Halladay's spice mixes make tasty meals a bit easier
Available at Volante Farms, 292 Forest St., Needham, 781-444-2351; Verrill Farm, 11 Wheeler Road, Concord, 978-369-4494; and online at
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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
Halladay's spice mixes make tasty meals a bit easier
Advertisement Available at Volante Farms, 292 Forest St., Needham, 781-444-2351; Verrill Farm, 11 Wheeler Road, Concord, 978-369-4494; and online at . Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up Advertisement
Boston Globe
28-07-2025
- Boston Globe
I worked a lunch shift at Woodman's of Essex and survived
'As the tickets come up, you want to check things off,' she explains, arranging a Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up Orders including clam plates, lobster rolls, and other fried seafood awaited pickup at Woodman's in Essex. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Advertisement I've been on the clock for barely an hour, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. It seems every ticket has seven plates. I don't know the difference between a scallop boat and a scallop plate, and I'm not sure where the cocktail sauce or oyster crackers are. But there's no time for handholding. Zoe is on to the next order. 'I need a crabmeat roll and a hotdog!' she hollers over her shoulder. This was my idea. Inspired in part by Advertisement Ally Rzesa/Globe Staff 'I'll put you on the window,' the restaurant's co-owner offered. 'You can probably handle that.' I've marveled at Woodman's since my first haddock sandwich and order of steamers at the North Shore landmark 20 years ago. I enjoy the restaurant's A portrait of "Nana Bessie" from circa 1950 hangs among historical displays at Woodman's in Essex. Bessie Woodman, wife of founder Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman, helped develop the first fried clam recipe in 1916 when the couple experimented with different batters after a fisherman jokingly suggested they fry clams like potato chips. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Maggie Reynolds (left) and Chanelle Jordan-Davis fill plates with fried food at Woodman's of Essex. They are "do-up girls," who quickly pile cardboard plates with fried clams, scallops, and other seafood from giant steel colanders, working in overdrive to keep up with customer demand. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Mostly, though, I just appreciate the hustle of the place. From the instant the doors open at 11 a.m., business can be extraordinarily brisk, and it's remarkable to watch plate after heaping plate emerge from a cramped kitchen staffed mostly by kids – many of them fourth- and fifth-generation Woodmans – doing a sweaty job for minimum wage. (Employees also get deep discounts on most menu items and eat mistakes for free.) Touting my experience – I'd spent a year in my 20s frying tater tots and churros at a Taco John's in Iowa City – I wanted to work the fryer. But Woodman, whose husband, Doug, is the youngest of 'Chubby' Woodman's 14 grandchildren, balked. I'm glad she did. When I arrive for my shift, I find head fryer Bobby Barrett dredging a batch of clams in a tub of corn flour. He's surrounded by scalding fryolators – 11 of them – and four coworkers who narrowly avoid each other as they drop endless baskets of clams, scallops, shrimp, haddock, fries, and onion rings into the cauldrons of lard. Advertisement Head fryer Bobby Barrett checks the order screen while working among the 11 scalding fryolators in Woodman's cramped kitchen in Essex. Erin Clark/Globe Staff 'It's a dance,' Barrett says, his right ankle bandaged as a result of a recent burn. 'You gotta have eyes in the back of your head.' That's not a superpower I possess, so in my white apron and mandatory Woodman's T-shirt and cap, I join Zoe at the window. She warns me the kitchen can get oppressively hot – the temperature has topped 125 degrees at times this summer – but it's a mere 97 degrees at the moment. 'I'm OK with that,' I say, lying. There are a dozen of us in the galley kitchen: a towheaded teen taking orders; me and Zoe; four fry cooks; three 'do-up girls' scooping just-fried seafood from giant steel colanders using a slotted utensil that resembles a 'Game of Thrones' weapon; the 'grill guy' cooking hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken; the 'backup girl' who hurries to butter and grill rolls and fill chowders; the steamer; and a dishwasher. The goal is to get the food out as fast as possible, but sloppiness, I'm instructed, is a no-no. Sean Doherty smiles at his daughter, Bailey, 3, while having lunch with his family, which also includes his son, Jason, 3, and wife, Cari, at Woodman's in Essex. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Cooked lobsters sit on ice at Woodman's in Essex. Erin Clark/Globe Staff 'Every time you drop a clam on the floor, you're dropping a dollar bill,' says Woodman. 'When the clam goes from the bed to the shucker to the fridge to the fryer to the counter to the customer – what do you think that costs?' Clams are indeed a precious commodity, especially during the summer when increased demand strains finite supply. (On the North Shore alone, Advertisement The result is higher prices for customers – a clam plate at Woodman's (which comes with ample fries and onion rings) costs $40.99 at the moment – and yet people still make the pilgrimage. 'It's a destination,' Andrew Krivak, a Somerville writer having lunch with his wife and three teenage children, tells me. 'We go to Crane Beach in the morning, Russell Orchard to get doughnut, and then Woodman's for lunch. That's the ritual.' Mollusks are on menus from Maryland to Santa Monica, but the soft-shell clams harvested from nutrient-rich mud flats in Massachusetts and Maine are a singular, to-die-for delicacy. 'They literally take in bits of their environment and make it part of their belly,' says the Boston-born Charlie Mannal takes orders at the register during the lunch rush on Saturday, July 12, at Woodman's of Essex. Erin Clark/Globe Staff My shift ends when no one is waiting to order, so, warily, I wander outside to inspect the line. Not too bad for a Saturday afternoon; the queue can sometimes stretch 100 yards down Main Street. On particularly hot days, customers will collapse on the sidewalk or inside the restaurant (there's no air conditioning at Woodman's). It happens about a dozen times a summer, says Eian Woodman, Doug's nephew. 'They come off the beach after drinking beer all day and they wonder why they don't feel good.' As a result, Woodman's started setting up an outdoor 'hospitality table' with free water and oyster crackers. Advertisement 'We feel bad that you're in the line. We really do,' says Maureen Woodman. 'But it's the heartbeat of the business. We'd probably feel worse if there wasn't a line.' The 'do-up girls' are now in overdrive, quickly piling cardboard plates with fried goodness and passing them to me and Zoe. Even as she's rushing to fill trays and call tickets – '671! 672!' – I can tell Zoe is keeping an eye on me. Sending out wrong or incomplete orders is another no-no. Most customers are at tables waiting to hear their number called, but some aren't; they're standing near the counter staring expectantly at every tray. It's unnerving. I'm reminded of the unblinking gulls at Good Harbor Beach that wait for people to drop a potato chip in the sand. Globe reporter Mark Shanahan works the pickup window during his shift at Woodman's in Essex. He embedded with the restaurant's crew to experience firsthand the demanding work in the cramped kitchen, which is staffed mostly by young workers, many of them fifth-generation Woodmans. Erin Clark/Globe Staff In all, 34 Woodmans, ages 14 to 74, currently work at the restaurant, but this isn't ' clam -pire. 'We're so ingrained to be respectful of the previous generations,' says Kristi Swett, a 'G5' (fifth-generation) Woodman whose first job, at 12, was helping her grandmother, Patti, a 'G3,' file invoices. At 42, Swett oversees the restaurant's robust catering business and new 'There are enough headaches that everyone can have four a day,' she says, laughing. Finally, at 3 p.m., no one is at the register. I race to untie my apron before anyone walks in the door. Done! Erica Woodman, a 'G4' who has been toasting the top-split hot dog buns used for lobster rolls, thinks I got off easy. Advertisement 'Today's busy, but not crazy,' she says. 'Crazy is nonstop tickets – like, nonstop . No break. But you get the idea.' Brian Williams displays a lobster tattoo on his arm while working at the lobster tank outside Woodman's in Essex. Williams has worked at the restaurant since he was a teenager. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Mark Shanahan can be reached at
Boston Globe
22-07-2025
- Boston Globe
What a sports writer eats when he's on assignment in Maine
So I spent two nights in Portland, which has not-so-quietly become a When I lived in Louisville, Ky., before moving to Boston 10 years ago, locals endorsed the city's seafood scene because of its status as a UPS hub, positing that the fish were fresher there because they arrived on nonstop flights. I recoiled and stuck with bourbon. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up There is no such issue living in Boston, of course. But the waterfront charm can be disguised by steel and glass. Portland just feels like seafood, with fishing boats bobbing steps from harborside restaurants. Advertisement For dinner on my first night, I landed on The waterfront spot with high ceilings and wood floors was bustling this Monday, but not to the point that one had to yell. Fish and shellfish sat on ice outside the open kitchen, with a sign displaying the day's oyster selections. Advertisement For an appetizer, I ordered local mussels served in a broth of hard cider, local mustard, cream, and dill. They were plump and sweet, with a touch of salty ocean. The broth was delightful, the mustardy flavor a nice departure from more traditional white wine or tomato-based recipes. Scenes from Portland, Maine, last month. Adam Himmelsbach Breads are baked in-house and have their own section on the menu, which made me eager to try the toasted slice added to this plate for dipping. There was a satisfying crack when breaking off a piece, with crumbs fluttering into the dish, and the inside was light and airy. I'm fine being cliché, so I looked past the grilled branzino and fried fluke and zeroed in on the warm buttered Maine lobster roll. And the fact that the lobster would sit atop more fresh-baked bread was hard to resist. I asked for the mayonnaise on the side, because warm butter doesn't need distractions. The roll was overflowing with plump, sweet, delicious chunks of lobster. I sprayed a lemon wedge on top and enjoyed every bite. The fresh-cut fries were excellent, too, although the plate did not need so many. Nevertheless, the meal was a very good start. Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg drives the ball against Los Angeles Lakers guard DaJaun Gordon during the second half of an NBA summer league basketball game Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Las Vegas. David Becker/Associated Press The next day was spent in Newport, where I visited a taxidermy store, a marina, and a school, among other places, to talk to people about Flagg, who was drafted first overall by the Dallas Mavericks I walked to Advertisement The outdoor seating on a brick sidewalk was full, so I was led to a wood chair at a wood table pressed against a wall inside. Another night of lobster was tempting but would have been redundant. I ordered the scallops in Pernod and cream, with farro and haricots verts. Feel free to roast me in the comments, but I was unfamiliar with After about 20 minutes, my server said my entrée would be out in about 20 more minutes. That seemed like a lengthy wait and an unusual announcement. Then the food arrived moments later anyway. Scenes from Portland, Maine, last month. Adam Himmelsbach It was served in the pan, which felt trendy. The scallops were rich and flavorful, although the insides were more lukewarm than hot. Cream sauces can be off-putting if excessively heavy, but this one was light and did not dominate the shellfish. The farro was a nice semi-crunchy complement, and it tasted even better when brushed through the sauce. I declined dessert because I wanted to visit a local ice cream shop. Much to my dismay, though, both nearby options closed at 9. Europeans are just sitting down for dinner at 9, and we're shutting down our ice cream shops. That doesn't sit right. Thankfully, Advertisement Celtics beat writer Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at . Follow him @adamhimmelsbach Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at
