Sides

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Katlyn Graham:  Hello, I’m Katlyn Graham, here with Steve Woodman, the co‑CEO and Owner at Woodman’s. Welcome, Steve!

Steve Woodman:  Hi, Katlyn.

Katlyn:  Thanks for being here today! We’ve been discussing clam bakes, and we’ve gone over all the seafood you need at a clam bake. But you need some sides. What kind of sides do you offer?

Steve:  The typical sides for a clam bake is your coleslaw, your corn on the cob. Clam chowder is maybe not considered a side, but some people might consider that something as a side. Macaroni salad, potato salad, all that stuff we make fresh at the restaurant and we send it out.

But other people want more than that and they’re looking for something else and mainly really think of dessert. They want to go a little bit more with desserts. Typically, what comes with a clam bake is you have your watermelon. But if you want to have fresh strawberry shortcake or berry shortcake or you want to have fruit pies or something like that, we can do all that for you, whatever you want.

Whether it’s having your dessert or even something before that with a nice salad and some cornbread or something, we can do that also. Anything else that you can think of. We have a great chef that can make anything that you want, so if you want to have some exotic barbecue shrimp or something like that, we can do that for you, too.

Of course, we can supply a full raw bar, which is a clams and oysters on the half shell, the shrimp and cracked crab. We can set all that up and have shuckers there opening for you before the clam bake, so people can stand around, have a cocktail and get some shrimp and raw oysters and clams and start the party off right.

Katlyn:  Some hors d’oeuvres, everyone loves hors d’oeuvres. How many sides do you recommend at a clam bake? Is there a traditional number or is it really up to the person?

Steve:  That’s totally up to the person. Typical would be have a coleslaw or a corn on the cob. That’s the typical side that you have. There are breads and things that can go with that, but those are the typical sides. It all depends how much food and how much variety that you want.

Katlyn:  Now, I would imagine that over, as summer comes and then winter, as the seasons change, your menu options might change as well?

Steve:  Oh, sure, because to get fresh berries, that’s a short time of the year, although you can import them from different areas, so if you do have a little bit longer window than what is locally. But yeah, with the seasons, there were different fruits and there were different items that we can fresh to have on the menu.

Katlyn:  You do use local farmers. I like that part.

Now, you had mentioned desserts. What kind of desserts do people usually request? What’s the most popular?

Steve:  The most popular are actually…there’s the strawberry shortcake, or the three berry shortcake. We make our own biscuits. We have the berries, the fresh berries, the whipped cream that go with it, and people really just enjoy having that strawberry shortcake, or that berry shortcake after the meal.

Katlyn:  I have heard about Woodman’s strawberry shortcake. I heard it’s spectacular actually, so I am eager to try that. Now, at a barbecue, would the sides be any different than a clam bake?

Steve:  Not necessarily. Like I said, the typical evening with a barbecue is you eat coleslaw, and your potato salads, and your corn on the cob. It’s the same basic sides, but whatever you could come up, and dream of our chef could put it together for you.

Katlyn:  Really, so your imagination is the limit.

Steve:  That’s right.

Katlyn:  [laughs] Thank you so much. Is there anything else about sides you want people to know, Steve?

Steve:  They’re great, they really enhance the clam bake, and different people have different tastes, so whatever you like we can do for you.

Katlyn:  Sounds good. You can’t have a clam bake without the sides. Thank you so much, Steve.

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Photo credit: dbking / Foter / (CC BY 2.0)