Word on the street — Riverside Avenue — was that Mansion Clam House may have closed.
It was shut Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. There’s no activity today. The sign in front of the building is gone, and the exterior lights have been on for a few days. It looks deserted.
But folks in the know say Mansion will try to open on Friday.
Let’s hope it’s just a bump in the road — Riverside Avenue — for this long-lived, much-loved Westport institution.
Mansion Clam House (file photo).
Today’s Saugatuck news includes something new (the opening of a new ice cream parlor) — and something old that may be new.
The building housing the Mansion Clam House — the longtime down-home restaurant next to the Bridge Street bridge — is for sale.
Mansion Clam House
Listed for $2,875,000, it’s described as a
rare investment opportunity in newly revitalized Saugatuck Center with direct river frontage! Two buildings with triple net leases and dock rebuilding potential. Great cash flow and future growth as bustling local only continues to grow. Dynamite setting!
Mansion Clam House has had its troubles. But it remains a favorite place for casual dining, in a great setting. You gotta love that fisherman on the roof.
And “dock rebuilding” sounds very enticing.
Last month, I posted a story about Mansion Clam House. Owner Soozi Folsom had cut through months of red tape, mowing unkempt grass on a state-owned strip between her popular seafood restaurant, and nearby Bridge Street.
“06880” readers praised Soozi for her initiative, and promised to head to Mansion for meals.
Yesterday, news broke that Soozi pleaded guilty to embezzling $1.3 million, over 3 years, from 3 foundations. In addition to owning the restaurant, she worked as an office manager at a Westport accounting firm.
Immediately, readers commented on my month-old post.
Mansion Clam House
“Jobo” asked: “Is this the same Soozi Folsom who stole $1.3 million from charities? Shame on yoo, and your ridiculous name, Soozi.”
“Sick of Hippocrates” — who may actually have been sick of “hypocrites” — presumably referred to me when he or she wrote:
Nice article which once again shows how some individuals in Westport have poor judgement and support people who are not morally or ethically sound. Soozi Folsom is an embezzler but you assumed she was great because Why????? Poor judgement on your part, once again…thats why.
And “Shun” vowed not to eat at Mansion Clam House: “Embezzling all that money, she no longer needs my business at the Mansion!”
I’m not sure that the way Soozi spells her name is relevant.
I don’t know how I — or anyone else — could have known she was embezzling money when we praised her restaurant for providing a public service.
But I do know that not eating at Mansion is not the best way to express disappointment and disgust. All it will do is hurt the innocent men and women who work there — and who no doubt share most Westporters’ sadness at yesterday’s news.
Government is sometimes the problem.
Sometimes, it’s the solution.
Yesterday, I posted a short piece on the unkempt condition of the strip between Bridge Street and Mansion Clam House.
Early this morning, Mansion owner Soozi Folsom commented:
Mansion maintained the property from 2007-2010 when we were sent a cease and desist letter. Apparently the state was worried we would claim adverse possession.
Last year the state mowed every week. This year I had to beg the bridge workers to cut it. I call State DOT maintenance every week and beg for it to be maintained. I have had no luck.
Westporters resigned themselves to months more of mess.
But wait!
Soozi just posted this addendum:
After posting I again called the State DOT and asked for the supervisor. We spoke at length, and he could think of 2 reasons for a cease and desist.
1) There was bridge work and they didn’t want the liability
2) I quote: “Someone had an irritating hair up their ass.” He verbally revoked any order, and we came to an agreement. His crew and their big ass mowers will take care of the parcel later this week to get it manageable.
We (Mansion) will then commit to maintaining weekly. Onward and upward!
Yay, smart supervisor at DOT!
Double-yay, for Soozi and the Mansion Clam House!!
One more reason to love Westport — and to celebrate with a beer at the Mansion bar.
Westport’s latest heroes.
Posted in People, Places, Restaurants, Saugatuck
Tagged Connecticut Department of Transportation, Mansion Clam House, Soozi Folsom
In June, alert reader Scott Witkin noticed some activity on the tiny patch of land adjacent to Mansion Clam House and Bridge Street.
He watched in amazement as a 4-person DOT crew methodically rolled out a 60-inch mower, 2 weed whackers and a backpack blower — all to cut what Scott figures is less than 100 square feet of grass.
We shouldn’t have laughed.
Another alert reader — one who prefers to remain anonymous — says the plot has not been touched since June.
It used to be nicely maintained, with the old boat planting bed and grass cut regularly. It now seems to be going to rot. I’m guessing by your earlier post that it’s state property, since the crew that opens the bridge were spotted cutting it. It’s almost a little bit like a town green down in Saugatuck.
Perhaps you could raise a little awareness and see if local merchants would maintain it? I thought I had heard that the guys at Westport Wash and Wax are responsible for cutting the median grass on Post Rd East in front of their shop to keep things looking good.
Any takers?
Posted in Local business, Restaurants, Saugatuck
Tagged Bridge Street, Mansion Clam House
Menus these days are massive. They’re thick as a phone book, laminated or bound, and include information ranging from the homeland of each head of lettuce to the distressing fact that shellfish, peanuts and undercooked food can kill you.
Recently, a friend showed me a menu from the Clam Box. Back in the day, that restaurant (on the site of the current Bertucci’s) was one of the most popular spots in town. Westporters — and travelers on the nearby “Connecticut Turnpike” — loved it for its simple seafood, plain interior and servers waiters who just asked for your order, without introducing themselves by name and complimenting you on your choice.
Its menu was similarly down to earth.
Times have changed, of course. You can’t get a shrimp cocktail for $2, a 2-pound lobster for $10.50, or “loads of french fried onion rings made to order” for 85 cents. (Onion rings “made to order”?)
The Clam Box menu is a window into the past. It was a true seafood restaurant, from appetizers of clams and oysters on the half shell, to clam, oyster and lobster stews; all the way through the “fried fish in season belly burster,” Canadian smelts, Rocky Mountain rainbow trout, Long Island bluefish, Boston “mackrel,” newburg dishes, finnan haddie au gratin, Alaskan King Crab (garlic butter on request), Baltimore crabmeat cakes, and combination lobster meat, crabmeat and shrimp salad (served with potato salad and cole slaw).
There were only 3 items for “non-fisheaters”: broiled chicken and fried chicken (both “disjointed”), and a chopped steak platter with onion rings, french fries, and cole slaw or salad ($2.50).
Today, the Clam Box is just a memory. So too is Allen’s Clam House. Mansion Clam House is still around — and though it’s one of my favorites, its prices have zoomed beyond clam-shack territory. (The king crab and Maine lobster bear the dreaded “$M/P,” for “market price.”)
Sure, $5 for lobster au gratin isn’t what it used to be. You can’t buy a home in Westport for $25,000 either. (Although the way housing prices are going, you never know…)
But being handed a cardboard menu, with plain-as-day choices in easy-to-understand English, might explain why the Clam Box lasted so long.
And is still remembered so well.
“06880” reader Wendy Pieper was in Saugatuck the other day. She did not like what she saw.
Her reaction:
We stopped at the light at Peter’s Corner in Saugatuck. (I call it that because Peter’s Market sat at this location for what seemed like forever.)
I’m not sure I would have seen the atrocity if we weren’t stopped for that brief moment, but I glanced up and saw the familiar logo that graces every mile (or less) up and down the Post Road: Dunkin’ Donuts.
I couldn’t believe it. My heart stopped — it literally missed a beat. I was overcome by that feeling you get when you learn someone has died. There were no words; just open-mouth gasping.
I can’t believe Dunkin’ Donuts is in Saugatuck.
My husband and I rented a cottage on Riverside Avenue when we were first married. A quick walk to the train, Viva’s, Peter’s Bridge, Mansion Clam House, the Duck, Desi’s corner, the post office, Depot Liquor, DeRosa’s, etc. What more could you need?
Not a Dunkin’ Donuts, that’s for sure!
There was a charming quality to the Saugatuck area — and there still is, hidden there waiting to blossom again. There is a heart and soul, a feeling of community. It’s something different than downtown, sorta fishy, sorta quirky, definitely a real feel of the river. The last bits of old Westport are there.
We’ve given up so much of this town. Do we have to sacrifice the last parts? Do we really need another faceless, nameless shop? When you’re in a Dunkin’ Donuts you could be in a mall, a truck stop, an airport — a place of nothing, devoid of locale. Heartless.
I can’t tell you how many sandwiches, coffees and egg sandwiches I’ve grabbed from Peter’s. I took them to the beach, or escaped on a boat.
The old Mansion Clam House has a new neighbor.
This little enclave was a place to restock and revive. You’d see everyone there from town on their way to enjoy the beach or Longshore, or off to New York.
The parking lot was always crowded. All the proprietors knew your face. The deli people welcomed you. There was a community. You knew you were in Westport.
I spent a zillion hours at Juba’s (the old coffee spot in Peter’s) when my second daughter was born, trading stories and receiving encouragement from other moms. I assure you you will not find this at Dunkin’ Donuts.
I can’t believe the town approved this. McDonald’s and Arby’s received more scrutiny than this! Did someone get paid off? There was no prior notice, just another operation done under the cover of night — very cloak and dagger.
How is Doc’s going to survive? Don’t we want to see the success of the local businessman?
We deserve more in this town. For such an educated and eclectic group, we are sadly pacified with what is easy and common. Where is our spirit, our individuality? How could we have let this happen to another place? How can we give up Saugatuck to more of the same?
How could the owners of this property ignore the history and charm or Saugatuck? How could they be so short-sighted?
I am so saddened by this, as I’m sure many others are.
That was Wednesday. Wendy had a night to think about Dunkin’ Donuts’ coming to Saugatuck.
Yesterday morning, she was still upset. She wrote again:
I’m just so sad. Once a Dunkin’ Donuts or the like go in to a place, they never leave. You see abandoned stores everywhere, but somehow they manage to stay there with their stale coffee smell, chewy old bagels and napkins scattered on the sidewalk.
Will funky Doc's survive now that DD's has moved in?
It might be time to think of moving. I can’t believe I grew up here, spent every summer on this shore, chose to build my life here with my family, and slowly I watch the decay of town. I just don’t understand. I wish there was something to do. Is it greed?
I find myself in Fairfield more these days, because somehow they have managed to find a balance between the chains and the locals. I’m afraid Westport will soon look and feel like Westchester County. Maybe that’s what everyone wants, and I’m not the norm — my husband points that out to me often.
Am I living in a fantasy world? Too Pollyanna? I point out so many spots to my daughters, and preceding most comments is “There used to be this great place…”
Fill in the blank: Ship’s, Soup’s On, the movie theater. Even the strategic placement of Friendly’s in Playhouse Square was good — you could always find someone there after a movie.
Sorry to lament so early in the morning. Any solution? Is it too far gone?
This Dunkin’ Donuts seems to have put me over the edge. I know I will get over it, move on and and find something wonderful again in town that I love and that keeps me here.
But in the meantime I shall say a prayer that others may feel the same — that we may all try to hold on to our beautiful town, and all that makes it unique and special.
Posted in Looking back, People, Restaurants, Saugatuck
Tagged Doc's, Dunkin' Donuts, Mansion Clam House, Saugatuck, Viva Zapata's, Wendy Pieper
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome, appreciated — and tax-deductible! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to “06880”: PO Box 744, Westport, CT 06881. Or use Venmo: @blog06880. Or Zelle: dwoog@optonline.net. Thanks!)
