'True Blue' Crabs Surface In Georgetown

For real Maryland crabs in Georgetown, check out , or in Georgetown. Or head north to Glover Park—the Whole Foods Market there is a certified purveyor of "True Blue" crabs from the Chesapeake Bay.

Several area restaurants and food retailers are among 14 in the District that can officially say they sell true Maryland blue crabs. Montgomery County boasts a list of 50 locations with blue crabs.

Shortly after Gov. Martin O’Malley announced in May that the this year, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) launched the True Blue initiative as a way to support businesses using local crabmeat.

According to the DNR website, the True Blue program provides certification to restaurants using department-verified Maryland blue crabmeat and allows those restaurants to use a special logo in marketing their crab dishes. 

Among the businesses that made it on the DNR’s recently released list of True Blue participants were the Whole Foods Markets in Glover Park, Foggy Bottom, Tenleytown and Chevy Chase, and Dino, an Italian restaurant in nearby Cleveland Park, Washington, DC.

"Customers can look at a menu and know right away that they're getting what they think they're getting," Steve Vilnit, the DNR director of fisheries marketing, said in a statement about the program.

Read more about the program—including which businesses are offering True Blue crabs—on the DNR's website.

Shaun Courtney contributed to this article.