A slab of hot bologna sizzles under melted American cheese on a kaiser roll, piled with shredded iceberg, a fat beefsteak and spilling Duke’s mayo. Four counter seats and some four-tops, a cooler with shellfish, a tank of lobsters, a case of deli meats, another with fresh local fish. Welcome to Happy Clams & Hams, the new specialty seafood market and deli on Bee Ridge Rd.
The three partners bought a boat together to test the partnership. “Brian’s the happy. I’m the clam. And Carlyle’s the Italian ham,” says co-owner Scott Dolan, who has operated Big Water Fish Market on Siesta Key for 15 years. Dolan remembers childhood summers shucking clams with his parents in upstate New York; he wanted to recreate that feel east of 41, his own neighborhood. “To do stuff that you can’t get every day, and make it affordable, because we felt that was important with the economy now.”
Co-owner Carlyle Veale, who managed Big Water, brings an Italian-American streak. The Carlito’s Way packs a sub roll with hot ham, boiled ham, prosciutto and salami with fresh mozzarella, sweet and hot peppers, oil-n-vinegar. Meats come off the steamer, not a flat top. ”We’ve been talking about doing something like this for years,” Veale says…