Crab Boil at Back Forty

At the peak of crab season every year New York restaurant Back Forty invites diners to roll up their sleeves, pick up a mallet and dig in; and every year I happily oblige.  A bucket of Old Bay-doused crabs are emptied on newspaper-covered tables, along with whole buttery red-skinned potatoes and ears of sweet corn, all of it washed down with frosty pitchers of beer. It’s the most glorious mess.

Back Forty, 190 Avenue B, backfortynyc.com.