Your Chance to Experience a Traditional New England Clambake

McGrath Clambakes is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by hosting a traditional clambake at Newport’s Eisenhower House overlooking Narragansett Bay.

August 20, 2019

A traditional clambake by McGrath Clambakes.

Check something major off that summer bucket list on August 29. McGrath Clambakes is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by hosting a traditional clambake at Newport’s Eisenhower House overlooking Narragansett Bay.

McGrath Clambakes was founded in 1969 and has been leading legendary clambakes for fifty years. Tom McGrath learned the custom from his father, and passed it down to his own son, T.R. McGrath, who purchased the company in 1999 and expanded the business to include surf and turf dinners, raw bars, action stations with specially made dishes and barbecue.

The public clambake takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. and for $50 per person includes a reception hour with Rhode Island clear broth chowder and stuffies, followed by the unveiling of the clambake piled high with layers of rockweed and Spinney Creek Maine soft shelled steamed clams, Prince Edward Island mussels, local sweet corn on the cob, red bliss potatoes, chourico (Portuguese spicy sausage) and one-and-a-quarter-pound Rhode Island lobsters. Barbecued chicken, watermelon and a salad of baby spinach, roma tomatoes, fresh avocado and roasted red peppers with a strawberry scallion vinaigrette will also be served.

This is a real New England clambake using fresh rockweed harvested off the coast layered with local seafood and cooked using a process passed down from early New England colonists. A bonfire will be built at the event grounds with alternating layers of wood and rock, which will settle down to a bed of hot coals and rocks which provides the heat to cook the food. Then the rocks are blanketed with layers of the rockweed, which causes bursting bubbles of seawater from the seaweed to steam and season the food with a fresh-from-the-ocean flavor. The clambake is covered with canvas and set to steam for several hours until the perfect summer meal is revealed. Guests will get to see and taste the whole process in one of Rhode Island’s most scenic locations.

McGrath Clambakes caters events ranging from weddings and large corporate parties to informal gatherings. For more information visit riclambake.com or call 401-847-7743.