First Person: Investigating the Rhode Island Mystery that is the Clam Cake

Clam cakes from Aunt Carrie’s; Brooke Harris and her husband at Champlin’s Seafood Deck in Galilee. Photography courtesy of Aunt Carrie’s

Food is like a time machine. One bite can transport you to Christmas mornings at your aunt’s house, beach days with your friends or that vacation you took in your twenties.

For me, that food is clam cakes. They’re the crumbs that scatter from my early childhood straight to today. I have no memory of eating my first clam cake — they were just always there. On stormy days, my mom, dad, brother and I would bring clam cakes and chowder to Beavertail and watch the massive waves pummel the rocks, even in winter. As a teenager, my friends and I drove my beat-up, powder blue Chevy Celebrity down to Galilee to eat clam cakes and chowder on the jetty while watching the fishing boats glide in and out of the harbor.

Two weeks after my twenty-first birthday, I left to study abroad on Semester at Sea, my first time out of the country. We circumnavigated the globe, enduring weeks at sea, drinking swampy water from the ship’s hold and having the time of our lives. But still, I fantasized about eating clam cakes and my mom’s lasagna when I got home. I moved a lot over the years, and before my toes even crossed the border back into Rhode Island, I had already planned which day I’d devote to clam cakes, chowder and doughboys.

Brooke Harris and her husband at Champlin’s Seafood Deck in Galilee. Photo courtesy of Brooke Harris

I have family on Martha’s Vineyard, so holidays and summers were a constant exchange of visitors between the island and the mainland. We always stayed with my Aunt Shirley, one of the warmest, funniest people I’ve ever known. I miss her dearly. One of our favorite locations on the island was Aquinnah. One chilly, foggy day when I was ten, we were visiting those stunning cliffs when I had a craving for clam cakes and chowder. To my shock, my aunt informed me they didn’t have them on the island. How could this be?! I was left reeling, in disbelief that this place that was like a second home could culinarily cut me so deeply. I couldn’t understand why clam cakes hadn’t burst free from the confines of Rhode Island’s borders.

Most Americans have heard of clam chowder. There’s red, white and the lesser-known Rhode Island chowder, a clear version that relies on clam juice for the base. But most Americans haven’t heard of clam cakes, small balls of fried dough dotted with minced clams. They’ve been described as savory doughnut holes, but that doesn’t accurately capture their soul. Clam cakes are the punk-rock cousin of the fritter world. Sticky, hand-molded dough is dropped into crackling hot oil and what emerges is a golf- or tennis-ball-sized blob of perfection. They’re an appealing combination of crunch and squish made even better by dipping them in chowder. They’re not pretty, but for clam cake lovers, nothing else in the fritter category compares.

Here, they’re always called clam cakes and are usually eaten with a bowl of hot chowder, even in the summer. The combo is popular with tourists that flood the beaches of Rhode Island when the weather heats up. But many of these visitors, even those from neighboring states, had never heard of clam cakes before vacationing in Rhode Island.

“We always had clam chowder growing up,” says Ken Cornwell, a Massachusetts native who has been visiting Rhode Island for more than forty years. “But clam cakes I did not have until those first years that we were going to Rhode Island. We just stumbled across them.”

Carrie Cooper and her husband, Ulysses, opened Aunt Carrie’s in Narragansett in 1920, now known as one of the earliest clam shacks on record. Photo courtesy of Aunt Carrie’s

There is evidence of clams being used in fritters in the 1800s, but Carrie Cooper, the original owner of Aunt Carrie’s restaurant, one of the earliest clam shacks on record, ran the first restaurant known to sell clam cakes. Local lore says she developed them around 1920 while camping on the beaches
of southern Rhode Island. Cooper used clams in place of corn in her fritters, and the enticing aroma attracted the neighbors. After some urging, Cooper opened Aunt Carrie’s, which recently celebrated a century in business.

Clam cakes and chowder at Blount Clam Shack in Warren. Photo by Angel Tucker

It’s no surprise that clam shacks took hold in Rhode Island. With 400 miles of coastline, locals live, work and play based on the whims of the Atlantic. It’s not unusual for Rhode Islanders to spend the morning digging for clams, the afternoon cleaning their spoils and the evening enjoying a meal crafted from the day’s catch.

The clam of choice is a species known locally as the quahog, which are found from Nova Scotia to Florida and are crucial to Rhode Island’s culture. It’s the state’s official shellfish and southern New England’s Indigenous tribes have been using the shells for more than 4,500 years to create wampum.

A decline in regional quahog numbers has raised concern in recent years. In 2023, a joint legislative committee began studying the decline to sleuth out the cause. Was it climate change? Loss of species diversity? One theory is that better wastewater management has led to nitrogen depletion in Narragansett Bay. Quahogs feed on phytoplankton, which need nitrogen to flourish.

But even with the decline, quahogs are readily available outside of Rhode Island. So why aren’t clam cakes also ubiquitous outside Little Rhody’s borders?

If you follow the quahog trail, clam cake-adjacent fritters can be found in Maine and Virginia. Maine’s offerings, more akin to crab cakes with shellfish-forward fillings and breaded patty shapes, are nothing like their doughy cousins. They’re pan-seared, rather than deep fried, and can be eaten as is or in a sandwich. Virginia’s version, also pan-seared, is flat like a pancake, contains mustard, onions and sugar, and doesn’t mind being labeled a fritter.

Connie & Ted’s, a Rhode Island-inspired restaurant in West Hollywood, California, has offered clam cakes and Rhode Island clear chowder for thirteen years. Photo courtesy of Connie and Ted’s/Robiee Ziegler.

Every now and again, clam cakes can be found in far-flung places. Connie and Ted’s, a Rhode Island-inspired restaurant in West Hollywood, California, which is unfortunately closing in July, has offered clam cakes and Rhode Island clear chowder since it opened thirteen years ago. Chef-partner of Connie and Ted’s, Michael Cimarusti, named the establishment after his grandparents, who lived in Rhode Island. He is also chef-owner of the aptly named Providence restaurant in Los Angeles.

“Clam cakes are one of those things that are foreign to a lot of people,” says Sam Baxter, executive chef at Connie and Ted’s. “Some people see clam cakes and they think they’re getting a crab cake.”

Iggy’s began at Oakland Beach in Warwick in 1989. Photo courtesy of Iggy’s Doughboys & Chowder House

Why clam cakes have remained a largely Rhode Island-only delicacy is a mystery. David Gravino, owner of Iggy’s Doughboys & Chowder House, has been in the restaurant business since he was fourteen. But even he doesn’t have a definitive answer as to the clam cake’s hyper-locality.   

“Among all these waterfront places, there’s a lot of clam shacks,” says Gravino. “And I also think with Rocky Point, dating back to the 1800s, where they did clam cakes and chowder, that actually helped it become a staple in the state.”

Rocky Point, the much-loved amusement park on the Warwick shore, operated from the late 1840s to 1995 and was famous for its saltwater pool and clam cakes and chowder. I remember beelining it to the park as soon as the bell rang on the last day of school. We’d run from ride to ride and then hightail it to the Shore Dinner Hall once we’d worked up an appetite. Meals were served family style on long banquet tables, creating a communal dining experience. It felt like every teenager in the state was there those days.

Chowder, clam cakes and doughboys from Iggy’s Doughboys & Chowder House in Narragansett and Warwick. Photo courtesy of Iggy’s Doughboys & Chowder House

Chowder and clam cakes make up about 60 percent of Iggy’s business, Gravino says. And since Iggy’s is one of the few clam shacks open year-round, locals and visitors can enjoy their chowder and clam cakes even when the chill returns.

But some locals, like Erica Bryson, think of clam cakes as a summer-only indulgence. Her grandmother worked at Rocky Point Shore Dinner Hall and was an expert at clam cake preparation.

“Her entire neighborhood in the summer would make clam cakes and chowder out of what she called the summer kitchen,” Bryson says. “They would … have clam cakes and chowder for the whole neighborhood in my grandmother’s backyard.”

So many closely held memories are grounded in food — the scents, the flavors and the people we share meals with. Standing in line at Aunt Carrie’s, you’ll encounter folks from all walks of life. Many of them equate the waft of saltwater and fried food carried on the breeze with time spent with loved ones in the summer.

“I think a lot of people have fond, nostalgic memories of having clam cakes at the beach,” says Baxter, executive chef at Connie and Ted’s. “Getting a brown paper bag, sitting down and eating them with your grandpa. It’s a beautiful thing.”