Foiled in our attempt to eat Saturday brunch at the North Hadley Sugar Shack, we continued down Route 9 toward Northampton to Webster's Fish Hook Restaurant, which is located on Damon Road, the first right after the Coolidge Bridge.
To be fair, we'd been planning to eat at Webster's for a while, but Nick refused to try a fish shack unless the weather was warm, claiming that a summery atmosphere was a requisite for any restaurant that reminded him of Cape Cod. (For the record, he has been to the Cape all of one time, so he is not nearly as pretentious an asshole as that last sentence might suggest.) But this weekend's t-shirt-and-sandals weather was a sign-a sign that we were supposed to cure our hangovers by dipping delectable, deep-fried fruit of the sea in tartar sauce.
Curiously enough, Webster's has no outdoor seating (although it is by the water). There is an ice cream shack next door, but there's nary a seagull in sight-indeed, judging from Webster's "décor," the only animal you're likely to see is a rat. No, Webster's is not unclean, but yes, it's kind of a dump. The salad bar is kind of sad, replete with canned chickpeas, pink tomato slices and wilting lettuce, and the hand-written sign that said, "Sorry, we're out of Haddock!" didn't get our palates watering.
Luckily, the food itself superseded the atmosphere (or lack thereof). Sarah, Nick and Dan started off with a bowl of clam chowder ($4.25), the benchmark of any seafood restaurant. Not to brag, but we've had our share of this New England delicacy (and Dan is a self-proclaimed "chowda expert"). Webster's version is good, but not great. Hearty and creamy, but not heavy à la Campbell's, its biggest fault was a paucity of clam.
We had no such qualms about Dan's whole clam lunch platter (at market price), which was a perfectly-sized portion for midday. Lightly breaded and fried almost to perfection, the clams were large and meaty.
Nick, for his part, nearly fulfilled a lifelong dream. A little background: Lobster rolls are hard to come by in Southern California; to be perfectly honest, until Saturday, Nick wouldn't have known one if it snapped its cute little claws at him.
Alas, lobster rolls are by far the most expensive item on Webster's lunch menu, weighing in at $14.99, or more than twice the cost of a crabmeat roll ($6.80). Thus Nick went with the second option. He was not disappointed. The warm grinder overflowing with crabmeat was blessedly light on the mayo, and a light sprinkling of dill didn't overwhelm the pleasantly un-fishy crab flavor. Sarah, the connoisseur between the two of us, proclaimed it a rousing success while noting that the roll should have been buttered for authenticity.
We must have been in a crabby mood on Saturday, as evidenced by Sarah's choice of cajun crab cakes ($7.99 lunch platter). Although she asked for her cakes "hot," they lacked zip; in both appearance and taste, the broad but thin patties resembled pinkish-brown latkes. While they weren't overbreaded, we suspect that potato helped hold them together. Nonetheless, Sarah Rothbard and Nick Soltman are both latke fans (go figure), and despite all appearances to the contrary, regularly enjoy shellfish and pork products in this space-odd crabcakes included.
The black sheep of our seafood expedition was, as usual, Emily. Growing up in the landlocked state of Iowa has left her with an aversion to fish products. In any case, her chicken tenders ($6.55 lunch platter) were better than Valentine's version (crispier and without the consistency of neck/tendon), and we found the barbecue sauce alluring for its vinegary tang.
The moral of the story is that you can eat fish before 12 p.m. But we tend to think that seafood, like sex, is really an "afternoon delight."