Larry
Olmsted, Special for USA TODAY
The scene: Coastal New England
is dotted with seafood shacks and eateries of every description, and no visit
is complete without the region's famous fresh lobster, clams and chowder. But while
you can find the staples like lobster rolls and oysters on the half shell
everywhere, there are surprising hyper-local specialties and notable regional
differences between neighboring states separated by just a few miles. Maine is
best known for its lobster, in the shell and in the hot dog bun; Connecticut
created the now-legendarywhite clam pizza; and Massachusetts proudly invented
the fried clam on Boston's North Shore.
But when it comes to
regionalized New England seafood, no state stands alone like Rhode Island,
which has its own unique and eponymous form of clam chowder, claims the stuffed
clam -- or stuffie in Rhody-speak -- as its own invention, uses hot peppers to
spice up Rhode Island-style calamari, and loves clam cakes, largely overlooked
in the rest of the region. These four dishes form the basis of must-try Rhode
Island seafood specialties, and after asking numerous locals where to find the
best, I got little but partisan disagreement.
However, a couple of names kept
coming up, which led me to the Matunuck Oyster Bar, on the southeastern-most
tip of the state near the Connecticut border; the full service Flo's Clam Shack
in Middleton, abutting tourist-mad Newport; and the lesser-known but
atmospheric Flo's Drive-In in Portsmouth. All three are on the southern coast,
and Matunuck is the most full-service restaurant, with indoor dining, table
service and full raw bar, but also ample outdoor seating and full bar
overlooking the surf. It sits right along the road on a narrow spit of land
with water on both sides, and it is so popular that the valet parking lot
stretches down the coastline.
The Newport Flo's looks like a
classic sea captain's house just off ultra-popular Easton's beach, which
connects Newport and Middleton. It has outdoor seating plus indoor dining with
oyster bar and kitschy décor with life vests and fishing rods hanging from the
ceiling. There is almost always a line to get in, from a tiny back parking lot
that usually overflows.
The simplest and easiest to
visit of the three is Flo's Drive-In, a lower-key sibling of Flo's Clam Shack.
A classic coastal joint, it is one simple small building with windows for
ordering and picking up, picnic tables for dining, everything served in
styrofoam clamshell containers, plastic sauce cups and brown paper bags, with a
limited menu and little else - except the feel of New England ocean escapism at
its best. They even hand out lobster-shaped buzzers to let you know when your
food, cooked to order, is ready. Since 1936 this has been the site of the first
Flo's, originally a chicken coop, twice destroyed by hurricanes and last
rebuilt in 1991.
Reason to visit: Flo's clam
cakes, Matunuck Oyster Bar's R.I.-style calamari
The food: Rhode Island clam
chowder is quite distinct from both of its better known rivals, New England
(white, thick, creamy and potato-laden) and Manhattan (red, thin,
tomato-infused broth). It is the most straightforward take on the genre, clear
broth (usually made with at least some clam juice) with minimal filling of red
skin potato chunks, celery and clams. Some places add a bit of diced bacon. The
emphasis is on the bivalves themselves and while it's thin, between the clams
and clam broth, it packs in briny clam flavor, salty and tasting of the ocean.
It's also one of those things appreciated more if you grew up with it -- if you
like clams, it is worth trying for the novelty, but frankly, it is hard to
imagine loving this soup. Flo's does a thicker style with more potato cut into
bigger cubes, and while still brothy, this thickens it a bit. I preferred the
purity of Matunuck's version more, with its pronounced clam taste, though the
small added pieces of bacon made it even saltier.
Since last year, calamari has
been the official "state appetizer," but not all squid is Rhode
Island-style calamari. In the rest of the country, fried calamari is pretty
consistent, served plain with cocktail sauce on the side. In the Ocean State
they toss it with slices of pickled hot peppers, banana, cherry or pepperoncini
(or a combo), and usually some of the vinegar they came in, sometimes made a
bit creamier with the addition of garlic butter. The bite of the peppers and
the tang of vinegar go perfectly with the oily fried squid, and when this dish
is good, it is great, so much so that you may never want to eat fried calamari
any other way. Matunuck does a fancified version that still focuses on very
tasty and fresh squid, an ample serving tossed with just a few slices of hot
pepper but also with a delicious, fresh and lemony aioli and baby arugula
leaves. The result is still mainly excellent fried squid, but the flavor is
amplified by the acidity of the dressing and nicely offset by the bite of the
peppers and pepperiness of the lettuce. Flo's takes a completely different
approach, serving a basic order of fried calamari with a chopped mix of hot
peppers in a plastic container on the side to serve yourself. No matter how
much I added it didn't integrate well, and for this regional staple, Matunuck won
hands down.
The advantage quickly swung
back to Flo's when it came to clam cakes. These are basically clam-studded
fritters of dough, and like any fritter, the challenge is balancing the taste
of the featured ingredient with the batter. I've had a fair amount of clam
cakes, and most have disappointed, often doughy, oily and tasteless. But not at
Flo's, where I had the best clam cakes of my life, and the single most standout
thing on this coastal trip. They were fresh fried and doughy but light, studded
with some corn kernels as well as clam, which gave them just a bit of sweetness
– like a seafood version of Italian zeppoli or doughnuts. Hot, fluffy and
balanced, I couldn't stop eating them. No wonder both people in line ahead of
me were there just to take out clam cakes, a dozen each – a big order – but
this is what Flo's is justifiably famous for. Their combo meal special is a cup
of R.I. chowder and three clam cakes, a good local sampling.
The only real disappointment of
the trip was the stuffies, I asked my friend Amy, a food-loving Providence
native, where to go and she said simply "My house. You have to make them
yourself. I've never had a good stuffie in a restaurant." The ones at
Matunuck were big and lived up to their name in that they were certainly
stuffed. Each was chock-full of small bread cubes, like bagged Pepperidge Farm
mix for turkey, with far too much breading for the clam. The ones served at
Flo's looked more promising and homey, with two assembled into a sort of closed
clam held together with a rubber band. But inside was a stuffing paste, a
smooth amalgam of breading and barely discernible clam meat, with no chunks.
Because they had some bits of jalapeño and nice spices, the stuffing was
actually quite flavorful, but not clam-flavored, and the consistency of mashed
potatoes.
Flo's is well worth a visit for
its signature clam cakes, and I'd definitely go back to Matunuck for its very
fresh take on the state's unique calamari (while I was exploring these four
local specialties, Matunuck Oyster Bar is also acclaimed for its oysters, and
operates its own 7-acre aquaculture oyster farm in nearby Potter Pond, as well
as its own vegetable farm supplying the delicious baby arugula).
Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes,
collectively because these unique Rhode Island specialties are just hard to
find anyplace else.
Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK,
Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $$ ($ cheap, $$
moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: Matunuck Oyster Bar,
629 Succotash Road, Matunuck, 401-783-4202,rhodyoysters.com; Flo's Clam Shack,
4 Wave Ave., Middletown, 401-847-8141,flosclamshacks.com; Flo's Drive-In, Park
Avenue, Island Beach Park, Portsmouth.
MORE: Read previous columns
Larry Olmsted has been writing
about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has
attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined
with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a
unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail
attravel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided
complimentary services.