Woodman's Essex
I had heard a rumor on yelp.com that Woodman's in Essex offered gluten free fried seafood. I had been there five years back after a lovely day at Crane Beach and remembered the food being delicious and plentiful. This was of course in my pre-celiac days. When I heard that they had gluten free options, I was ecstatic. Fried clams are my guilty pleasure. I confirmed with their website that they did in fact have gluten free options and we were on our way.
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| Woodman's Sign (Image from wikipedia.com) |
Their website states that "Everything on their menu is gluten free except for the clam cakes, onion rings and sandwiches". That means you can get fried clams, scallops, shrimp, chicken fingers, haddock and fries! They also have legitimate New England Clam Chowder, (none of this Manhattan Clam Chowder BS!). They also have lobster and steamed clams with drawn butter, which are naturally gluten free. I'm getting hungry writing this and wish I could go to Woodman's tonight to get more.
Once you go through the front door, you are brought to a counter where you place your order. If you're ordering gluten free, make sure to tell them that when you place your order so they'll fry your seafood in a dedicated gluten free fryer, (read: not in with the wheat coated onion rings). Kudos to Woodman's for really getting cross contamination. Many places don't understand this and will fry their "gluten free" food in a contaminated fryer... sometimes they won't even tell you they do this... so make sure to always ask before ordering anything that's fried and supposedly gluten free.
It's been a long time since since I've had fried seafood so I went for the clam strip plate and an order of the clam chowder.
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| Woodman's Clam Chowder |
The chowder was really tasty and there was a good amount of potatoes and clams in it. It was slightly lighter than I'm used to, (you can almost get a spoon to stand up in my Grandma's Chowder), but it was still fantastic. I grew up in New England eating her Clam Chowder, which is why I think Manhattan Clam Chowder is an atrocity and why I'm very particular about the taste and texture.
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| Woodman's Fried Clam Plate |
The fried clam plate was all that I had dreamed of and more. It was also the biggest heap of clams I have ever seen. Plan on sharing this or bring it home and eat it again like I did. The fried clams can be re-baked in your oven the next day. They won't have that freshly fried taste/ texture, but they're still good. I demolished half of my plate with Frank's Red Hot infused tartar sauce and plenty of ketchup for the perfectly crisp fries.
Overall, the trip to Woodman's was spectacular. Ordering and receiving the gluten free food was so super simple and the food was so delicious, I almost forget I have Celiac Disease. I hope to visit Woodman's again in the near future.
What's your favorite fried seafood dish?
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