“I had a clam supplier tell me a couple years back that more clams were being shipped to Northeast Ohio during September and October than the rest of the country combined,” the director of purchasing at Catanese Classic Seafood once told us. “I would think that that was still true today.”
It’s clear that Cleveland loves its clambakes. What’s less clear is why and how the typically New England feast became so entrenched in our regional foodways.
Some draw a straight line back to the well-heeled industrialists of the early 20th century who summered in Northeast Ohio, often hosting elaborate feasts with fresh seafood shipped directly from the East Coast. For decades, clambakes have served as the ideal vehicle for political fundraisers, a delicious way to replenish the campaign coffers on the backs of bivalves. Gullo, who’s been in the local fish business for 40 years, posits that the practice was promoted by retailers like him who were tasked with selling fish.
Everyone has a theory, and there are overlaps and plausible partial-explanations everywhere.