{"id":1942,"date":"2011-09-01T15:16:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T22:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2011-09-09T19:57:25","modified_gmt":"2011-09-10T02:57:25","slug":"case-of-the-missing-crystal-room-clam-pie-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=1942","title":{"rendered":"Case of the Missing Crystal Room Clam Pie Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yes, it looked like a haunted house; but its clam and fruit pies were spooky good<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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Sign of the times: Hand lettered poster; homemade pies<\/p><\/div>\n

Sept. 1, 2011<\/strong>:\u00a0Scores of tag sale treasure hunters pored through tons of dishes, glassware and cookware at the estate sale of the Crystal Room and Cricket Caterers at 250 Pantigo Road,\u00a0hoping to hit the jackpot and find the bona fide recipe for the Crystal Room\u2019s famous clam pies. The pies were mainstays at past Springs\u2019\u00a0Fisherman’s Fair, and irresistible take-home meals for many who succumbed to the hand-lettered “Clam Pies” sign in front of the ramshackle building that is now for up sale.<\/span><\/h5>\n
Justine Ross, is one of the executors of the estate left behind by her cousin, Albert Peter Trages, who died last October, a mere three months after the death of his mother Sophia,\u00a0 who founded of the Crystal Room and Cricket Caterers with her husband Albert Anthony Trages. Ms Ross notes that the clam pie recipe was “modified” from one by Lee Dion of East Hampton. \u201cWe haven\u2019t come across it yet, but we hope it turns up\u201d, she says\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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The senior Albert Trages died in 1986, which is about when the regular catering and restaurant operations reverted to now-and-then sales of clam or fresh-fruit pies from the seemingly abandoned building on the main road between East Hampton and Amagansett.\u00a0 In a bygone era, however, the Crystal Room was a thriving and swanky business run by a family of hardworking entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On her liquor license application, Sophia described the couple\u2019s $19,000 purchase and intention to operate \u201can attractive and moderately priced restaurant\u201d supplemented by gourmet catering and a gift shop. The Trages originally ran a Crystal Dining Room in Bayside, Queens, before moving it to East Hampton where \u201cland was cheap and they could raise chickens and turkeys,\u201d recalls Ms. Ross.<\/p>\n

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Treasures and Trash: A historic tag sale at the Crystal Room of East Hampton<\/p><\/div>\n

The 1\u00bd-acre property they bought, on what was then known as \u201cAmagansett Road, down Pantigo\u201d, was the former John Johnson farmhouse. Kasimir and Halina Wierzynsky, Sag Harbor \u00e9migr\u00e9s who fled Nazi occupied Poland, had already converted the site for Bazaar Culinaire, described by a local newspaper at the time as a very \u201cunusual food shop\u201d offering international gourmet food for take out or catered events. Clearly ahead of its time, Bazaar Culinaire operated for only a short period before the Trages\u2019 Americanized, post-war comfort-food concept debuted on July 4 weekend, 1959.<\/p>\n

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American Comfort Food: Nesselrode pie anyone?<\/p><\/div>\n

A typical Crystal Room dinner menu of the time offered: Long Island Duckling Cumberland, at $3.95; Broiled Swordfish Garni, $3.50; Braised Beef Casserole, $3.50. Each entree included choice of appetizer: Chilled herring; Clam chowder; Vichyssoise; Liver pate; or, for $1 extra, a cold half-lobster. Dessert, also included, was either a slice of fruit pie, Nesselrode sundae, or Camembert cheese. Buffet suppers were on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.\u00a0 So-called party-platters of deviled eggs, cold cuts, cranberry mold salad and the like were offered for $3 per person.<\/p>\n

The grounds had extensive garden plantings, daffodils in particular, which were often sold in front of the building. An arbor in the rear was a favorite for photos of the many wedding receptions celebrated at the Crystal Room. \u201cAunt Sophie\u2019s passion was for every bride to have the perfect wedding\u201d, says Ms. Ross.<\/p>\n

Hugh King, East Hampton Village historian, who organized a Springs School faculty retirement dinner there in the mid 1970\u2019s, recalls raised banquettes, a small bandstand and a cloakroom.<\/p>\n

But most contemporary customers, such as Keith Criado, of Santa Barbara, CA, know the Crystal Room for its Bates Motel-like eeriness and the iconic hand painted \u201cClam Pies\u201d sign nailed to a tree. Criado enthusiastically recalls the early clam pies, especially at prices of $6 in the late 1970\u2019s. They rose to more than $20 when he bought his last one about 5 years ago.\u00a0 \u201cThe recent ones didn\u2019t have nearly as many clams. But he did make his own crust,\u201d says Criado, referring to the reclusive younger Albert Trages, who supervised pie sales of the later years.<\/p>\n

For those lucky enough\u2014or brave enough\u2014to partake in the veritable haunted-house experience that was a Crystal Room clam pie purchase, the memory of Albert\u2019s brusque instruction–\u201cCook it at 400 degrees for at least one hour and don\u2019t defrost it!\u201d–remains spooky.<\/p>\n

If the clam pie recipe whereabouts remain a mystery, there\u2019s no secret where the \u201cClam Pies\u201d sign wound up.\u00a0 According to Nick Nicolino of The Clearing House Exchange<\/a>, supervisors of this weekend\u2019s massive tag sale, the owner of Townline BBQ restaurant purchased it. \u201cUnlike so many other sales that we manage,\u201d explains Nicolino, \u201cthere is nothing here that anyone truly needs.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the kind of stuff that people really want.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for many folks who fondly remember the Crystal Room and Cricket Caterers, the elusive clam pie recipe tops their most wanted list.<\/p>\n

Hugh King seems to be closing in on the recipe, having recently located Lee Dion. \u00a0We’ll have a FishTales update on the missing clam pie recipe when Hugh next checks in. \u00a0Meanwhile, the succeeding clam pie queen, my sister-in-law “St. Toni of the Blitz” has agreed to share these pictures of her homemade creations. \u00a0But not the recipe. \u00a0For that, you have to show up in person.<\/p>\n

A version of this article first appeared on The East Hampton Patch<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n

CLAM PIE BY TONI<\/p>\n

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She starts with a couple of dozen cherrystones, harvested by Big Brother Frank......<\/p><\/div>\n

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... minces and mixes the clams with celery, onions, potatoes and lots of .....<\/p><\/div>\n

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...herbs and stuff we can't tell you about (but don't forget the fresh clam juice!)....<\/p><\/div>\n

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....seals it all in pastry dough, and then bakes it at 350 degrees for one hour.....<\/p><\/div>\n

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.....Voila! A briny slice of heaven from the sea! Thank you Toni!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, it looked like a haunted house; but its clam and fruit pies were spooky good Sept. 1, 2011:\u00a0Scores of tag sale treasure hunters pored through tons of dishes, glassware and cookware at the estate sale of the Crystal Room and Cricket Caterers at 250 Pantigo Road,\u00a0hoping to hit the jackpot and find the bona […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1978,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions\/1978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}