One window since 1987.
Number Nine is the Amaral family’s clam shack on Beverly Harbor. It started with a fryer, a hand-lettered sign and nine picnic tables.
1 How it started
Joe Amaral spent twenty years on the draggers out of Gloucester. In 1987 he bought a boarded-up bait shop on Harbor Road, cut a window in the front wall and put a fryer behind it.
The first menu was four things on a plywood board. Fried clams, fried haddock, chowder, fries. The tables were donated by a lumberyard in Danvers. There were nine of them, which is where the name came from.
His daughter Marisa took over the window in 2014. The board has twenty-eight things on it now. The clams are still shucked here every morning, and the oil is still changed twice a day.
2 House rules
Three things we don’t change.
Shucked here
Every clam is opened in the back room, that morning, by someone you could meet.
Oil changed twice a day
Once before lunch, once before dinner. Clean oil is the whole secret.
The price is the price
Tax included, no card minimum, no service charge. Tip jar by the window if you feel like it.
3 Who’s at the window
The crew.
Joe Amaral
FounderRetired from the window in 2014. Still comes by for chowder and to tell Marisa the oil is too hot.
Marisa Amaral
OwnerRuns the window, the books and the Friday rush. Answers the phone at 10:45 sharp.
Tomas “Tommy” Reis
Fry cookEighteen summers on the fryer. Can tell the oil temperature by the sound.
Dani Ferreira
Front windowThe voice that calls your number. Remembers faces and orders, not names.
4 From the harbor
We sponsor the Little League.
There’s a red banner for us on the outfield fence at Dane Street, and on game days the whole team comes for cones. Ask about fundraiser nights; we donate a share of Tuesdays.
