welcome to sassafras
Sassafras is a cottage restaurant in Betterton, Maryland, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and Sassafras River.
We are currently sold out through November. December seats are now available.
Join our mailing list to receive advance notice of seat releases, notes from Paul, and updates from Sassafras.
We welcome guests to our Chef's Counter—an intimate front-row seat for just eight guests each service. There, guests are served directly by Chef Paul Edward and the Sassafras team and enjoy a twelve-course tasting menu that reflects the tides, forests, and farms of the Chesapeake region.
Our menu celebrates hyper-seasonal, modern Chesapeake cookery. All seafood is wild-caught from Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake waters, with the exception of a stunning caviar sourced from wild Mississippi River sturgeon.
The mornings are crisp out in the gardens and farms and on the waters. The autumn harvest has begun. We’re enjoying mustards, squash, greens, roots, hams, and we’re filling up the smokehouse.
Dinner begins promptly at 6:45pm; doors open at 6:30pm.
Lunch begins promptly at 12:15; doors open at Noon.
Beginning in November, we will welcome guests for dinner Wednesday through Saturday, with one intimate seating each evening at 6:45pm.
The experience lasts approximately 3 hours. For frequently asked questions visit our FAQ page.
Reservations are required.
About Chef Paul Edward
My food is largely influenced by the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the people who’ve lived along its shores for centuries. When I was a boy I visited Historic Mount Vernon, where a farmer prepared Johnny Cakes over embers right there in the field along the bank of the Potomac. After having journeyed far and wide I think back to the time when fish was roasted over fire and corn was made into batter and baked over coals and the smoke of oak perpetually perfumed. I created Sassafras so I could penetrate time and stay there. Join me, won’t you?
Proprietors: Paul Edward & Caroline Benkert