
started in Taos and then made its way down to Canton. It did it. It’s on there now, okay, oh, I’ve been down there for a little while
Nestor Aparicio 12:52
because it’s so good, like, so so good. But I was doing the crab cake tour, and I fell in love with the quesadilla, the briefcase dia. And I’m thinking, hey, put that on the menu out here, Mama, but you have a whole different thing here, man, right? So, so the grown up part of the menu here, because I wasn’t as familiar with mamas for what your father’s vision was to where you are at this point, it doesn’t feel far from New Orleans bistro and just seafood, oysters. I mean, then we the oyster tours. What brought us together? Right? Of course, yeah. The
13:21
menu itself, I mean, it’s vast. It has too many, a lot of options. I’d say we love to give everybody as many options as they can. We have a very diverse menu. You’re talking seafood steaks, anything you guys want, with the soft shell crab. BLT, has been our hit recently. That’s kind
Nestor Aparicio 13:35
of new, soft, soft shell crab. BLT, you put bacon on that? Oh, yeah. See, to me, that’s the thing about a soft shell crab is, when it’s crispy, like my mom would say, it has a bacony kind of thing, you know? And we also
13:50
put it on our we have a cream of crab suit. We’ll put a big, soft shell crab right on top. That’s been a huge hit here as well.
Nestor Aparicio 13:56
I’m thinking, I’m really hungry. I mean, I had breakfast this morning, and, you know, I came over here. Open heart. I didn’t Google anything. I put a little picture up this morning because we lost our guest. Mike Warren. Love you. We’ll get you back out. My buddy Howard share is gonna be coming out a little later on to talk about skip Jackson. We’re gonna be yesterday. It’s Marilyn crap. Kick towards we do around here. Besides, you know the route we do enough ravens during the week. We’ll be doing plenty of Orioles. You’re Mr. Bait. You’re baseball up, right?
14:21
Oh yeah, love baseball. Yeah, Baltimore sports. I’m in it.
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
Well, let’s get back to the menu here, because I see grilled oysters and like my eyes, the reason I did the oyster tour is year and a half ago, I’m at fadelies, and Damien likes to just bring me food, like, like I’m a horse, like I’m grazing. She’s a mother. She’s a baseball mother. She’s the daughter of, you know, Nancy, who serves people. So when I’m at the old Lexington market now, the new ones even sexy and Gucci like this. It’s awesome. We’ll be back down there in a couple weeks, order some grab gigs. But the amazing part. For me is one day she brought a little basket, because they serve their food in a little paper baskets down at Lexington market, and she brought me fried oyster, and I started eating it like, just what we’re doing the show. She try this, and she put it in front of me with like a guest. And I’m like, what is that? She said, It’s fried oyster. I’m sad, and I’m like, Hey, and that’s like, fried chicken, only better either way. What is that? And then she got me some cocktail. And I’m like, you know, okay, Coolio, right? I’m into it. And I just thought, Why have I never had a fried oyster? My I don’t think I ever had a fried oyster my life really well, part of it is it’s further
15:40
down the menu, of course. Yeah, right. Your eyes catch the first thing you
Nestor Aparicio 15:43
see. Well, it’s not only that, like I came in here a little while ago and I am hungry. The lobster roll looked to me like haven’t had one in a while. The tenderloin, I love a French dip, and it looks like you’re featured, and it looks like it would be good here. This looks like a French dip place to me or a French onion soup, but so, but I love tuna tartare, but not feeling it today so much. I’ve done a lot of oysters lately, but none in the last, like two or three weeks after doing one every day. So, but the grilled oysters, I didn’t have enough grilled oysters last month, and I did that for between that fried oyster year and a half ago, and then Dami tries to educate me, because I’m a knucklehead. And she said, You do know, without the oysters, there’d be no crabs. There be no crab cakes. They keep the bait clean. That’s how the crabs live it. And I’m like when they taste good, you know? So I’ve had them raw all of my life, right? Like, same for me. Always a cocktail, always at a bowling oyster rose, always at a thingy thing, like I was with the wing ding thing, where somebody shuck in at a maritime magic or a charity, like, all my life. So when they come to me, I eat them. I am sponsored by Costas and places where there’s just oysters at the door whenever I want them, you know, never I get the shrimp. I get the crap. I get the crab Imperial. I get a steak. I get chicken, I get a ghetto. Sometimes when I’m in casas, because they’re Greek, and it’s still I get a Greek set. But I do a lot of things, but I don’t think oyster. And I never, I’m seeing Clams Casino. I never think clams. I never think clams. That’s further even down, right? I don’t dislike them. Mussels probably had oysters for me. If I see a Thai muscle thing, you know going on, I probably would be more inclined. I’ve ordered more muscles in my life than I have oysters being out. So this oyster discovery, which led me to you, or another gift, that came to me right, began a year and a half ago, and Damien started, she’s like, You should do this for the oyster recovery, because it’s part of crab cakes, and it’ll extend what you’re doing. And I was gonna do 25 oysters, 25 days last summer for our 25th anniversary. I didn’t, I got tied up a lot of different things. And I said, I’ll do 26 this year. So I did last month, and I moved all around, and I tried to get a different kind of oyster. So I think we’re on, if out on the website, we’re day 910, 11. By the way, a good public service announcement. My long time executive producer. Ray Bachman is a battling cancer. He’s doing okay. He was my day six at Mike’s in Riva. And I think I had, think I had some sort of steamed I don’t even what I had that day, but I had different oysters every day. And I have memorable this fritter I had I went into the Federal House in Annapolis. They’re right next to you at the Oyster recovery with that crab. Savitche,
18:39
did you have any of that. It was amazing.
Nestor Aparicio 18:41
I mean, I went down on Apples and had this. So I’m having oysters in new ways. But the the grilled oyster, the first time I ever had a grilled oyster was in New Orleans. It was Super Bowl week. It was at the media party, and it was a wingding thing. It was, you know, different kind of foods. People putting out jambalaya. All the restaurants were showing off. If there was a Super Bowl year, you’d want to come show something off, right? And they were literally grilling. They had a pit, and they were, you know, and you could smell it in the fire, and we were as an outside, huge party for 1000s of media people, right? And I had never had that buttery, heated, grilled.
19:18
It’s a different experience. And
Nestor Aparicio 19:21
it was so unbelievable. The two nights later, I went towards a Dragos or whatever, the place down there that does it in the basement of the Hilton or whatever, and they’re 50 bucks. And go, let’s go give them to me, you know. And I ate them, but I don’t. I came home and I’m like, the best thing I ever had. Never ordered them again, of course. And I’ll be really honest with you. A month into this oyster tour, I’ve only had one batch of them, and I had it on the Cooper’s truck during the oyster festival down in Fells Point. And my wife and I had like, five of them. We were going to dinner with Marvin Lewis. We couldn’t, like, moo out, and we’re on the oyster tour, so I’m like, I don’t need more oil to date 15 of the. Way, you know, like, I don’t need more. But Patrick, they were good dude. Patrick, they were good man. So I got to get back down to Fells Point do that. So when I saw grilled oyster, I’m thinking, is that what I’m getting? We can bring them out, dude. I think I’m gonna get those in the next segment, because I want to do them your way, however you do them. But I had oyster shooters, two different times with vodka, one time with tequila, with my buddy John Allen zone horses. I mean, it got me out to, like, trying different weird
20:29
stuff, different ways to try an oyster no one knows about. Well, when I went to the bathroom on the
Nestor Aparicio 20:33
way here, I’m, like, finding my way, and I’m weaving my way, I almost walked into the fireplace, thinking it was the bathroom, right? You maybe I’m not the only one that does that does, oh, it’s
20:40
the same way in can. No one knows what the bathroom. And there were people
Nestor Aparicio 20:43
back here at, you know, 1230 on a Friday. They had a big ass tray. The thing I get the hubcap out of over Nacho mom is with the straws, you know. But they had, you know, there, and they were just gooping out the horse radish. And I’m like, It’s been a couple weeks since I had an oyster. Now I’m hankering it, and I think if this tour has done anything for me, when I’m in a place, I’m much more inclined to maybe order it. Definitely. I love Rockefeller. So mean, that would be, I have ordered Oysters Rockefeller once or twice a year at Costas different plate. They have a beautiful spinach they do over there. It’s a really unique spin. So I love it over there. But again, I’m more likely to get the fried shrimp. I’m more likely to get something else. But i What do you just your favorite oyster?
21:27
My favorite oyster we have? I mean, I’m more of a raw oyster kind of guy. My dad had me in the bar. He was having bets with his buddies see how fast I could eat oyster. Oh, you recked your first one, probably five or six with him. Love on glove. The whole deal, right? That was with my father. So not safety was not the high priority. I’m sorry. My mom’s hearing this. You knew
Nestor Aparicio 21:43
your father, see, I Yeah, okay, I knew. Because I, you know, I tell secrets about your dad, but ain’t nothing I’m gonna tell you you don’t already know.
21:50
So of course, it’s weird to spend now lived half my life without him. So a lot of stuff, I love, getting memories from old friends, same we are doing now. So it means the world. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 21:58
when I saw met you that night at the recovery and we were talking, I think we’re talking. I think we’re talking oyster whatever. I looked at you, and I’m like, You look like Scotty, you must be a kid, right? And you had, you were, what were you doing that night? Shocking.
22:08
We had a oyster chowder. That evening. You had
Nestor Aparicio 22:11
chowder, right? Okay, because you weren’t shocking, wrong. I wasn’t in, dude. I all offense. And I invited Paul shirt from oyster recovery partnership to come by today and promote the oyster recovery. It was a beautiful event. I was oystered out by the time I got there, oh yeah, and I wasn’t hungry the night I was there. And every I feel terrible because there were like, six or seven oyster harvesters there, right? Like, literally just pulling them out of the box or in the water that day and showing off their their oysters. And I just was not like and in most cases, no horse radish, no cock, you know, just just raw, just, you know, the way Bourdain would be out in the water eating them, you know. And I just wasn’t in a mood that night. So I don’t know. I mean, I did have your chatter a little bit. I had a little wing and ding with everything. But what, what? So yours Rockefeller. You do? You do the spinach here, right?
23:08
We do? We do the spinning. We do the Rockefeller. Our grilled oysters. Always tell everybody, do the two, two and two. We have parmesan or smoke paprika and horseradish crust. Personally, I’m not much of a horse. I’m gonna have 222, yeah, you have to do that.
Nestor Aparicio 23:18
I management advise me to do that. So that’s what I need to do for you with the seafood part of this. And being a Maryland guy, your dad was an Ocean City thing, I am blown away as I get out to an oyster tour crap how vital The bay is, right, and what a part it is. And then you obviously know, because I met you at the Oyster recovery partnership. So talk about that a little bit in that involvement, because that wasn’t something your dad was doing at Nacho mamas when he’s slinging quesadillas, right? Not
23:48
at all. I mean, preservation of the Bay is one of the biggest things we have going for us right now, the amount of back, all the bad stuff that goes in the bay, what ORP does to actually save the bay every oyster, like they were staying at the Wyo event, they’ve put enough oysters in the bay to fill up all of them, and T Bank Stadium, to think about that in perspective. I mean, that’s you can’t compare that to anything
Nestor Aparicio 24:06
the numbers, because I came in the side door at that event, and I would tell if Paul were here, I tell him, so you represent Him. You already have. Well, I came in the side door and I got there early and I was going to set up, and then I realized it wasn’t a great place to set up, because people were busy. People were busy. This is a better environment to have you on my show, definitely, than to grab you at five o’clock when in the event, right? And the event had music. It was, it was, wasn’t that kind of an event. It was an event. I should have been out doing five of these at five places to promote it the month before. And people should, I mean, if, please, the oyster recovery partnership. Next year. Come to that event, it’s at the piano, railroad museum, indoor, outdoor, but the bathroom was inside, and I had been outside. Donnie McCafferty. And by the way, Donnie McCafferty plug for my my sponsors over at Beaumont. I wore this for him and for you and for your dad. This is. Some. It’s my Baltimore Colts belt buckle. That would, that would, so your dad would love that one, right? This is my Richard ripped it off your belt. You probably this would have been another stolen item at Nacho mamas. I’ve already I gave but both of the earth say dummies are from me and fire or SIG for six yards. But the back dumb. You didn’t even know the dummy story, right? That was sick. Was a guy you the first time you told me actually, Donnie McCafferty, I should give him some love, because this is his grandfather. Was the coach of Super Bowl five when we won. And this is literally a 1971 belt. It says right on it. So this was the Super Bowl five era of his grandfather. He is the manager at the Beaumont where I go and knock down a stake in Catonsville from time to time as well, and put this thing back on here. Get this thing rock and I There we go. So was I was on the I was on the cult thing. I lost my train of thought. My goodness gracious me. Oh my See, I started telling Donnie McCaffrey stories. He was getting me cranked up at this oyster recovery because Beaumont and State Fair, and he had this little jug that that sort of Pete Arnold Palmer’s, you know what I mean, like it had vodka and ice tea, and he kept giving them to me, and had to go to the bathroom. So I go inside at the Oyster recovery partnership, at the B and O. And I love to be, you know, big, spacious circle room, but when I came back into the party, all of the signs were oyster like it was the front door, obviously, right. So the first thing you saw when you went to the oyster recovery partnership were these huge signs. And I stopped and read every one of them. It was like billions and billions.
26:35
Even comprehend the amount of oysters and
Nestor Aparicio 26:39
understanding. And I had James Bond on from living classrooms foundation. I had Damian on at the beginning of this whole thing last month. Please go watch that if you really want to be educated. James Bond knew so much about oyster. Said Danny, obviously, right, but apparently, like, the harbor was just one big, giant oyster, like, literally, 100 years ago, right? Like, that’s what made the harbor. The harbor were the oyster beds, and it became so over harvested that it just sort of all went away. Then it became muddy that, you know, less than marshy, less than ideal for any wildlife, right? So all the things that the aquarium does down there, and the fact that we’ve, I won’t go be the first one that jumped in the harbor.
27:19
You know your old man? He probably would have right away he man, he kayaked, started in the harbor, down Ocean City. Did he really do that multiple times?
Nestor Aparicio 27:29
I thought that was a like. I thought that was like when I went to Dundalk high and they told me there was a pool in the third floor and there wasn’t
27:36
no that was all true stories. You could track him. I remember being in God, probably seventh or eighth grade, being able to track him where he was going, all across the river. He was one of
Nestor Aparicio 27:44
the I thought this would be like him, like Santa Claus, like, I thought this was, like, not a real thing.
27:48
Oh no. He did it multiple times. He did a handful of them going to, kind of, he started in Ocean City. Sometimes started,
Nestor Aparicio 27:55
hold on. I went into Nacho mamas, and he said he was going to get in a kayak in the harbor and get to Ocean City. And I’m like, I did the math on that. I’ve been out on big boats in the Chesapeake. Like, that’s not
28:07
No, it’s not easy. And the best part was, it was all raising money for the believe in tomorrow Foundation, the children’s house, so that was the main priority of all of that. And in my opinion, it was a race between bars. They had all How long did he take? It took about a week. Took about I wanted if been a while, so I’d probably say anywhere from like seven to nine days. I think it took him to get over there, and he was actually the only person in the crew who brought a tent with them. Everyone else slept on a big, comfy boat behind him. He was in the woods sleeping in tanks. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 28:33
my wife finds out that that really happened, because she knew Scotty, right? I mean, what? Because we have talked about that as being like an unbelievable story that he told that was a tall tale, of course.
28:46
Yeah, I, like, I said, that’s real. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 28:48
a real part of, like,
28:49
real. I think it was just a race between bars someone. It was a little pissing contest between all the bars, and I couldn’t imagine how much booze they had to fit in their kayaks,
Nestor Aparicio 28:57
to be honest. Well, you know, we’re here. We’re moms on a half shell sandwiches started. Well, it’s lunch time here, some folks are getting some libations at the bar. You’re trying to interest me in some oysters and stuff. But learning about oysters and the oyster recovery partnership, it’s what led me to the party that night. So it’s led me here. The Maryland lottery sends me out, leads me places to give Raven scratch offs way hopefully had a lucky batch here, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions. Have a sad along with curio doing 26 oysters in 26 days, 26 ways. And I’m past it now, and this is going to be my first oyster sense. I had 26 oysters in 26 days in 26 ways, and I’m going to go for two, for two. So that 222, that’s Parmesan, Herb, smoked paprika, butter, I’m gonna like that one the best, and horseradish crust. I never had that. Like I said, I’m
29:45
not, not as big a horse radish guy, so I’m more of the three and three. But I always tell everybody to recommend the two, two and two. That way you get a little everything is that
Nestor Aparicio 29:52
gotta kick that horse rag my sinuses, that’ll open you up quick. All right? Maybe I get a beverage. I mean, maybe I get a natty boat on her dad that here we’re out here. We. Finn McCusker. He is the son of skanny, who we lost about a dozen years ago. But they’ve just opened this beautiful space where foundry row painters mill hon back in one of the first concerts ever saw was Frankie Valli into four seasons. Right over here at painters mill music theater always wanted to see Liberace. They wouldn’t take me out to see him back in the 70s, but and I I saw crack the sky there once, but that was the only two times I was ever there. I missed the pretenders and the police and Alice Cooper. There a whole bunch of shows golden earring that happened in my childhood out here. But that is a beautiful area that people walking by. It’s an outdoor space. You got garage door here, so you open up in the summers to that crash door.
30:40
We keep show. We actually have an oyster bar right there that has a garage door and outside bar on the patio. We’ll
Nestor Aparicio 30:45
lift you up patio. You have an outdoor passer. I gotta get to know the space. It’s more than a row house, right? So I gotta, my wife’s gonna be like, my goodness, look at this big thing going on out of here. We’re doing smells. We’re gonna continue on. Our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, getting Luke back and forth. I always I say Owings Mills, like 100 times a week, because it’s where Luke goes to cover the Ravens. We’re in Owings Mills. Ravens are that way. The stadiums that way. We’re hoping for good things again this week from the ravens, full time World Series coverage around here this week, as well as getting ready for the election next week, I’ve got a lot of really cool people on. Josh Curtis coming on, Pam Woods coming on from the Baltimore banner to talk about Senate race, talk about America, the beautiful and what a week ahead. But in the meantime, if we go down, I’m going down with grilled oysters and mamas on the half shell we’re at, yeah, hey, man, you know last supper for me winds up being a soft shell crab. BLT, that really sounds good, too. See, that’s the thing about the fried oysters. You look you looked at me like I had two heads when I said I’d never had fried oysters. I would not get an oyster, po boy. I would get a shrimp. Po boy, right? So that’s why I never go in that direction. But I’m gonna go in that direction today, because we’re still celebrating oysters here. The month still has an R, November as an R, right? So we’ll still have good that’s not is that a fallacy? Do you do oysters 12 months or
32:02
we do oysters 12 months out here depends on where you get them. You can get them all with Pei up in Canada. Get them down to Virginia. Don’t
Nestor Aparicio 32:07
ask me my Pei story. It involves the weekend your dad passed, and it would make your father laugh. So I’m going to tell it to you because you said, Pei, I told this story a little while ago. It’s a hockey story too, so I’m wearing hockey stuff, so maybe I should tell it, because it involves Prince Edward Island and involves oysters and your father was a famous cheap skate. I’m not telling you that. I know it. It involves me being a cheapskate. So we’re gonna have fun fins out here. We’re out of mama half Shel brought to by the Maryland lottery and Jiffy Lube multi care. You think I’m ready to tell hockey stories today, man, I got my skip Jacks gear on. We’re gonna honor Jeff amder Howard chair is gonna be here. We’re gonna talk some skip jacks. Too bad I couldn’t get the Barry Trotz or Dougie McLean to call in live via satellite, but, but they’re here in spirit with my skip Jack Jersey back for more. We’re W N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore positive and oysters and and I even mentioned a crab cake, and it’s the freaking crab cake tour. Stay with us. You.
