The NY Times last Wednesday printed an article about clam bars in the greater NY area. As I read it I began to drift off on the fresh briny memory of my first raw clam. I couldn't have been more than four or five years old when- with my father- I'd first bellied up to the bar at Lundy's on Emmons Avenue in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, where you were met not by bartenders but by a couple of seasoned shuckers handing you plates of ice cold, smelling of the sea, deliciously briny clams- a dozen at a time- accompanied by a wedge of lemon, cocktail sauce (for non-purists), and a long wooden fork. It would be not too long after that, my father would introduce me to both Joe's and Randazzo's clam bars just down the street. Remarkably it seemed they all did very well. In 1977 Lundy's closed and Randazzo's seemed to become the main attraction. Anytime we had the urge we'd run on down to "the bay" to stand at the sidewalk counter with a whole lot of other people with the same urge, dancing in place in anticipation to hold that plate under our chins and slurp back those perfectly cold, magnificently saline creatures, while the rest of Brooklyn drove by in their Monte Carlos and Coupe deVilles as the day boat fishermen yelled out "FAAHRESH FISH HEERE!" Little did I know then I was embarking on the long road to obsessive food sensualism syndrome or OFS (ask your doctor if you have OFS).
That was a long time ago. I haven't been to Sheepshead Bay in years. I get the feeling it hasn't changed much though. Sure the 'Montys and Caddys may have been replaced by Priuses and mini vans, but as long as people long for fresh and seasonal foods, the like's of Randazzo's should prevail. But more so-If you go to this video link at the Times you'll hear Paul Randazzo explain the fine art of opening a clam. I never met him, but he more than likely shucked dozens of dozens of clams for me as he worked for his father as a very young man. If I close my eyes I can almost smell those beautiful clams and here the clicking of their ice cold shells on my bottom teeth.
