The Clam Shop

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Many moons ago, when homemade web sites were still in their infancy, I stumbled upon Lowell's magnificent "Fabulous Ruins of Detroit". As a hopeless Detroit romantic, it knocked me out and I [[happily) lost an entire day of work wandering down its paths. It was the first time an online multi-media presentation struck me as poetry, and I was tremendously affected by it.

One of the "ruins" not included which had special meaning for me was The Clam Shop, formerly of 2675 E. Grand Blvd. About five or six years ago, I trekked to the address, camera at the ready, only to find something less than a ruin: a parking lot. I was crushed, but it led me to meet some great artists at the Pioneer Building next door [[who now park atop TCS's hallowed ground).

After years of searching, I have assembled my own visual "ruins" of the Clam Shop: an original menu [[how about those prices!), photo, and some assorted odds & ends. So what better place to share than one of Lowell's web sites.

Thank you, Lowell, for all you do for Detroit, past and present. - Alan

nice. thank you. When did it close?

I have heard of the Ham Shoppe, but Clam Shop! Gadzooks!

Great research and discovery Alan. I know you have had a long-running interest in that site so it is interesting to see what you have since found.

I have always been mystified as to why the Clam Shop was where it was. It always seems like it would have been in a restaurant district as opposed to an industrial district.

Since you reveal your occupation and we have toured together, I think it is of interest to this forum that I take the liberty to point out that Alan is a native Detroiter who has never forgotten his roots and directed and wrote the film "Tiger Town" among other movies.

It's been too long, the memory's too shot, and I live too far away to drive down to look, but wasn't either Jam Handy or Ross Roy [[or both) in that area somewhere on E. Grand Blvd.? This would be pre I-75.

Jam Handy [with its famous 'Making Meetings More Effective'] was a few blocks to the east, at Beaubien I beleive.

I took my ex-wife to the Clam Shop when we were courting back in 1973. It sticks in my memory because she vomited off the top of her parent's porch when I brought her back home. It should have been interpreted as a "sign" but I was too smitten to notice. I dutifully hosed the debris down the driveway to the street.

I used to work in that area, a visit to the Clam Shop was always in order.

One of my jobs had me planted at that intersection for over a week, 12 hours a day. I was in heaven.

I'm not sure if there is an eatery left I used to frequent downtown or not far from.

Cheers, Lowell!

Like the old Normandie Bar, never duplicated...no one ever came close and still, sadly missed after all these years!

Thanks for the great little story! and the detective work!

IIRC the floors of the Clam Shop were spread with sawdust like in the seventh line of ‘Prufrock’ if memory serves. It was a real gem. Later, I seem to remember that the owner made the mistake of attempting to go upscale with a fancy and expensive version of the Clam Shop located in the St. Regis Hotel. This was in the early 1970s. And the original closed.

I took a date to the new place once and we hated it. [[I dislike upscale stores, restaurants, locales, persons, etc.) The new improved Clam Shop went belly-up within a year.