157871 Fri Sep 07 20:50:50 -0700 2001 18 13 New England 0 849376 I'll be in Andover a few days in mid-November. Will those restaurants known for fried clams and seafood platters near the ocean still be open that late? I will be looking for shellfish, including oysters on the halfshell (my favorite). Is the Weathervane restaurant chain worth a visit? Please help! Fri Sep 07 20:50:50 -0700 2001 0 Kent 1 849377 Hi Kent, I've eaten at the Weathervane in Waterville, Maine. It wasn't awful. I've had decent mussels there, but it's pretty hard to ruin steamed mussels unless they're over cooked, and these weren't. Like any chain, I imagine it depends on who's doing the cooking. The ingredients are OK, I think. Can't hurt to try, since it's a very reasonable place to eat with a big menu. I don't think our Maine seaside places are open in November, but Mass., maybe. If you get some names, you could at least call. It would be a good time for oysters, for sure. Larger rests. would most likely be open. Good luck. Pat Fri Sep 07 21:02:13 -0700 2001 849376 0 Pat Hammond 2 849381 My 2 cents on Weathervane: It may not represent all the best examples of New England seafood, but most of it is pretty decent. Lobster is pretty hard to ruin, and when it comes to boiled lobsters, they will taste the same as from any place. Some of those quaint Maine coast places charge so much for a lobster dinner you can get the same thing for literally HALF the price at Weathervane. The savings may be nice for someone who wants lobster on a budget. Also, I don't know for sure, but don't think the majority of Weathervane seafood is frozen as someone suggested. Hell... I just got interested in testing my belief that Weathervane is a great deal for lobster dinner. Let's see... last weekend I was at Cook's Lobster Restaurant on Bailey's Island, Maine. We were sailing through and pulled up to their dock for lunch. The lobster dinner prices blew my mind! As I recall, a 1 1/4 lb. dinner was something like $24. Pretty steep considering Cooks' is a lobster wholesaler and you can buy lobster off the dock in Maine right now for about $3.89 lb. (We bought 7 the night before to cook on the boat.) Now, I just picked up the phone and called a local Weathervane here in Southern NH and guess what they are getting right now for a 1 1/4 lb boiled lobster dinner? $11.95 I say Weathervane fills a need. If I declare to my friends "I'm taking you all out for lobster!" where do you think I'm going to take them? Sat Sep 08 12:20:47 -0700 2001 849377 0 Dave 3 849382 My point, exactly, But you said it better! Also, where I live in Central Maine, and chain or not chain, patronizing *any* local place is supporting the local employees. These are some of the most enterprising and industrious people I've ever come across. Many have two or three jobs, plus all the gee-gaws they make at home over the long winter, for sale in their yards for the tourists. I'm stepping off my soapbox now. pat Sat Sep 08 12:33:21 -0700 2001 849381 0 pat hammond 4 849383 Sorry, just a few thoughts.......... MOST of Weathervanes (& other chain restaurants) food (not just seafood) IS frozen!! You can screw up a boiled lobster....... Did you think that maybe you were paying a higher price for lobster to pay for the view that you had on Bailey's Island so that the property owner can pay their taxes?? There is something to be said for value but if that is really an issue than you really should buy live lobsters and cook them yourself! After all, that is what everyone who lives in Maine does when they want some! Chain restaurant are convenience ("family") places to eat. They have their place and some are better than others. But I do not think of them as "dining" establishments. Personally, I will never order a whole boiled/steamed lobster from a place that I cannot see the ocean from and where I cannot sit outside w/ a pile of napkins and fresh corn on the cob. Oops, and a bucket of steamers! Sat Sep 08 14:05:08 -0700 2001 849382 0 maureen 5 849384 Getting back to the original subject, I've never found Weathervane attractive enough to go inside (looks like a takeout), but there's a Cap'n Newicks on Rte. 1 Portsmouth (other year-round locations as well) that lots of people swear by. Casual. Dining hall, not dining experience, and the price is right. The fried food is really good. Obviously, not a lobster pound. And I'll keep an eye out for Maureen eating her lobster in a snowbank this winter. Sat Sep 08 15:43:10 -0700 2001 849383 0 ironmom 1 849378 Stay away from Weathervane! Please, don't people understand that these "chains" are all frozen seafood? Of course there are seafood restaurants in Maine, Massachusetts, etc....that ARE open year-round! Where do you think the locals eat?? Support the good, local restaurants that actually make the effort to be open! Fri Sep 07 23:01:27 -0700 2001 849376 0 maureen 1 849379 Essex Seafood on Rte. 133 is open year-round, and is the best of its kind. You can get the fried plates there, along with lobsters, steamers and chowder. Oysters are in another class entirely. I've never known a raw bar to cohabit with a clam shack. Seems to me that places do one or the other well, but not both. Can anybody prove me wrong? Link: http://www.essexseafood.com/ Fri Sep 07 23:15:16 -0700 2001 849376 0 C. Fox 2 849386 Yeah, the Sea Witch, Rt.1 in peabody...I'm surprised more Chowhounds don't know it...I always beg tastes of the fried(ANYHTING!!!!) from my companions, because we all know there are no calories if it comes from someone else's plate! I always go for the lobster, but i had to give in and have their steamers(appetizer is definitely meal-sized!!!) several times this summer. And I always have raw cherrystones, which i prefer to oysters, when I'm there...AND, they're open year-round. Sat Sep 08 19:45:31 -0700 2001 849379 0 galleygirl 3 849388 Wow! I've never heard of it 'til now. I'll be there tomorrow. How'd you find this before me? Sun Sep 09 00:10:52 -0700 2001 849386 0 Win (Boston) 4 849393 I must confess; my parents live in Peabody!!! It's a totally down to earth Greek-owned seafood place...Started as a fish market, graduated to fried take-out, became a restaurant....And it seems every time I'm there, there's an Asian family eating lobsters....Since I live in a very pan-Asiatic neighborhood, this is a good sign for me...If they have broiled mackerel; get it....By the way, you go in, place your order, pay, then get a table, then they bring it to you...Or you could eat at their bar, but it's a real bar, not the fine dining experience!!! Have fun! Sun Sep 09 21:30:52 -0700 2001 849388 0 galleygirl 1 849380 This may be worthy of a new thread, but WEATHERVANE is a really bad restaurant chain. Please, folks, write this down. WEATHERVANE is a really bad restaurant chain. YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY IF YOU GO TO WEATHERVANE We really shouldn't have to keep repeating this on this board over and over again... Sat Sep 08 05:20:33 -0700 2001 849376 0 Win (Boston) 1 849385 Newicks (which has a few locations) has a huge seat-yourself room on the water in Dover Point, NH, just over the border close to Portsmouth. The seafood platter and esp. fried shrimp are my choices, particularly because the batter is to my liking more than any other batter I've had anywhere (though I've yet to try any of the Chicago-area shrimp places, and there's no reason that Massachusetts should serve gulf shrimp any better than someplace else). Also good is the Ipswich Clam Box in Ipswich, since the 1930s. It's a roadside building that looks like a paper clam box. The fried seafood platter, fried clam plate are winners. The scallops are very sweet, unlike at most local seafood places. No oysters at either place, I don't think. Both probably have web sites. You could probably get lobsters at Newicks, but I would go to these two locations for their fried seafood. Sat Sep 08 17:32:27 -0700 2001 849376 0 Adam 2 849405 I cannot agree with you about Newick's. I first went to Newick's (South Portland, ME) in the early or mid 1970s. At that time it was a great place to get large portions of pretty good fried seafood. Since then I have been to other Newick's as well as that one. Unfortunately, quality has deteriorated and I will not be returning there. Last time I was there, I figured I'd get around the too-greasy fried food by ordering lobster; however, they had none 2 pounds or over. The broiled scallops I ordered in place of the lobsters were neither particularly oustanding nor in a large portion. I'd like to think that perhaps that was just an off night, but experiences prior to that one yielded similar results. I -do- agree that if you'e gonna eat there anyway, might as well go for the shrimp. Thu Sep 13 15:41:08 -0700 2001 849385 0 Bruce Smith 3 849407 I hadn't been to Newick's in over ten years 'til last summer when I had to take out a visiting relative who got into town at a bad time. I would never order a jumbo lobster at a restaurant, and I wouldn't ask Newick's to broil seafood. But I was pleasantly surprised by the fried food (always their strong point, but obviously not your thing), and they had upgraded things like the bread and butter, etc. I'd take relatives there in a pinch again. Thu Sep 13 16:51:35 -0700 2001 849405 0 ironmom 4 849412 Actually, I -do- like fried seafood and have had much of it that I would order again. In fact, my general rule is to get fried seafood at restaurants and cook other styles at home. For example, I caught some blue crabs last Saturday and these I turned into crabcakes, which I sauteed. I will also cook fish that I have caught or have bought in a fish market. But as for deep frying - well, it's just more fuss that I'm willing to go to at home and besides, I shouldn't each all that much fried food anyway. Perhaps Newicks has improved since the last time I was there - probably a year or two ago - but to be honest about it I'm not all that interested in finding out by first-hand experience. It's not that the seafood there wasn't fresh enough, it was just somewhat too greasy for me. My favorite place for fried seafood remains Captain Frosty's (Dennis [Cape Cod], MA) and I think even THEY may have slipped just a bit in the past year or two - but just a bit. Fri Sep 14 11:24:23 -0700 2001 849407 0 Bruce Smith 5 849413 Maybe it's just the South Portland one (near me) that has gotten better. Fri Sep 14 11:50:48 -0700 2001 849412 0 ironmom 3 849448 newicks just a mediocre seafood chain Fri Sep 21 21:37:00 -0700 2001 849405 0 the hone 2 852189 actually, the clam box does have oysters in large/small box, mini meal and plate portions. Wed Jul 31 20:12:39 -0700 2002 849385 0 A Food Fan