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By Rebecca Mahoney, Globe Correspondent Digging around to serve up clams
Shellfishing ban due to red tide leaves some restaurants in pinch
May 30, 2005ESSEX -- Before Ellen Pramas orders a plate of fried clams, she wants to know if they're from Ipswich.
She firmly believes no other clam can match the soft, smooth texture and gentle briny taste of an Ipswich clam.
''If you get them from anywhere else, you just don't know if they're going to be as good," said Pramas, 65, of Peabody. ''Ipswich clams are the best."
Whether slathered with hot butter or deep-fried to crunchy, salty perfection, Ipswich clams are Massachusetts's quintessential summer delicacy. But chilly weather and heavy rains this spring have triggered a massive bloom of the algae known as red tide, prompting state environmental officials to shut down shellfish beds from Maine to Cape Cod.
With North Shore clam beds out of commission indefinitely, many restaurants and wholesalers are importing clams from as far away as Seattle, Canada, and Maryland to satisfy local appetites.
If the ban remains in place much longer, a plate of fried clams could acquire the hefty price tag of lobster.
''We're kind of bracing," said Ralph Hawley, a manager at Woodman's, a counter-service seafood restaurant in Essex credited with inventing the first fried clam in 1916. ''I'm quite sure the prices of clams are going to go up."
Red tide is caused by an explosion of toxic micro-organisms that concentrate in clams, mussels, and other shellfish. It is not harmful to shellfish, but it can cause illness or even death in humans if consumed in enough quantity. It does not affect lobsters, shrimp, crabs, or fish, however, and the clams currently being sold in stores and restaurants are safe, officials said.
Yesterday, the red tide bloom showed no signs of dissipating, and Massachusetts officials said they feared the past two days of sun may be triggering a new explosion of the algae growth. The bloom has been blamed in part on winds from last week's unusual spring northeaster that drove the algae closer to shore from its usual habitat out at sea. A second bloom was reported during the weekend off the coast of Maine and it may be heading toward Massachusetts. Officials say the red tide could be a problem for at least several more weeks, well into prime mollusk-eating season.
But hungry vacationers crave platters of fried clams, and that's sending restaurants to seek supplies from distant ports.
''When red tide comes, you basically have to get what you can," said Briton Luhman, manager at Sir Cricket's Fish & Chips in Orleans on Cape Cod. ''We've got to have them. People want to eat fried seafood, even if it's not 90 degrees."
While the irony of a classic New England clam shack serving clams dug hundreds of miles away is not lost on local restaurateurs, they say the only alternative is removing an extremely popular dish from their menus during one of the busiest weekends of the year.
''I used to take them off the menu, but I had more people angry," said Don Berig, owner of the Lobster Claw in Orleans. ''People come to Cape Cod for frying clams and steamers and lobsters."
It's not uncommon for North Shore wholesalers to look beyond local flats when clam supplies are tight. Large buyers often travel to Chatham or Wellfleet on Cape Cod or up to Maine whenever shellfish beds are closed because of flooding or heavy rains resulting in bacterial contamination.
That's usually a short-term solution, however. For many North Shore restaurants, it's a point of regional pride to serve local seafood, especially the famous Ipswich clams.
The savory bivalves are renowned for their plump, luscious bellies and sweet flavor, and many restaurants advertise Ipswich or native clam plates on their menus in the hopes that the thousands of tourists who visit clam shacks and seafood restaurants each summer will appreciate sampling a New England icon.
''People know the Ipswich clams are the sweeter clam and the most tender clam," said Chickie Aggelakis, owner of the Clam Box in Ipswich, who was serving clams from northern Maine earlier this week and said she was contacting suppliers in Canada. ''You want to be able to tell people they're from Ipswich."
Already, at least one business has lost money because of the lack of available Ipswich clams. At The Fresh Lobster Co., a Gloucester-based mail-order company that ships fresh seafood, owner Ted Testaverde says he lost about $500 in orders this week when customers who wanted Ipswich clams chose not to buy the Brunswick, Maine, clams the company was offering instead.
''It's Memorial Day weekend, so it's bad timing," Testaverde said. ''We're getting calls from people who want Ipswich clams, and we're having to tell them that because of the red tide, we can't ship them."
Wholesalers and restaurants are keeping their fingers crossed that the red tide will dissipate soon and shellfish beds will reopen.
But if it keeps up, as scientists fear, restaurants will face a tough choice: let the high price of trucking in clams from Canada and elsewhere eat away at their profits, or raise menu prices and risk losing customers.
''I've already gone up once this year, before the red tide hit," said Aggelakis, who added that her fried clam plate rings in at $18.25. ''You can't gouge the consumer."
Restaurants said they're bracing for clam prices 20 percent to 30 percent higher than usual. Luhman, of Sir Cricket's, said he expects to pay between $100 and $130 a gallon, when in past years he's paid $75.
''It's like filet mignon," he said. ''It's not cheap to carry."
To some customers, there's romance in the idea of eating the famous Ipswich clam in a classic New England clam shack.
Paying higher prices for clams from far away feels somewhat unseemly, some said, and at least one customer said he'd rather eat a different local fish than clams brought in from somewhere else.
''If I were to come to a business like this, I'd prefer to be eating locally grown products, as opposed to supporting a business outside the community," said Jonathan Wolloch, 22, an artist from New Rochelle, N.Y., who visited Woodman's last week.
For others, however, spending time in New England and eating tasty seafood -- no matter where it's from -- is satisfying enough.
''They're still famous for their clams, whether they're from Ipswich or not," said Mildred Sheldon, 77, of Salem, who was dining at Woodman's with her husband last week. ''You come here for that."
Beth Daley of the Globe staff contributed to this story.Rebecca Mahoney can be reached at remahoney@globe.com.