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The Place

891 Boston Post Rd., Guilford, CT - (203) 453-9276
Posted By Michael Stern on 1/28/2011 4:20:00 PM
The Place is as plain as its name: an open-air clambake by the side of Route One. Tree stumps are chairs and cable spools are tables. They are all arranged in a sunny clearing around a smoky wood fire where seafood is cooked to order by the shirt-sleeved staff. Tents are erected for when it rains.

The menu includes bluefish, which we are told by experts is delicious. But for us, The Place is a place to eat clams, lobsters, and corn. The one need-to-eat dish is littleneck clams roasted over wood, split open, daubed with hot sauce and put back on the fire just long enough for the sauce and clam juice come together in perfect, picnic harmony. There are steamer clams, too; and don't forget corn-on-the-cob. It is cooked in its husk and swabbed with melted butter. All other accoutrements -- including bread and salad, wine and beer (and glasses for wine and beer, if you want them), you must bring yourself.

The Place is open only in the summer, starting the last weekend in April; and on a nice weekend day it can be maddeningly crowded. But come late at night on a weekday, and it is a happy retreat from the bustle of shoreline shops and traffic.

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Scorecard

5 - Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace
Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace
roasted clams
corn on the cob
lobster
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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

Tending the fire at The Place. Note the racks of clams ready to be roasted.
"Tending the fire at The Place. Note the racks of clams ready to be roasted."
Michael Stern





Picnic on the grass at The Place, where sunlight filters through trees and aromatic smoke billows from the open-air wood grill.
"Picnic on the grass at The Place, where sunlight filters through trees and aromatic smoke billows from the open-air wood grill. "
Michael Stern


An employee daubs heat-opened clams with melted margarine. Note the low-low prices on the tree in the background. This picture was taken over three decades ago.
"An employee daubs heat-opened clams with melted margarine. Note the low-low prices on the tree in the background. This picture was taken over three decades ago."
Michael Stern


If you look in the background of the photo, you'll see Route One, which was a quiet rural road when this photo was taken in the mid-1970s.
"If you look in the background of the photo, you'll see Route One, which was a quiet rural road when this photo was taken in the mid-1970s."
Michael Stern



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