Maryland’s most famous export, Old Bay, reportedly showed up outside a New Yorker’s apartment at 7 this morning in an attempt to track down one of its most serious devotees.
The regionally venerated spice blend, most noted for its ability to complement crabs, also apparently belongs on your internet connection. Catherine Zhou, head of data science for Code Academy, tweeted this morning that someone wearing an Old Bay sandwich board visited (stalked?) her home after discovering she named her wi-fi “oldbayseasoning-5G.” The company does not have a New York office, leaving the question of whether or not the man draped in an Old Bay sign drove three hours north before the sun rose today.
So I got ambushed outside my apartment this morning because someone at @OLDBAYSeasoning found my wifi network……. ? ? ? https://t.co/8sfNDv7ljO
— catherine zhou (@catherinezh) August 9, 2019
Old Bay’s hyperactive Twitter account tweeted back to Zhou with a vaguely ominous response.
What can we say… we have eyes everywhere ?
— OLD BAY (@OLDBAYSeasoning) August 9, 2019
Old Bay, which is owned by Baltimore-based McCormick, appears on a range of DC menus, from Kinship’s Old Bay sorbet-topped cucumber gazpacho to Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken’s Old Bay doughnut fried-chicken sandwich.
Unsurprisingly, the company’s stunt is part of a marketing campaign, the #OldBayFanContest. The brand is searching for its top fan, and you can enter by posting on Instagram using the hashtag and tagging @oldbay_seasoning. The contest ends August 20.
The winner receives a trophy and the one prize that might motivate a DC enthusiast to enter—an Old Bay-branded electric scooter.
Katrina Schmidt joined Washingtonian as an editorial fellow in 2018. She is from Baltimore, Maryland, and currently lives in Burleith.
