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No Florida allusions for Point Lookout Clam Bar (99 Bayside Dr., 516-897-4024, pointlookoutclambar.com). This place is pure Long island. When it opened in the 1970s, “The Clam Bar” referred to the super-casual takeout attached to the Point Lookout Fish Market, much of whose fish was delivered, by boat, to the dock out back (it still is). Gradually the seating expanded from a row of tables facing the street to a small deck out back and then to bigger deck and a pier jutting into the channel.
Dining by the water at Point Lookout Clam Bar. Credit: Linda Rosier
Proprietors Mike Mihale and Bruce Larson also owned the “proper” restaurant next door, Fisherman’s Catch but, last year, they gutted it and installed garage doors that could be rolled up to bring in the salty air. It’s all Clam Bar now, one seamless eatery that occupies deck and pier, beach and dining room and seats up to 400 people. There are two ordering windows — “there’s no way we could serve this number of people with waiters,” Mihale said — but you get your drinks and / or soup when you place your order, which can subdue the most savage diner.
The Clam Bar’s menu does not stray far from clam bar classics: Red or white clam chowder, clams on the half shell, fried or grilled calamari, steamers, mussels, lobster rolls, grilled swordfish and tuna, fried shrimp, clam strips, bay scallops and cod. Fried things come with French fries, grilled things come with rice, everything comes with homemade coleslaw.
Because the Clam Bar also encompasses an excellent fish market, however, all seafood is very fresh and much of it is local. If it’s not too busy, the kitchen will prepare any of the daily catches such as local trigger fish or fluke, sea scallops from Montauk. Friday through Sunday, the market is also the workplace of George Shoji, a Japanese-trained sushi chef who works not only with tuna and salmon, but with local fish as well: porgy sashimi is a favorite among the kitchen staff.
No matter what you’re eating, sunset is the time to dine here — and make sure you grab a west-facing seat. As the sun sinks beyond the Loop’s causeway, gulls winging across the horizon, you’ll never guess you’re 12 minutes from the Freeport Home Depot.
By Erica Marcus
