Johnny Ad's

A good friend read my post about Captain Scott's Lobster Dock and encouraged me to try Johnny Ad's in Old Saybrook. His folks have a place on the water there and he said that it is a local favorite.

My wife was out with her girlfriends yesterday, and I had the day to myself, so I decided to check Johnny Ad's out (to make a trip of it I first stopped at the Bookbarn in Niantic; an awesome used book store just west of the beach). While I like Captain Scott's more, I am not the least bit sorry I went to Johnny Ad's yesterday afternoon and I can see why the locals love it.

Johnny Ad's bills itself as "The Little Seafood Resturant with the Big Ocean Taste." To say it's a resturant is a misnomer (it'really more of a lobster shack), but it does have a great seafood taste.

Growing up, the summer did not officially start until my mother had her lobster roll from Gene's Lobster Shack on U.S. Route 6 in Fairhaven, Masschusetts and Johnny Ad's reminds me very much of Gene's. In fact, not only are they pretty similar places in terms of size and lay out, but like Gene's, Johnny Ad's sits on one of the old U.S. Highways.

Most people today look at the Boston Post Road as a tacky secondary road that skirts the coast weaving in and out of path of I-95, but U.S. Route 1, like Route 6 was one of the first great highways in the history of our country. In fact, although they were far more modest than the Interstate Highway system in capacity, the U.S. Highways were every bit as grand in their concept (if not grander). They were the first national roads designed for the emerging automtobile culture and they helped make middle-class tourism possible in the years before the Great Depression. After World War II, the U.S. Highways were the means by which you could "see the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet" and places like Johnny Ad's (and Gene's Lobster Shack) were the supercool hangouts for the beachgoing crowd. Even when I was a boy in the 1970's people would still talk about how Route 6 had been choked with beach trafffic in the years bfore I-195 connceted Providence to Cape Cod.

Actually, Johnny Ad's really has been around since the 1950's and it still has that feel (in no small part because they play classics from the 1950's and early 1960's - the Man who Shot Liberty Valance by Rockville's favorite son, Gene Pitney, was playing as I walked out, which was very cool). The place consists of a lobster shack replete with all sorts of nautical art and paraphenilia, a small dining room with about 15 tables, a bar the size of an ATM kiosk, an outdoor area with about 15 picnic tables, and a parking lot. It's not fancy, but then again, it's not supposed to be.

Like any good lobster shack, Johnny Ad's is all about the delcious and riddiculously unhealthy (fried) food. They have a pretty extensive menu of burgers, dogs (complete with buttered, toasted buns :>), seafood, and sandwiches, but I stuck to the basics.

I had the fried whole belly clams (the price varies with market prices, but yesterday they were $17.25). They were delicious (:>), though I did taste just a tiny bit of grit (:<) and I wish they had been fried for just a bit longer (:<). Still, they were fresh and tasty, the batter was light and crispy, and the portion was pretty generous for the price (all :>'s ).

The plate also came with fries and coleslaw. The fries were those accordion fries and they were hot and crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. Perfect. The coleslaw was OK, but it wasn't particularly tasty. Then again, you don't go to a place like Johnny Ad's for the coleslaw, do you?

In honor of my mom, I also had a strawberry milkshake ($4.25). Johnny Ad's also serves an extra thick milkshake ($4.75) but what I had was plenty thick, very sweet, and extremely delicious, and I can only imagine how rich and sweet the extra thick shake must be.

The crowd was a mix of families, young guys in baseball hats, and some old timers who probably have been going to Johnny Ad's since the 1950's. I can't blame them. Sitting there enjoying my clams I couldn't help but think about the millions of post-war summertime dreams that found their fulfillment all along the old U.S. Highways in places just like this.

Here is the link to the website for Johnny Ad's - http://johnnyads.com/