The Old Buttery Salty Clam

Yesterday, The Great Plotnik and The Great Ducknik went to Costco so Duck could pick up her new twelfth pair of glasses. (Last night, The Poet Large Pants wrote about his own trip to the Price Club (which became Costco) some years ago. Was this a coincidence? I think NOT.)

Afterwards, it was time for lunch. Do you have a place you've been passing for years but never quite stopped to check out? For the Plots, this was The Old Clam House on Bayshore. Surrounded by industrial supply houses and car repair shops, TGP expected the place to be packed with happy local lunchers. Wrong.

What he found was a pricey and nearly empty Irish bar/seafood house with an unreconstructed menu that could have been ripped from a Redbook Magazine in the 1950s. (Well, it does say 'Old' on the restaurant name, doesn't it? Shouldn't have been a surprise.) The food was good, and portions very large. The fish was fresh and there was a lot of it. The bar has metal saddles instead of seats, which ought to cut down on dawdlers during happy hour.



But someone ought to tell the Old Clam House that it's 2007. Tastes have changed. Those scallops and shrimp in the top picture were tasty, but ridiculously, idiotically (criminally? no) buttered and salted. Maybe this is how workers ate in 1942, but they were going to war. And prices ain't cheap, which perhaps accounts for why there were few workers inside.



Duck's seafood curry was pretty good, though. The Old Clam House is probably counting on a huge inrush of business after the New Home Depot opens, if they ever start construction down the street, which may or may not ever happen. Liking the idea of tradition, if not the cooking methods, The Great Plotnik hopes things work out for the Old Clam.