Baked Oysters on the Half Shell

Johnson’s Hummocks Sea Food Restaurant started out in 1905 as a clambake club on the shores of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. By the 1920s the club, founded by Frank Johnson and situated on a pork-chop-shaped peninsula of North Kingstown known as “The Hummocks,” had grown into a summertime attraction that could seat 1,400 people.

In 1925, however, Johnson’s restaurant was destroyed by fire. Johnson managed to rebuild it by August 1938 only to see it destroyed a month later by the New England Hurricane of 1938, the most powerful, costliest, and deadliest hurricane in the region’s history. Once again it was rebuilt. Then, in 1944, another hurricane ripped off the restaurant’s roof.

Henry Johnson, the son of the founder, who by then was operating the restaurant with his wife, Etta, wisely decided to abandon the site and move the restaurant to Providence. In time Johnson’s Hummocks became one of the most popular restaurants in Rhode Island. It was a favorite venue for political fund-raising events because it could seat 1,000 for dinner. Children loved the place because, on finishing their meals, they were always invited to select a toy from the large treasure chest at the front entrance. (One favorite was a plastic souvenir whistle, in the shape of an ocean liner, marked “U.S.S. Johnson’s Hummocks.”)

Some years after Henry Johnson died in 1955, Johnson’s Hummocks passed into the hands of Louis Capobianco, a longtime employee of the restaurant, who owned and operated it from 1963 to 1968,  and then to TX Industries, a Philadelphia-based conglomerate. But the new owner, apparently unable to make a go of it, closed Johnson’s Hummocks without warning on May 20, 1970, citing the old building, old equipment, and a generally undesirable location.

In recent years the building at 245 Allens Avenue has been the home of Cheaters, a strip club, and the Wild Zebra Gentleman’s Club.

The restaurant’s signature dish was a “Miniature Clambake” tray, shown here on the lower half of the postcard. And here is its recipe for Baked Oysters on Half Shell, as they were prepared right up until the restaurant’s closing.

Print Recipe

Baked Oysters on the Half Shell

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4

Ingredients

• 32 fresh oysters on the half shell
• 1/4 pound butter, softened
• 1/4 pound lard
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 ounce anisette
• 1 ounce gin
• 1/4 pound cracker meal

Instructions

1

Cream butter and lard; add remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop teaspoon of above dressing on each oyster. Bake in 400-degree oven until dressing turns golden brown (about 8 to 10 minutes)., Garnish with lemon wedge. Serves four.