Today’s Zippy strip takes us to the Summer Shack seafood restaurant at 149 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge MA 02140:
(#1) The sea captain figure fantasizes about his Easter Island ancestry: Massive Stone Heads R Us
The actual restaurant:
(2) On the site of a Polynesian tiki restaurant, hence the Buddha; now plus the sea captain Easter Island figure (which is, frankly, goofy — especially in color — rather than impressively monumental)
From the Yelp site (with a substantial dollop of ad puffery):
Specialties: Summer Shacks are large, casual, roll-up-your-sleeves, family restaurants featuring live lobsters, crab, raw bar, fried and grilled seafood, as well as hot dogs, steaks, fried chicken and other fun, delicious foods. Food Arts Magazine described it as “a clam shack on steroids”. New England’s coastal shacks served as Chef Jasper White’s inspiration for when he opened his first Summer Shack in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2000. The décor is funky and the music is lively, but the food is serious. Every day The Summer Shack demonstrates that great food is not the exclusive domain of fancy restaurants. Summer Shack owns a licensed wholesale seafood company that procures by the freshest seafood every day. It is quickly delivered to the restaurants and prepared simply and creatively. Service is friendly with a great selection of beers, wines and liquor. …
History: Established in 2000. In May 2000, Jasper White surprised people who thought he was inextricably linked to fine dining when he opened Jasper White’s Summer Shack, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Where Jasper’s Restaurant had been quietly elegant and formal, Summer Shack is a loud, energetic clam shack that seats more than 300 people, in five separate seating areas. Lobster tanks and steam kettles are the focal point in a central big, open space. Lobsters, clams, oysters and many other varieties of seafood dominate a New England menu that features everything from corn dogs and fried clams to traditional favorites like cod cakes and baked beans. Summer Shack has become a Mecca for seafood lovers and now has locations in Boston and Mohegan Sun [and Hingham]. …
Meet the Business Owner: Chef Jasper White was born in New Jersey in 1954, and he spent much of his childhood on a farm near the Jersey Shore. He credits his love of good food to his Italian grandmother. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1976, he spent several years working and traveling around the United States. Before settling in Boston, Jasper cooked in New York, Rhode Island, Florida, California, Washington state and Montana.
In 1983 Jasper opened his first restaurant, Jasper’s, on Boston’s historic waterfront. Both Chef and restaurant received numerous awards and were featured extensively in national and local media. In 1990 Jasper received the James Beard award for “Best Chef in the Northeast”.
JW’s cookbooks: Jasper White’s Cooking From New England (1989), Lobster At Home (1998), Fifty Chowders (2000), The Summer Shack Cookbook – The Complete Guide to Shore Food (2007).