First time restaurateurs dish out waterman-meets-chef at Wharf 38°

Owners Melissa Seymour, left, and her husband, Jay Seymour, right, with chef Brandon Moser, center. Wharf 38°, a restaurant in Deale, opened in July 2024. Paul W. Gillespie/Staff

In May, Jay and Melissa Seymour settled on the purchase of the building that would become Wharf 38°. By July, they were open.

The restaurant is located on the water in Deale.

The Seymours, who grew up in Chesapeake Beach and Deale, respectively, are veterans of the restaurant business, but Wharf 38° is their first time owning an eatery specializing in unique foods from the area.

“When this [property] became available … basically, I was like, ‘I’m going to be working my whole life. I might as well work for myself,'” said Melissa Seymour. “We didn’t want to be like every other restaurant.”

The quick opening grew from the couple’s desire to hit the ground running. The building was previously home to Cappy’s, which dished out fried chicken and crabs. The location has seen numerous restaurants come and go over the decades.

The couple brought in Brandon Moser, a longtime Washington D.C. chef who moved to Deale because he and his girlfriend wanted a slower pace.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work for some very talented chefs in my career,” said Moser, who at one time was the chef de cuisine at Teddy & The Bully Bar in Washington. “Getting to understand the concept of South County, for me was probably the more difficult [part] of building a menu here. I’m from D.C. … so, I kind of have that palette of expectations.”

Melissa Seymour said Deale taste buds differ from D.C.’s, adding that there were some area mainstays that needed to be on the menu, such as crab cakes.

“We wanted to have food that was tablecloth-worthy, but we’re still going to serve hard crabs on picnic tables, and we’re still going to have boats pull up with board shorts and bikinis in the summertime. So, how do you mesh that together? I think we’ve done it,” Jay Seymour said.

Moser plans to create a new menu for the restaurant every season, which he expects will draw customers back. He also runs the restaurant’s social media, Wharf 38 on Facebook.

According to Jay Seymour, the name partly came from Melissa Seymour’s grandparents, who would always call Deale’s waterfront “the wharf,” while the 38° came from Deale’s latitude.

During the busy season, the restaurant is open seven days a week, but it is currently closed on Tuesdays, partly because a number of staffers are college students.

The interior of the restaurant is filled with Seymour memorabilia. A countertop running through the center of the restaurant is made of shells encased in resin, which Melissa Seymour said she placed herself. Photos of Jay Seymour’s crab boat are on display, and his brother built some of the tables.

Around 60% of the restaurant’s seating is outdoors, allowing for live music and fresh air, something Jay Seymour said locals appreciate. Sometimes, anglers will deliver seafood right to the restaurant’s deck.

“I tell everybody it’s bartender-meets-waterman-meets-chef. We’ve got all three. We [came] together, and we created this crazy thing we got going on here.” Jay Seymour said.

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