Governor Signs Bill Making Orange Crush Delaware’s Cocktail
Delaware Gov. John Carney joined other officials and Dewey Beach visitors at The Starboard this past Friday morning to sign a bill making the Orange Crush the state’s official cocktail. Steve ‘Monty’ Montgomery of The Starboard is pictured here with Dewey Beach Police Chief Constance Speake, Gov. Carney and Mayor William ‘Bill’ Stevens.
“One of the things about what we’re doing today,” the Governor said, “unlike other states, we’re able to have some fun as we do the hard work of representing all of you in these elected positions. And it’s been a great privilege for me to serve as your governor for eight years. I am on my last couple of months on the way out. It’s great to have this opportunity to finish off some fun with the Orange Crush, do some marketing for tourism and the restaurant association, and of course, The Starboard, by signing this bill.”
“I never realized how few words could cause such a big stir,” Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf told the crowd. Quoting from the bill, he pointed out that “the Orange Crush cocktail is claimed to have been originated by bartenders in Ocean City, Maryland. So we gave credit to Maryland!” But this has started a “little war between Maryland and Delaware. My word is that they claim to have invented it. Monty has perfected it,” he said. “My answer to them is, you can make it your state cocktail too,” Rep. Schwartzkopf pointed out!
They even had this little ‘mix-up’ on Capitol Hill between Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons to see who could make the better Orange Crush. “We let them win, just so they would feel better,” Rep. Schwartzkopf added.
“I will say that the crush, crush means a lot to this area, not just to The Starboard, but this entire Eastern Shore,” Montgomery said. “All that really matters about an Orange Crush is that it’s freshly squeezed. You can go to a lot of places in Delaware or Maryland, and they’re not going to squeeze the crush. So call them out,” he says!
The Orange Crush is more than just a refreshing beach cocktail. “You know why this place is still standing today? It’s because we sold enough Orange Crushes during Covid, takeout crushes that every neighbor in Delaware was coming down here to buy — two, four, six, eight crushes — to support our staff, to tip our staff… We’re thankful for that,” Montgomery explained noting that during those two years The Starboard sold “a lot of takeout, 99 percent of what we sold for takeout would be Orange Crush.”
“Not that any of us want to look back at Covid, but… this outdoor parking lot and take-out crushes are a silver lining of what’s come from Covid,” Montgomery added.
