Clam Box on Wollaston Beach

[9lives]

Had a very good fried clam roll at the Clam Box in Quincy. Very fresh, medium sized bellies, well cooked. Nice view of bay. Good choice if you're in the area.

[galleygirl]

How does it compare to the North Shore places, like Essex Seafood, or the intown options, like Barking Crab?

[9lives]

Based on my last trip to Barking Crab a few weeks ago, I'd rank it better than BC. BC wasn't bad..Clam Box just had a better hand on the fryer.

Compared to the North Shore, Clam Box was right up there. Maybe not up to the "best" I've had on the North Shore, but as good as most.

Wollaston has the advantage of being a shorter bike ride from downtown.

Edited June 14, 2004 by 9lives (log)

[RMChef]

I know this is a very late reply, but I'm at work with a ton of time on my hands(I love not being in the food biz anymore) and I cannot just let the last post stand witout comment.

The Clam Box is just fine, but the locals mostly eat at Tony's about 100 yards up the street.

I live 10 doors up form Wollaston Beach and grew up there , so I guess I qualify as a local.

Wollaston Beach used to have a lot more clam shacks. I used to man the fryer at one in the late 1960's. We used to fry the clams in beef fat then. Can't beat it for taste, but it was a digestive and nutritional nightmare.

I need to have "beach food " a few times a year or I get very cranky...ask my wife!

[bushey]

I don't remember ever eating clams at Wollaston Beach, but we used to go there a lot when I was a child (grew up in nearby Milton) and I loved throwing large rocks down on the wet sand and then digging furiously wherever there was a spurt of water............to find the nice, juicy clam that just gave away its hiding place.

[RMChef]

The clam flats were opened up again last year to commercial clammers after twenty years of "off limits". It was reported that about 20,000 lbs of softshell(steamer) clams were harvested the first day. They are sent to Newburyport for purification and then sold locally.

I remember digging them there as a kid. My brother and I had metal pails and clam forks. We would go down at low tide and fill a bucket apiece. My Dad would clean them up in a deep basement sink by flushing them with water several times and then "feeding " the clams corn meal. That would clean out the bellies. We would feast on steamers and melted butter and make chowder out of the leftovers.

This was long before we ever heard the word "pollution". We also used to catch loads of fresh flounders in Quincy Bay.

Those were the days.

[pattimw]

I live 1/2 mile in from Wollaston Beach, and I've only been to the Clam Box, but based on the recs here, I'll try Tony's in the summer.

Clam Box does do a good, generous lobster roll.