The Family Behind Maryland’s Best Crab Cakes

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Costa’s Inn has been owned and operated by the Triantafilos family since 1971. Originally founded by father Costas who still owns and works at the restaurant seven days a week, and now run by his son Pete the institution serves up the best crab cakes and steamed crabs in all of Baltimore. Which is a tightly contested title to hold.

Costa’s Inn is a lot more than just a beloved seafood restaurant. It’s a local sports bar, a check-cashing business, and a family gathering place. Everyone in the Triantafilos family has worked there at some point or still works there. A lot of love and pride goes into the best crab cakes in Baltimore, rest assured.

00:00 Intro
00:30 Meet the Men Behind Costas Inn
01:53 Baltimore’s Best Crab Cakes and Steamed Crabs
03:39 Cashing Checks
05:08 An Institution

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-Alright, alright, alright. -Who are we playing? -Must be action out there or something. -No. [ Indistinct conversations ] -I’m pulling the strings behind the scenes, you know? I saw a bad play coming in. I figured I’d cut the power. [ Laughter ] My name is Pete Costas Triantofolous, general manager of Costas Inn.

Costas Triantofolous. Presumably I’m the owner. [ Both laugh ] -Costas Inn is a family-owned business for over 51 years, opened in 1971, serving Baltimore’s finest dishes — the iconic crab cake, fresh seafood, and, of course, Maryland steamed crabs. -Came from Greece as a 15-year-old in 1955.

$5 in my pocket, and I had not one word of English. So today, what I’ve accomplished, I’m very proud — my business, my family, my customers, my friends. But most of all, I’m most thankful for this country. -It’s the American dream. He came from Greece, started with nothing,

And turned this into an icon in this part of Baltimore. As a kid, I was always here working, messing around as a young kid. But then after high school and a couple of years of college, I came home full-time. So from 17 years old, I came in, started managing, running the place,

And the rest is history. How lucky am I to work with my dad for, you know, my entire life, side by side every day? It doesn’t get any better than that. To work with your family and build something that means everything to you, having people come in and leave happy,

That just really puts it all into a really good place. Guys, I got your order cooking. -Good deal. -Extra crab, imperial stuffed shrimp. Yes? -Oh. Just the way you do it — perfect. -Gonna fix it up real nice. -[ Laughs ] -You know, we make traditional Baltimore crab cakes, no bells and whistles.

We have some bread crumb that has been put into the Cuisinart, make it nice and flaky. And then we’re gonna jazz up the flavor a little bit. Just gonna add some parsley. And then the Old Bay gives it a little kick.

So, we have 10 pounds of jumbo lump, all jumbo lump crab meat. We toss that in, and we get a nice consistency there. And now we’re ready for our imperial sauce. It’s egg, it’s mayonnaise, it’s spices, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, combination of all these flavors.

Our Costas Inn seasoning is a big ingredient in that. Gently toss this together. Gonna gently toss this, just to get it all blended together equally. And you just want to be careful not to break the lumps up, because that’s what you’re buying. You’re buying jumbo lump, colossal meat,

And you want to keep it all nice and together. When folks come back, they come back because they like something. And when they come back, they want it the same way they had it before. This is the authentic, traditional Baltimore crab cake. It’s definitely the most volume menu item that we have.

These are our steamed crabs, of course. This is an ongoing process, day in and day out. In the ice. Make them numb. Live in the pot. Steam them up onto the tray, onto the customer. Nonstop, all day long. We have lottery. We have check-cashing.

Daily operations go from the carryout to the steam crabs to the kitchen, restaurant, the bar. There’s a lot of ground to cover. Yeah. Well, this is a whole nother element. This is almost like we’re a bank, you know, cashing checks. When Bethlehem Steel had 40,000 people,

There was a line around the bar, and we cashed checks for, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours at a time. -Remember when your mother used to open up on Wednesday? They waiting for her outside to open up at 6:00 in the morning. -Because there were three shifts down there.

So 7:00, they’d be pouring in here to cash their check. They’re getting off like happy hour. They want to cash their check, and they want to drink. The area where we are is definitely a working-class area, Very, very strong-knit community. It’s just a wonderful — just you can’t find a better place.

You really can’t. And we’ve been here for 51 years, and the community is so tight, supportive. And it’s a very, very, very great environment. When Dad bought the place, Bethlehem Steel was three miles down the road. So this is a very, very industrial area, workingman’s place — cashing checks, beer, just —

We were open from 6:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the morning. So that was the business model for 20, 30 years. This area here, Sparrows Point. So that’s Bethlehem Steel. That’s the plant that had 40,000 people working there. So, this is all gone. So, we went full-fledged restaurant,

Full-service crab cakes, everything made from scratch. We just reinvented the wheel and just turned it into what it is today. Just a landmark that people just come to when they come into Baltimore. They want to come to Costas. Big Orioles, big Raven bar. Yeah, and Caps.

Yeah, but it’s a big sports bar for sure. Big fan base in Baltimore. We’re definitely purple on Sunday. [ Laughs ] -Yeah! [ All cheering ] -The best crab cake you can get. And I’ve had them all. -We had our seats, and everybody canceled on us because of the rain.

And John goes to me, “Where do you want to go?” And I said, “I want to come to Costas.” -Oh, thank you. Well, here we go. Fourth. -Come on, come on. -Come on. Come on! Get rid of it! -Come on! Oh, Jesus! Oh, man. Damn! -Gave away 3 points.

You ain’t getting no $400 million, buddy. -Would you like something to drink? -Yeah. I’ll take an unsweetened iced tea. -Iced tea? -Yeah. And can I have a Natty Boh, as well? -Natty Boh? -Yeah. Yes, please. -Like, I found out about this place when I talked to one of my best friends.

And I was like, “Hey, what’s the best crab place in Baltimore?” And she immediately just said, “Costas. Nowhere else. Just this place.” Everyone that comes here lives around the area. And it’s amazing. Like, in all honesty, like, the income level in Baltimore isn’t really super high. So to have so many locals come

And drop hundreds of dollars on crabs and seafood, it’s like a really big testament to how good the food is here. Alright. Let’s do this crab cakes. [ Indistinct conversations ] -This is the best crab cake in Baltimore, hands down. -Stuffed shrimp. -I’m so ready.

My body is ready. Let’s do this. -And creamed spinach. -Thank you. It’s like walking into, like, your aunt’s or your grandma’s house, you know? They always recognize you. They remember your name. Just really incredible spot. They’ve been around for 50 years. Multiple generations. Whole family works here.

Just the love and care that goes into everything that they do here is absolutely incredible. -They lost again. -Yeah. [ Laughs ] -What is going on, man? I’m telling you, we can’t put it together. Eh, we’ll drown our sorrows. [ Laughs ] Enjoy. Thank you. My uncle’s here. My mom is here.

A lot of the recipes she had started from when she was here, so that was a great base to start with. My brother’s here. My sister’s here. My wife is here. And when you work closely with family, of course you’re gonna have some bumps in the road.

So we had some differences, but we see eye to eye. So any differences that we had, they were very small. And we always worked through them, and we just see things the same way. So that really makes it a lot easier working together. And it’s a passion.

You know, everything in here is passion. -He’s taught me everything I know. He’s the one that taught me about money. So, like, when you went to the cash register and you put the exchange like $20, he’s like, “You can’t use that.” He wouldn’t let me use that. So I had to count back.

So, I’ve been here ever since I was, what, 3 years old? I can remember from the last place to here. Just it’s a community, a family. Doesn’t matter if you’re blood or you’re not. We just have a very tight-knit group. My daughters work here on and off.

My brother’s kids worked here. His son works here. So it’s a whole, literally, family-run business. -I’ve been here for 23 years, but I was a customer before I was a worker. So a long time. -Yeah. We’ve been through a lot together. -Yeah. -Life’s challenges and making it through the different pandemic

And all that good stuff. -Yeah. Yes, we did. -Right? -You know, when a family run a place, it’s pretty hard to get along, you know? But thank God we don’t have no problems. You know, family sometimes, you know, you have the wrong points. But I thank God, you know, with my brother-in-law here,

Since it’s been, you know, 51 years, him and my daughter — everybody, you know? So, it’s pretty hard to get along with a family, but thank God, you know, everything works well. ♪♪ All my life, I’ve been to satisfy the people. You know, I go out of my way,

You know, to make sure everybody, when they leave from here, is happy. And all the people, friends and stuff — you know, like you one time, you know, I got busy and stuff. I left, and I just say good night to them. I got halfway home.

I turned around and apologize. I didn’t say good night. -He drove all the way back here to say good night. -It’s just the way I am. -But I think that’s what makes us so successful, because it all starts from the top. Yeah. We’ve had several offers to go into other parts of Baltimore

And open up other locations. But, you know, it’s just — Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Lots of opportunities. But we just declined. We’d just rather just expand from here and just run this place 100% with our own efforts and make sure that we please everyone that comes in.

We’re proud of what we’ve done over the last 51 years, and we just want to keep it going. And just that means everything to us, to be in this location and have done what we have and just looking forward to what we have in the future. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪