A seafood near me search in West Hollywood turns up a great deal of sushi and one building shaped like a wave on Santa Monica Boulevard. Connie and Ted's is Michael Cimarusti's New England fish shack transplanted to Los Angeles, and it is the rare themed restaurant where the theme is a genuine autobiography rather than a decorating decision.
The raw bar, the patio and the dining room here fill at different hours and take walk-ins differently. Ask Karpo how busy Connie and Ted's is right now and what else on Santa Monica Boulevard is open.
Where the name comes from
Cimarusti grew up in Rhode Island and named the restaurant after his grandparents, Connie and Ted, who took him fishing and cooking as a child. He went on to run Providence in Los Angeles, one of the most decorated seafood restaurants in the country, and opened this place in 2013 as the informal counterpart to it.
That lineage matters because it explains the sourcing. A chef running a two-star seafood restaurant already has the supplier relationships and the buying discipline; this room applies that to a menu of chowder, fried clams and lobster rolls rather than to tasting-menu plating.
The result is a shack menu executed with fine-dining purchasing, which is a genuinely unusual combination and the reason the fried seafood here is better than fried seafood has any right to be.
Three chowders, and they are different
The menu has historically offered chowder in three regional styles, which is an education in itself. New England is the cream-based version everyone knows. Rhode Island is clear-broth, no cream and no tomato, letting the clam and the pork fat carry it. Manhattan is tomato-based and is treated as heresy in most of New England.
Order the Rhode Island version at least once. It is the one Angelenos have almost never had, it is the most difficult to make well because there is nothing to hide behind, and it is the clearest statement of where this kitchen's loyalties lie.
The chowder is also the cheapest way to assess the restaurant. If the clams are tender and the broth tastes of something other than salt, the rest of the menu will follow.
The raw bar and what to order from it
Oysters are shucked to order with a rotating list from both coasts, and the staff will tell you honestly which are drinking best that day. Littleneck clams on the half shell are the New England order that most Californians skip and should not.
The lobster roll comes in both styles: cold with mayonnaise in the Maine manner, or warm with butter in the Connecticut manner. Order the warm buttered version if you are choosing one; it is less common in Los Angeles and the bread work here holds up to it.
The fried side of the menu
Whole-belly fried clams are the dish that separates a real New England seafood restaurant from an imitation. Most places serve clam strips, which are cut from a different, larger clam and are a substantially inferior product. Whole bellies are messier, richer and much harder to source in California.
The fish and chips and the fried oysters are both worth ordering, and the batter work is light enough that the seafood inside is not steamed into oblivion. There is a proper tartare sauce rather than a squeeze bottle.
Pair fried food with beer rather than wine. The list has a reasonable range of cold, simple options that do the job better than anything more considered.
The building and the patio
The building is a deliberate piece of Los Angeles vernacular: a low, curved, shingle-clad structure on a corner lot with a large patio, more Cape Cod than West Hollywood, and it reads as a folly until you are sitting on the patio at seven in the evening and it stops mattering.
The patio is the seat to want. It is open-air, heated, and large enough that it absorbs a crowd, and it is considerably more pleasant than the interior dining room on any evening between March and November.
There is also a bar with its own seating that takes walk-ins reliably. For two people without a booking, that is the route in.
West Hollywood around it
Santa Monica Boulevard through West Hollywood is the centre of the city's LGBTQ nightlife and one of the few genuinely walkable commercial strips on the Westside, with bars, restaurants and shops running continuously for well over a mile.
The neighbourhood is compact and dense by Los Angeles standards, which means a long wait here is not a dead end. Parking is metered on the boulevard with structures behind it, and the city's parking enforcement is notably diligent.
Practical notes
Address: 8171 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, at Havenhurst. Lunch and dinner most days with the kitchen running late by Westside standards. Reservations are taken for the dining room; the bar and parts of the patio hold seats for walk-ins.
Order the Rhode Island chowder, a warm buttered lobster roll and whole-belly fried clams, sit on the patio if the weather allows, and drink beer rather than wine with anything fried. If you want the same chef's serious work, the tasting-menu restaurant is a short drive east and a completely different evening.
Tags: #LosAngeles #WestHollywood #SeafoodNearMe #ConnieAndTeds #NewEngland #ClamChowder #LobsterRoll #SantaMonicaBoulevard #LAFood #RawBar #FriedClams #LARestaurants #WeHo #LAEats
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether Connie and Ted's patio has space tonight, which oysters came in today, and what else is open on Santa Monica Boulevard? Ask Karpo for the current wait, tonight's hours, and a nearby backup that takes walk-ins.
