Newburyport and Cape Ann

[weinoo]

My wife and I recently spent a long weekend in Newburyport and on the north shore, and ate ourselves silly with lobster and fried clams, among other things. Here's a bit of a report (apologies to those who don't like pictures of food)...

Our first night was spent in Newburyport, at the Essex St. Inn, a nice, slightly shabby property within minutes of everything in Newburyport - a great old fishing town. First stop was at Bob Lobster, which is on the way to and from Plum Island, and where we ordered a light lunch, consisting of:

These were really good, the lobster roll nothing more than big chunks of lobster, a bit of diced celery, lightly dressed; the bellies were ungreasy and delicious. Here's the lobster roll:

Needless to say, a quite satisfying lunch, followed by dinner "downtown" at Aquatini, where we had a surprisingly good meal, studiously avoiding the eponymous martini list.

The next day we headed to Cape Ann and Gloucester, stopping for lunch along the way, first at:

Farnham's fried clams may have been our favorite ones of the trip, but we also loved the scallop chowder...check out the huge scallops in there:

And the bellies...

Next up, after a couple of Tums, was Essex Seafood, a non-descript place with a view of the parking lot, but with some pretty darn good bellies:

Proceeding on, to the lovely town of Gloucester, made famous in that Storm movie, and quite photographic - it's amazing and sad to think about, but over 10,000 fisherman have lost their lives in the 400 years that Gloucester has been a fishing village. The birds do not care.

These can be seen all around the harbor:

After they're hauled in by:

We stayed at the lovely Ocean View Inn, in East Gloucester, right on the water. Our room had an awesome view:

We had dinner that night in the restaurant in the hotel, and the view is why you would want to eat there. It has a nice little bar, too.

Were we done? No way, as lunch the next day was at The Lobster Pool, overlooking Ipswich Bay in Rockport. Once again, we ordered and ate. Rolls, bellies, chowder...

I was surprised at how grease-less all of the fried clams we ate were.

And Lobster Pool's lobster roll doesn't even bother with the celery, which is okay with me.

Dinner on our last night was at Duckworth's Bistrot, a quite fine place in East Gloucester. Everything on the menu can be ordered in full or half portions, and the food was well prepared and a nice break from all that fried goodness. I even got to eat a green vegetable other than diced celery or cole slaw .

[johnnyd]

Outstanding!

Thanks for the report weinoo!

This year's best in the New England Forum, by far!

[Chris Amirault]

Mitch, how'd you choose your restaurants? I'm surprised that you didn't stop by (my favorite) the Clam Box in Ipswich, and glad you didn't waste time at Woodman's.

[weinoo]

Mitch, how'd you choose your restaurants? I'm surprised that you didn't stop by (my favorite) the Clam Box in Ipswich, and glad you didn't waste time at Woodman's.

←

Chris, there's always this topic. And, between that and other research, I came up with the four places above (though we did end up at the Lobster Pool in Rockport twice, cause we liked it so much). Woodman's and Clam Box came so hyped up that they were eschewed for other, lesser hyped options.

We also wanted to eat lobster rolls, and both Bob Lobster and Lobster Pool allowed us to do so; I think Essex Seafood also had lobster rolls, but I didn't like the look of the lobster salad, so we didn't try those.

[hathor]

Oh...my...my.....my!! It almost makes me want to come back to NY!!

I adore lobster rolls, so simple...sooooo good. A nice, cold, mineraly white wine and life doesn't get any better. You've made me nostalgic.

[birder53]

I miss lobster rolls! Thanks for the wonderful trip up the New England coast. As far as Woodman's, I actually had a fabulous (and expensive lobster) roll a few years ago. It was much better than the fried clams we sampled.

[handmc]

Mitch, how'd you choose your restaurants? I'm surprised that you didn't stop by (my favorite) the Clam Box in Ipswich, and glad you didn't waste time at Woodman's.

←

Chris, there's always this topic. And, between that and other research, I came up with the four places above (though we did end up at the Lobster Pool in Rockport twice, cause we liked it so much). Woodman's and Clam Box came so hyped up that they were eschewed for other, lesser hyped options.

We also wanted to eat lobster rolls, and both Bob Lobster and Lobster Pool allowed us to do so; I think Essex Seafood also had lobster rolls, but I didn't like the look of the lobster salad, so we didn't try those.

←

Mitch it's a shame you didn't try the Clam Box. I grew up eating their full belly clams and oysters they were always great. I have been away from the Cape Ann area for 25 years and stopped in this spring when I happened to be in the area and they were still the best I have had. Agawam diner does a good fried clam as well.

The Clam Box

Clams to go!

Oyster Plate with Onion Rings, the BEST!