An iconic North Shore seafood shack is closed for the foreseeable future after being hit by a fire overnight.
According to an article from CBS Boston, Essex Seafood on Route 133 in Essex sustained major damage in a two-alarm blaze that apparently broke out around 11:00 Sunday night. The post mentions that the fire started only hours after it wrapped up a busy Mother's Day for the restaurant, but fortunately no injuries were reported. The fire, which caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to Essex Seafood, is currently under investigation.
Essex Seafood is one of several iconic clam shacks along Route 133 in Essex and Ipswich, including such places as Woodman's, J. T. Farnham's, and the Clam Box.
[May 22 update: The Gloucester Times mentions that Essex Seafood owner Howie Lane plans to tear the structure down and rebuild, saying that "We want to rebuild just like it was, with the wood inside just like we had....I have a lot of friends that do construction and cement work -- they've all reached out to me. We'll make it company friendly, handicap-friendly and put a sprinkler system in so nothing like this will happen again." In addition, Lane is planning to have a grand reopening celebration in which the firefighters who extinguished the fire will be recognized for their work, with Lane stating that "I can't believe they saved the house....They more than did their job. They're the real heroes. Everything will be on the house -- no charge." (Thanks to a poster within the Friends of Boston's Hidden Restaurants Facebook group page for bringing this to our attention.)]
by Marc Hurwitz (Also follow us on Twitter at @hiddenboston)
[A related post from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): List of Restaurant Closings and Openings in the Boston Area]
