Salisbury Stakeout By Roger Piantadosi Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 12, 2000

"Hi Hal, Dave Smithers returning your call at about 3 o'clock Thursday. . . " A slim, thirty-something guy in a polo shirt and shorts is on his cell phone as he pushes a stroller past me down a sun-speckled walkway at the Salisbury Zoo, a shady oasis this afternoon on Maryland's otherwise sweltering Eastern Shore. ". . . wanted to leave you a message about the meeting next Monday . . ."

His toddler smiles engagingly at me as they go by. A giant green-winged macaw 30 feet up in a nearby tree tilts his enormous beak in our direction.

"Hello?" he says.

Hello, indeed. A while back, in a story about Easton, Md., I called that spotless red-brick Talbot County city the commercial capital of the Eastern Shore--a comment to which several readers reacted by suggesting I spend some time in Salisbury. "There are a lot of good things to do in Salisbury, too," said one guy. "But we also work for a living."

Or do both at the same time, apparently--thanks to cell-phone technology, but also to the no-tech appeal of a place like this: A small (12.5 acres), free-of-charge city zoo with some 400 animals, none bigger than the rare spectacled bear but all apparently well-tended, where you can park in the shade of a big old maple and get some air. You can have your lunch (there are concessions and picnic areas in the surrounding city park, whose shade trees and walking paths twist around a branch of the Wicomico River), take your kid for a stroll and be back home--the park's surrounded by an old residential area, a few minutes from downtown--in time for a midafternoon teleconference.

I used to--everybody used to--hurry through Salisbury for two reasons. One: At this point, you're almost to the beach and you're really tired of being on U.S. 50, highway of franchises. Two: the smell.

Well, Salisbury can't do anything about its crossroads status--except just keep building more subdivisions, businesses and retirement villages/nursing facilities that are convenient to the many nearby lanes of U.S. 50 and 13 and have plenty of free parking. But something has been done about the uncomfortable odor associated with Salisbury's best-known business, Perdue's chicken-processing plants (they've upgraded their waste-processing systems); today, in the shadow of downtown, there's even a brand-new slick restaurant-bar called Brew River, right across from the plant's entrance.

In the past two days, I've been to a cheering, low-key minor-league baseball game at Perdue Stadium; I've ransacked the shelves of the hundreds of antiques dealers at Feldman's and Parker Place downtown looking for a certain kind of lamp, and then collapsed comfortably at another small antiques store that turned out to be a coffee bar and sandwich shop; I've wondered why such a fetching pedestrian mall downtown--with almost as many banks as Easton--didn't also have more sidewalk restaurants and small shops instead of the shuttered storefronts of lawyers and accountants.

But they're trying here in Wicomico County, where increasing numbers of folks would like to replace the declines in the seafood and (some say) poultry industries with increases in tourism and residential construction. They have a master plan (not yet implemented). They have the Shorebirds (the perfect name for an Orioles farm team).

And they have the zoo, where I now have been watching the spider monkeys watch me, and the families of four and five who come by to point and grin, for about as long as I can stand.

On the way out I pass the macaw, who is still up in his tree, undisturbed by the rude mob of native grackles everywhere on the ground eating his food. He is busy talking with an elderly woman down at the fence. "Cracker?" he says.

"Cracker?" she repeats, smiling up at him, also oblivious to the small mob of native humans that has gathered nearby.

"Cracker?" he says again.

"Cracker?" she repeats, a little clearer this time. I think she's getting it.

GETTING THERE: Salisbury, Md., is about 2 1/2 hours from the Beltway--unless you leave on a summer Friday--via U.S. 50 east. It's also about 40 minutes from downtown Ocean City.

BEING THERE: The Salisbury Zoological Park (410-548-3116, www.salisburyzoo.org) is free, and its 12 acres adjoin the shady picnic areas, paths and playgrounds of Salisbury City Park on a branch of the Wicomico River. If you're in Salisbury, you gotta go see the Delmarva Shorebirds (410-219-3112; $8, $5 for ages 6 to 12) at Arthur W. (Frank's father) Perdue Stadium, as much for the affable electric charge in the air around Class A baseball as for the actual after-game fireworks most Saturday nights (including July 15 and 22). On rainy or completely muggy days, some recommended indoor representations of the history and culture hereabouts can be found at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art (410-742-4988), Chipman Cultural Center's (410-860-9290) African American collection and the Wicomico Historical Society's modest Heritage Center (410-860-0447, closed Monday-Wednesday) in Pemberton Historic Park (410-860-2447), which itself offers nature walks and five miles of hiking trails within its shady 207 acres along the river.

If you like a country store you can actually get lost in, follow that scented-candle aroma to East Main Street's vast Country House (410-749-1959); and when you've seen floppy-eared bunny rabbits rendered in one too many craft media, move on to the modern stuff at the intimate Art Institute & Gallery (410-546-4748) downtown.

WHERE TO STAY: Any franchise you can name shares Salisbury's stretch of U.S. highways 50 and 13 with more than a few mom-and-pop motel shops; the tourism folks (see DETAILS) can get you a list. I had a clean and trouble-free stay (except, of course, that it was karaoke night at Harper's pub) at the city's full-service but not overpriced Ramada Inn (888-800-7617, www.ramadasalisbury.com; doubles $87 to $145). For the peace and quiet that comes with residing in two of the only 22 historic-register houses that remain in the onetime tobacco-trade axis of Whitehaven, seek out Whitehaven B&B (888-205-5921, www.whitehaven.com; doubles $75 to $100). The village is about 15 minutes plus a century or two from town, and its proximity to the ferry across the Wicomico makes it a favorite base among country-road explorers, both the four- and two-wheel type.

WHERE TO EAT: Crab lovers should find their way without trouble to Red Roost (410-546-5443), the landmark all-you-can-eat seafood house (once a chicken house) on the way to Whitehaven, as well as to Crab World (410-742-2211) on U.S. 50, which also has a weekends-only sushi bar. For gourmet coffee and light fare, there's the cool little antiques/coffee shop Aesop's Table (410-677-6744, open weekdays 8 to 3 only, unfortunately) and, out on U.S. 13 across from Salisbury State University, there are old-fashioned milkshakes and state-of-the-art espresso drinks at Scoops! (410-548-9889) Finer dining: Try Legends (410-749-7717) downtown or, for excellent views (both inside and out on the riverside deck), the cavernous new Brew River (410-677-6757).

DETAILS: The Wicomico County Convention & Visitors Bureau (410-548-4914, www.wicomicotourism.org) operates an open-daily information center on U.S. 13 north of Salisbury.