New England Dining: Christie’s, Lynn MA

Christie's Restaurant
17 Lynnway, Lynn, MA
(781) 598-1122

I am a fiend for fried clams — so when I heard that food writer Ed Levine had recommended a top place that was relatively close to Boston, I raced over there to have some.

I'm not sure I agree with Ed that Christie's, which has been around and run by the same family since 1903, is that the best thing about it is the proximity to the airport — these fried clams, and the fried scallops — OH… MY… GOD… the scallops, are the best I have had anywhere. And once you get your clams in the bag, you can drive around the circle on Lynnway and look out onto the water, eating fried seafood over the hood of your car while you get a nice sea breeze. That's totally priceless in my opinion — I could care less that Christie's on the inside looks like its been through the wars. Well, because it has.

Christie's is the archetype of New England clam shack places, and its been around for 103 years.

The Christie's Menu.

A fully functional circa 1950's ice cream soda fountain setup.

Christie's uses basket fryers that were custom made for the restaurant.

Fried Shrimp, in paper bag.

Fried Ipswitch belly clams, Fried Shrimp and Fried Scallops, poured onto a paper plate from paper cartons. Christie's makes its breading from scratch using flour and uses no commercial seasonings. The seafood is fried in pure vegetable oil.

A half-eaten large box of clams.

Fried Scallop

Owner George Dean. His grandfather, Christie, opened the restaurant in 1903.

George making a "Frappe", which is their term for a Ice Cream shake.

A black and white Frappe, made from Hood's ice cream, a New England-based company.

Christie Dean.

The view across the circle from the Christie's parking lot.

Christie's as seen from the opposite side of the traffic circle.

An ideal view for eating Fried Clams al Fresco.

New England Dining: The Daily Catch, Boston

Daily Catch
2 Northern Ave, Boston, MA
(617) 772-4400

I'm up in Boston this week doing some consulting and I was able to meet up with some computer journalist friends attending Microsoft's TechEd conference that's been going on. Upon the reccomendation of our dinner's organizer, a local, we headed over to The Daily Catch, an Italian seafood restaurant located in the large Courthouse building right on the Harborwalk, across the street from The Barking Crab, a more well-known touristy kind of place.

The Daily Catch's Harborwalk location has been around since 1985, and it prides itself on being a squid specialist, having a number of dishes on its menu that feature the tentacled creatures. They claim to have popularized fried calamari into the United States, as well as fresh squid ink pasta since the early 1970's, at their original North End location.

Fried Calamari, made with fresh squid. It's probably one of the best ones I've ever tasted in any restaurant.

Fresh Squid Ink Pasta, appetizer portion, with ground Squid Meat in a Garlic Aoli. Excellent, but it makes you, ah, shall we say, release black waste matter for several days after eating. My dining companions noted that the dish resembled the Klingon dish gagh. Having not dined a la klingonoise (we don't have good Klingonese in Jersey or in Manhattan yet) I'll take their word for it.

Fresh Dry Scallops with Spinach Pasta in a Cream Sauce. It was deemed excellent by one of my foodie friends who ordered it.

This was a Tuna Viniagrette special.

Monkfish Marsala

Cold seafood appetizer platter

The squid combination platter, featuring fried calamari, stuffed calamari, scallops, calamari meatballs, and fried fish.

Very moist carrot cake.

Home made cannolis, with a creamy marscapone and ricotta filling with just the hint of orange peel in it. If they were served in NYC, they would be a serious rival to my favorite, Madonia's in the Bronx on Arthur Avenue.