Costas Inn Works Around The Clock To Deliver Crab Cakes For Christmas

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- With the advent of overnight delivery services, regional delicacies can be easily shipped across country.

As WJZ's Mike Schuh reports, one well-known Baltimore restaurant says its business is booming as it sends a bit of Charm City to those happy to get a taste of home for the holidays.

The sun was barely up when WJZ visited Wednesday morning, and Costas Inn general manager Pete Triantafilos was already on the go.

"Well, I'll tell you, when the orders come in it gets overwhelming," he says.

In the last three years, holiday gift shipments have really taken off, according to the restaurant. Ten pounds of jumbo lump at a time, Pete can barely keep up sometimes.

"We'll sleep later on," he says. "We're pretty much 24-7 right now."

Each cake is handmade, five ounces to a half-pound.

The cake-making process is repeated all day long.

"We make them fresh," he says. "They're made daily, and they go out the same day they're made."

And as soon as they're ready, he gets them into their insulated coolers.

Then they get shipped out to the homesick, and the well-known.

"We send crab cakes to Adam Jones, Tony Siragusa, Buckey Lasik," Triantafilos says.

The truck has to get to Fed Ex by 8 p.m.

And while all that catering is going on, Pete's got the restaurant and bar still to run.

But after today and tomorrow, the 20-hour days will be over.

Sure, the people who are getting these boxes grow his business, but they also allow him to enjoy his life's work.

"Nothing better than having people that are happy receiving something that you're making for them."

The tells WJZ that 90 percent of their orders for crab cakes come in online.

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