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Dewey Beach Institution

Hundreds show love for Ed’s Chicken and Crabs

Starboard hosts celebration for Dewey institution destroyed by fire
August 26, 2016

Story Location:
2110 Coastal Highway
Dewey Beach, DE
United States

For a man who unexpectedly lost nearly four decades worth of work two weeks ago, Ed Riggin was in a surprisingly upbeat mood Aug. 24 at the Starboard.

“I can’t do a damn thing about it,” said Riggin, 83, owner of Ed’s Chicken and Crabs, which was destroyed by an Aug. 9 fire that was triggered after a driver jumped a curb and ran into the restaurant at 2 a.m. “Sure, I have my down moments, but you’ve just got to move on.”

Hundreds of people showed their love of the Dewey Beach restaurant during a celebration that was not a fundraiser for Riggin, but donations for now out-of-work employees were accepted, and there was a silent auction with items that ranged from a kid’s pedal jeep, to gift certificates to a signed copy of the book “Dewey Beach - History & Tales.”

Riggin and his wife Sarah were the stars of the show and were besieged by well-wishers the whole night.

“It’s tremendous. It’s unbelievable,” said Riggin of the support.

One of the restaurant’s long-time supporters in attendance was Karen Shaud, who has lived in Dewey her whole life and whose parents opened the Bottle & Cork 80 years ago. She described Ed’s as a Dewey institution.

“It’s very sad,” she said. “There will probably never be another restaurant like it.”

Sarah Dougherty, who has assumed the role of Dewey town historian after the death of her mother, Barbara, in October 2015, helped set up a Facebook page for former employees to contribute photos to a video montage playing over the Starboard’s TVs.

“It was a great trip down memory lane,” Dougherty said, who worked at Ed’s for three summers. “I’ve never known Dewey without Ed’s.”

Dougherty credited Riggin with opening and maintaining a business in Dewey before the town was incorporated in 1981. It was like the wild west out here, she said.

Like all summer jobs, Dougherty looked back on her years of employment as labor-intensive, but fun work.

“It ran for years with the help of teenagers and Ed looking over everything, and we didn’t burn the place down,” she said, laughing and taking a deep sigh at the same time. “It’s a shame the way it went out, but it’s great to see the love.”

Liz Applebaum, wife of Dewey Town Manager Marc Appelbaum, said the first time Appelbaum brought her to the beach more than three decades ago, the first place they ate was Ed’s. Twenty-seven years of marriage later, it must have worked, she said.

One way or another, the majority of the people in attendance had some connection to Ed’s.

Joe Rutkowski of Lewes and Trabein Banks of Milford were sharing a box of crabs on one of the picnic tables salvaged from the rubble.

Rutkowski had worked for Riggin since 1988. He built the lighthouse that adorned the restaurant’s property. He built all the picnic tables, including the one he was eating at. He said he wasn’t concerned about the loss of the work.

“We all felt more for Ed than ourselves,” he said. “He’s just a great-hearted guy.”

Banks said he was there because the first time he ever ate crabs as a young man was at Ed’s.

“I saw this was happening and thought it would be nice to do it one more time,” he said.

Immediately prior to receiving a tribute from the House and the Senate, Riggin said his lease on the property expires in another year, and he had been thinking about retiring.

“But I sure was hesitant,” he said. “Damn, I loved what I was doing.”

 

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