David Norton Stone

In the city that invented the diner, so many amazing restaurants remain only in memories. The Silver Top had fresh coffee every twenty minutes, and the Ever Ready was hot dog heaven. Miss Dutton's Green Room and the Shepard Tea Room beckoned shoppers in their Sunday finest. At Childs, the griddle chef made butter cakes in the window for night owls, and Harry Houdini supped at midnight with H.P. Lovecraft at the Waldorf Lunch. Themed lounges like the Beachcomber and the Bacchante Room chased away the Prohibition blues. Downcity Diner offered a famous meatloaf, and Ming Garden's Ming Wings were a staple for regulars. Author David Norton Stone details the restaurants that still hold a place in the hearts of locals.

See how Rhode Island's hard-shell clam industry came about and remains as popular as ever to this day.Steamships once plied the waters of Narragansett Bay, carrying thousands of guests to feasts of clams prepared in every way imaginable at scenic spots like Rocky Point and Crescent Park. After hurricanes and pollution destroyed Rhode Island's soft-shell clam and oyster beds, the quahog became the state's favorite bivalve, and Rhode Islanders took to their automobiles and drove to the beach for clam cakes and chowder at the shacks and chowder houses that carried on the old traditions. Quahogging remains a major business in Rhode Island, where men and women continue to make a living from the sea. The long lines at take-out windows attest that the future of Rhode Island's clam shacks is secure as they successfully balance changing tastes with time-honored recipes.

Steamships once plied the waters of Narragansett Bay, carrying thousands of guests to feasts of clams prepared in every way imaginable at scenic spots like Rocky Point and Crescent Park. After hurricanes and pollution destroyed Rhode Island s soft-shell clam and oyster beds, the quahog became the state s favorite bivalve, and Rhode Islanders took to their automobiles and drove to the beach for clam cakes and chowder at the shacks and chowder houses that carried on the old traditions. Quahogging remains a major business in Rhode Island, where men and women continue to make a living from the sea. The long lines at take-out windows attest that the future of Rhode Island s clam shacks is secure as they successfully balance changing tastes with time-honored recipes."

During his "Chowder Summer", David Norton Stone spent a season doing what many of us only dream of: eating clam chowder at every available opportunity. In this final book in the Rhode Island Quahog series that began with Clamcake Summer and Stuffie Summer, Stone serves up a few bowls of history, quarts of the chowder he enjoyed around Rhode Island, Manhattan and New England, as well as a few oyster crackers of humor.