Whether or not razor clams were showing themselves with coin-sized dimples, donuts and key holes in the sand this weekend, thousands of people showed their faces at the Ocean Shores Convention Center for the 16th annual Razor Clam Festival and Seafood Extravaganza.
The event lasted Friday through Sunday with Saturday being the busiest day, fueled by near-spring sunshine with temperatures in the 60s. Traffic backed up along U.S. Highway 12 heading west into Aberdeen Saturday morning as people pushed to the coast and flooded the beaches to dig a midday low tide.
As the rising tide covered the clams and a St. Patrick’s Day parade concluded, activity swelled at the Convention Center just a few blocks from the beach, where people mingled among swirling smells of food vendors and crab plates in the parking lot while others filed inside to participate in the festival’s signature event: a clam chowder contest.
Seven contestants — chefs from local restaurants and a couple of public entities — worked to serve samples to the 1,350 people signed up to taste each recipe. A panel of five judges also sat down to dub their favorite and second-favorite chowders.
“People love coming and sampling,” said George Lee, general manager of the convention center.
For Kevin Hiniker of Seattle, the succession of soups was his first taste of razor clams.
“I can appreciate the differences in each one where I don’t feel like they are blended so much together that it’s confusing me,” Hiniker said after tasting the sixth of seven chowders. “They’re all very different.”
Ocean Shores Mayor Frank Elduen, one of the contest’s judges, had a similar opinion later in the day, shortly before the winners were announced.
“We had some variety to choose from,” he said. “They were all good in their own right. It was a little bit difficult to come up with who we thought was the winner.”
Elduen and several other judges also mentioned a major similarity — each chowder had plenty of clams.
“I think they all had a good amount of texture and a lot of clams,” said Ocean Shores food blogger and chef Suzy Sakamoto who demonstrated her razor clams casino dish earlier that day.
Ultimately, the judges said Porthole Pub in Ocean Shores brought the best chowder to this year’s festival. The bar and grill took home its first victory in the annual competition.
Everett Denny, a cook at the Porthole who led a team in charge of cooking the winning chowder, said he agreed to return to the contest this year for the first time since 2010, and he carried a winning mentality: “I said, “I won’t settle for anything other than first.”
Thanking the team who helped him create the massive amounts of chowder, Denny said it took “a lot of hours getting up early, making a lot of chowder, just keeping it consistent.”
“People really dug it,” he said of the chowder, which was gluten-free and contained both razor and Quahog clams.
While the five judges felt Porthole’s two-clammed soup was the best on the table, the majority of festivalgoers who tasted the chowders felt otherwise.
Led by a new chef, Oyhut Bay Bar and Grill took home the People’s Choice Award.
“That means the most to me,” said Seth Cobb, who took over as executive chef of the restaurant two months ago. “The people have spoken. To make all these people happy, all these people who showed up, have that impact on everybody is just awesome.”
Cobb said making a whopping 62-gallons of chowder was “pretty intense.” Without the infrastructure of massive tilt-skillets, the Oyhut Bay chowder was prepared in five-gallon batches, frozen and reheated at the convention center.
Cobb attributed his success to a few ingredients — French vermouth, tarragon and white wine — that kept it light.
By the end of Saturday, Cobb was down to the last seven gallons.
“It was a great turnout,” he said.
“We just moved here into the area, and just to feel the love by everybody in the community is amazing,” said Ashley Wate, Cobb’s partner who helped with the chowder production.
Even without an award for their homemade chowder, students from the North Beach School District benefited from the process, said Shawn Iliff, director of the culinary program with the district.
Students from that program arrived at the convention center a few days ahead of the festival to prepare their chowder using a 40-gallon tilt skillet with razor clams donated by the Quinault Indian Nation. On Saturday, the students worked to heat and serve samples as the rush of taste testers arrived.
In the back kitchen away from the school’s booth, 9th-grader Jordan Giraldo stirred a large steaming chowder pot. He said they added “a ton” of clam juice and used lemon juice and zest to enhance the flavors.
“I haven’t had a ton of clam chowder in my life, but this is easily the best I’ve ever had,” he said.
“It’s cool because it’s all theirs, they take ownership of it,” Iliff said of his culinary students. “They got to see this entire experience from the convention center being empty to filling up.”
That crowd was made not only of tourists but also of local people, said Ocean Shores resident Betzie Calabro.
“We love these things, even though we’re local and here all the time,” Calabro said. “The conventions are the big events and it’s great we have so many of them. It gets hairy with traffic and parking and stuff, but I love seeing tourists come here and enjoying themselves.”
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com
A panel of five judges chose Porthole Pub on March 16 as the best clam chowder at the 2024 Razor Clam Festival and Seafood Extravaganza. Judges included Ocean Shores Mayor Frank Elduen, Connie Clifford, food blogger and seafood chef Suzy Sakamoto, Peggy-Jo Faria, and Ocean Shores Police Chief Neccie Logan. (Clayton Franke / The Daily World)
Beaches near Ocean Shores were busy on Saturday, March 16 as the warmest weather of 2024 to date provided comfortable clamming weather and clear views of the Olympic mountains. (Clayton Franke / The Daily world)
