Capt. John’s, the waterfront crab house and marina that has anchored the Newburg riverfront in Charles County for more than six decades, is officially for sale, according to a new commercial listing and confirmed by the business’s own materials.
The property at 16215 Cobb Island Road includes the full operation: an approximately 8,712-square-foot building housing the restaurant, a convenience store and a take-out counter, plus a 40-plus-slip marina with daily and overnight docking and water and electric hookups, according to the listing and Southern Maryland Chronicle’s earlier coverage of the sale. The sale price covers the real property, the marina, the business itself, and the furniture and fixtures inside.
Capt. John Shymansky established the restaurant in 1963, and it has remained family-owned and operated since, according to the business’s own website. It has built a reputation across the region for Maryland steamed crabs, crab cakes and other fresh seafood, served both indoors and on an open-air waterfront deck. The property also carries an on- and off-sale beer, wine and spirits license, a Maryland Lottery license, and on-site fuel pumps serving both cars and boats, according to the listing.
The listing agent, Tommy McKay, a commercial advisor with McNelis & Associates of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, is marketing the property’s location as a draw in itself — an easy drive from Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, and a longtime stop for weekend boaters navigating the Potomac River. McKay’s listing describes the site’s waterway access as Neale Sound, just off the Wicomico and Potomac rivers; multiple marina directories describe the property more generally as sitting directly on the Potomac.
Beyond the physical property, the listing points to Capt. John’s social media following as a built-in marketing asset for a new owner. The business’s Facebook page had roughly 44,300 likes at last check, short of the “nearly 50K” figure cited in the listing — a gap that may reflect the difference between page likes and followers, or simply the normal drift of a running count between when the listing was written and when it was checked for this article.
The sale marks a significant milestone for a business that has become a fixture of Southern Maryland’s boating and dining culture, drawing both locals and travelers making the trip down the Potomac. Marina reviews posted over the past decade consistently cite the crab house’s food and the marina’s simplicity — basic power and water hookups, a fuel dock, and direct access to the restaurant — as reasons boaters return year after year. Charles County officials have separately highlighted waterfront tourism, including sites like Cobb Island and the Potomac River corridor, as a priority for the county’s economic development efforts, according to Southern Maryland Chronicle’s reporting on the listing — a backdrop that could shape how the sale is received locally, whether the buyer maintains the restaurant’s identity or repositions the property entirely.
No asking price was listed in the materials reviewed for this article, and neither the listing nor Capt. John’s website indicates a timeline for the sale or whether the business will continue operating under its current name during a transition.
