RESTAURANT REVIEW:

Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story about looking for a safe haven from the cold of both the outside and the world.

It was a little bistro, and it was a place that he claimed as his alone, even if other people occupied it.

When you are solitary in nature, you look for such a place. My place must have four requirements: good music, good drink and a place for me to write and smoke a cigar.

Obviously with the state’s smoking law a place like that has been harder to find. There have been a few rogue bars, skirting the smoking zealots, but it rarely lasts.

My search was a passion, a quest if you will, and I stumbled upon my latest find much by accident.

I was walking around my new neighborhood, trying to familiarize myself with my new surroundings, when I saw Crabby’s Boat House.

It was a little joint that reminded me of a shrimp house I had seen in Louisiana. That place was filled with informality and unbelievable food. Off of the highway and without any fanfare, it has become a stop I make whenever down there.

My hope was that Crabby’s was a similar establishment. A friend and I made a stop there and, as we are both fond of shellfish, we had an anticipatory mood about us.

What impressed me the most was that the restaurant tests its clams, oysters and mussels for bacteria and only takes the freshest seafood it can find. There is a fear some people have of eating shellfish, and I understand that trepidation. This check should alleviate that fear.

Our first selection was an oyster for $1. That, along with 35-cent shrimp, are two specials that are offered every day.

Other specials are a bucket of king crab (2 pounds) with garlic bread for $49.75, a Mexican shrimp cocktail for $9.95 and a Tilapia dinner for $9.95.

The restaurant has a wide selection of specials, but my favorite section was the appetizers.

Here you’ll find a treasure of affordable shellfish, prepared in a variety of ways.

There is a sautéed shrimp, oyster shooters and garlic clams.

One of the most unique is a crab ceviche, which is cooked crab and shrimp in the traditional spicy lime sauce.

My favorite appetizer is the boat house shellfish combo. It is a large shallow bowl filled with clams, mussels, shrimp, crawfish and snow crab cooked with a garlic butter sauce.

It is $19.95 and worth every penny. There is so much food that it could easily feed two people. I couldn’t eat half of it.

I took the rest home, spent an hour de-shelling it and then made some pasta and had another meal for myself and a friend.

There are more items to eat than days of the week. The chili in a bread bowl is a perfect lunch item, and the hot chicken wings are ideal for noshing.

The emphasis is on shellfish, and they do it as good as any place I have been to. On a future visit my plan is to bring four people and order the Crabby’s clam bake, which features snow crab, mussels, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, spicy sausage and red potatoes.

The mixture is heaven, and with the mallet and wood block provided, it makes getting at the seafood a little easier.

Though the casual atmosphere belies informal eating, other more sophisticated entrees like New York steak and blackened chicken pasta grace the menu.

The biggest surprise of all for me was the outdoor patio. There I am allowed to enjoy a drink and a cigar, in a clean, well-lit place. I do so with a contentment that is hard to come by, but ultimately satisfying when found.

CRABBY’S BOAT HOUSE

ADDRESS: 200 Main St., Huntington Beach

PHONE: (714) 969-3772

WEBSITE: www.crabbyshb.com

CUISINE: seafood

SPECIALTY DISH: surf and turf

ALCOHOL SERVED: full bar

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $7.50 to $37.50

FAMILY FRIENDLY: yes, five-item children’s menu

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, MasterCard and Visa

RATING: *** 1/2 out of 4

JOHN REGER reviews restaurants for the Independent.