What's more all-American than a trip to the Cape and dinner at a clam shack? Here are three good ones on the way to Cape Cod.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 29, 2006

BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

In the long years before Route 25 was completed right up to the Bourne Bridge, Rhode Islanders traveling to Cape Cod had to exit into the traffic nightmare that was quaintly called the Cranberry Highway.

A melding of Routes 6 and 28, the four-lane road's heavy traffic flow proved to be a bonanza for souvenir shops, ice-cream stands and small restaurants that sprang up so passersby could stop and get a break from the car-clogged road and its traffic lights.

Although the Cranberry Highway was bypassed when Route 25 was completed decades ago, many of the shops and restaurants are still in business right where they were.

A reminder of the past, they're ready to be rediscovered, perhaps by people who will now find the Cranberry Highway a relatively quiet alternative to busy Route 25. This is especially true on those weekend afternoons and evenings when that six-lane expressway grinds to a halt with Cape-bound traffic heading for the bottleneck of the two-lane Bourne Bridge and the challenge of the rotary that waits on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal.

So here we take a look at three of these roadside favorites.

The Lobster Pot

We must have passed The Lobster Pot in East Wareham two dozen times over the years. It has been serving seafood to satisfied customers for "around 30 years," said Joe Marino, who owns it with his brothers.

But it wasn't until seeing the place listed in Phantom Gourmet Guide to Boston's Best Restaurants that we felt moved to visit. The guide praises The Lobster Pot for "oversized lobsters," which can range up to 10 pounds or more on a special order.

True enough. A lobster that appeared to be a good 9 or 10 pounds (in a followup phone call, Marino said the creature was listed at 8, but was closer to 9) peered menacingly from his temporary home in one of the restaurant's tanks. He sat in forlorn solitary confinement next to a much bigger tank in which too many to count of his much-smaller cousins crawled all over one another, nudging for space . . . or maybe to keep away from the scary human hand that occasionally appeared without warning from somewhere above to pluck an unlucky one for somebody's dinner.

The Phantom billed The Lobster Pot as "rustic," so we'd sort of expected something barnlike, or perhaps 19th century. But with its mostly white tile walls, high-back oak booths or tables with captain's chairs, it has all the antiseptic ambience of a Burger King. Because of its cupola roof and lobster weathervane, we wondered if once upon a time it had been a Newport Creamery or a Friendly's, but Marino said that it started out "as a '50s-type drive-in" and just grew and grew over the years.

There are outdoor picnic tables at the sides and front of the building, but the views are limited to the parking lot, the businesses next door or cars passing on the Cranberry Highway.

EVERYTHING WE SAMPLED was very good and perfectly prepared.

Yet given the plastic plates, the plastic utensils and the fact that you order at an indoor take-out window and pick it up when your number is called, we were a bit surprised to find that eating here is not a cheap night out. Not by any stretch of the imagination, with a two-pound lobster going for $33.99 and a three-pounder for $49.99, all prices subject to change. Add a bottle of wine, ranging in price from $28 to $90 (half bottles are $15; $4 to $5 for a glass), and you're talking real money.

Actually, though, the prices are comparable to other "clam shacks" on the Cape itself, given recent hefty increases in the price of seafood.

Because we wanted our clam chowder, onion rings, cherrystone clams on the half shell and stuffed quahog served first, as appetizers, we had to make two trips to the take-out window. Otherwise, the appetizers and entrees would have come out at the same time. Scheduling this was no big deal on a fairly quiet late Sunday afternoon post-Memorial Day, before the "season" really got rolling. However, it could prove more of a challenge now that hordes of travelers are stopping to eat on the way to the shore.

We also found that ordering our entrees would require trips to two separate stations. My broiled scallops had to be ordered at the main take-out window, which serves up everything from appetizers to a large selection of fried, baked and broiled seafood dinners, seafood rolls, chowder, salads, even hot dogs and hamburgers. But all the lobsters came from another take-out station, part of The Lobster Pot's seafood market operation.

Not to worry, said a cashier. Most of the lobster dinners take about 12 minutes, she explained, while the fried-baked-broiled dinners take about 10. You can do the math.

It worked out just fine for us. We ordered the lobster first, and it was ready just as I brought the broiled scallops to our table. On the other hand, I wondered how efficient this system would be on a busy summer night.

WE WERE HAPPY sharing our appetizers.

The cherrystones ($3.99 for four) were fresh with a briny sea flavor, cocktail sauce on the side. They'd been loosened from their shells, so it was just a matter of dabbing them with the sauce, rolling back our heads and tipping them out of their shells.

The chowder ($4.75 a bowl; $3.50 a cup) was milky and light, without having been thickened with flour. There were chunks of clam in every bite, and diced potatoes.

At first glance, the stuffed quahog ($2.99) looked smallish and overcooked. Happily, however, it was delicious, one of the best I've had lately. It was thick with pieces of minced clam, its robust flavor enhanced by bits of red and green pepper and spices. Next time, I'll order two.

The French-fried onion rings were greasy yet surprisingly light, thin-cut rounds in a light batter that didn't hide the flavor of the onions.

All this was accompanied by soft drinks, the large size ($2.50) so big it wasn't easy to wrap our hands around the paper cup.

MY GENEROUS PORTION of scallops ($17.99) was served in a little aluminum ramekin, broiled with butter, salt and pepper with parsley, said Marino. The scallops were exceptionally moist and full of flavor, a good choice.

They arrived with a hefty serving of long French fries (rice pilaf is an option) that were crispy and not greasy. On the side, a little cup of cole slaw was unpretentiously ordinary.

My lobster-loving companion chose -- what else? -- lobster. The Captain's Dinner ($31.99) included a 1 1/2-pound lobster, a mound of steamed clams, broth, drawn butter and corn on the cob. (There's also a Shore Dinner with the same basic ingredients, though $4 cheaper because it has a smaller lobster, just a little over a pound.)

The lobster, caught locally as is all the seafood save for the shrimp, said Marino, was meaty and deliciously tender. There was a lot to eat, although when it got to the best part at the end -- the lobster tail -- we discovered that the shell hadn't been split, so it wasn't as easy to extract the delicious meat as it is in some other restaurants.

The steamers were plump, sweet and fresh-tasting. You couldn't ask for a better selection.

The ear of butter-and-sugar corn was as good as could be expected so early in the season, although the day before we'd had better from the supermarket. Half of it was left uneaten.

FOR FRESH AND DELICIOUS seafood, The Lobster Pot is a fine place to stop on the way to or from Cape Cod.

For those who demand good seafood with a view, however, you can continue down the Cranberry Highway about a half mile to the East Wind Lobster or a bit further to the Seafood Shanty on the Cape Cod Canal.

East Wind Lobster

East Wind Lobster is also a fish market that serves meals either at a small inside dining room or on an outdoor deck overlooking Buttermilk Bay. We discovered it not long after I'd had a lobster roll at a fancy Boston hotel restaurant that had been rated "excellent" by the 2006 Zagat Survey restaurant guide.

For $26, that hotel meal included a cup of clam chowder, a small bag's worth of Cape Cod potato chips and finely shredded lobster in a mayonnaise dressing on a bun with a lettuce leaf. My companion that evening, a Hollywood movie director, oohed and aahed over the modest meal and wondered if we New Englanders ate this all the time.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that although we do, the presentation at this popular, crowded restaurant seemed paltry. At the East Wind my dining companion's $14.99 lobster roll was chock full of thick pieces of tender lobster meat with a minimum of dressing; lots of French fries on the side. In a followup phone call, manager Tricia Johnson said the lobster meat is taken from their own seafood market lobsters, cooked as needed.

The place truly does look shack-like, but everything we ordered was splendid, although I thought the tasty clam fritters (6 for $2.99) could have used a heavier helping of clams.

Nevertheless, the scallop roll ($8.99) was loaded with the sweet shellfish, and the seafood stew ($3.75 a cup; $4.75 a bowl) was swimmingly thick with a variety of fish and shellfish. Johnson said next time we should try their homemade clam chowder, which last year won the Judges Award at the America's Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration in Plymouth.

The only drawback here -- at least on the day we had planned a return visit -- is the hours. We had wanted to stop on the way home from the Cape, but discovered they were still on their spring schedule and closed at 6 p.m. Sundays.

But now that the expanded summer hours are in effect -- they're open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays -- it's a sure bet we'll be back.

The Seafood Shanty

We only recently began visiting the Seafood Shanty, too, despite passing by the place for years. It always looked so inviting, a true clam shack at the side of a busy road. However, by the time we reached it on the drive home, it was often closed.

On our way to the Cape it was always open, but looked like such a dauntingly difficult place to stop, given that it sits on what in summer is the extremely heavily traveled section of Route 6 between the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. Turning left into the parking lot when bound for Sagamore involves crossing two lanes of oncoming traffic.

Trying to leave and head back toward Sagamore after dining is even scarier, requiring a left turn across three lanes of rushing traffic. Better to turn right and go about a mile in the other direction to the Buzzards Bay rotary and then come back again. Yet this could prove difficult, too, on busy summer days when traffic headed that way often grinds to a halt.

The two times we stopped recently were on cool, gray days when there was little traffic, so no problem.

Diners can sit at the several picnic tables or Adirondack chairs set up on the lawn next to the Seafood Shanty, but we decided to drive our food to the picnic tables stationed diagonally across the street in a little park alongside the canal.

Here you have a front-row view of barges or tugs, sailboats or yachts drifting by on the canal. Another plus to this idea is that there are no public restrooms at the Seafood Shanty, just a port-a-john out back, but there are large, clean restrooms at the canalside visitors center.

We loved the Seafood Shanty's lobster roll ($14.95) -- thick with "all fresh lobster meat," said co-owner Johnny Economides in a followup phone call. Economides and his wife, Tish, have been in business here 15 years, so they're clearly doing something that customers like.

The onion rings ($3.95), "hand cut," had a slightly heftier batter than others we've had, but were delicious nonetheless. A scallop roll ($9.95) was bursting with the sweet shellfish, lightly fried to tenderness that allowed their nautical flavor to shine through. We also enjoyed the quahog chowder ($3.50 a cup; $4.50 a bowl), light and milky and brimming with clams.

On a summer evening, with the canal traffic sailing by and the setting sun highlighting the Sagamore Bridge, a visit to the Cape doesn't get any better than this.

mjanuson@projo.com / (401) 277-7276

Details, details . . .

The Lobster Pot, 3155 Cranberry Highway, East Wareham, Mass. (508) 759-3876. Casual. Handicapped accessible. High chairs. AE, MC, V, DIS. Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Appetizers $1.95 to $8.99; entrees $2.95 to $33.99. Wines are $4 to $5 by the glass; $15 to $90 for a bottle.

BILL OF FARE

Stuffed quahog . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $2.99

Cherrystones on the half shell . . $3.99

Onion rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $2.95

Clam chowder . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $4.75

Two sodas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00

Broiled scallops . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $17.99

Captain's Dinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . $31.99

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $69.66

5 percent Massachusetts tax . . . . . . . . . . . $3.48

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $73.14

East Wind Lobster, 2 Main St., Buzzards Bay, Mass. (508) 759-1857. Casual. Handicapped accessible. AE, MC, V, DIS. Open Sunday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays to 9 p.m. Appetizers $1.99 to $7:99; entrees $5.99 to $19.99.

Seafood Shanty, 803 Scenic Highway (Route 6), Bourne, Mass. (508) 888-0040. Casual. Handicapped accessible. No credit cards. No restrooms, but there is a port-a-john. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Appetizers $2.95 to $4.50; entrees $8.75 to $16.95.