There’s a certain kind of place that doesn’t need to advertise. You just know about it. Someone told you, or you smelled it first, or you’ve been going since you were a kid small enough to need a booster seat. On Long Beach Island, that place is Ship Bottom Shellfish.
This summer marks 45 years since the doors first opened and, if you know LBI, you know that kind of staying power means something.
It Started with a Clammer
The story begins, as so many good ones do, with a guy who refused to work for anyone but himself.
Brianna’s dad grew up in Philadelphia and landed on LBI as a teenager, eventually settling in, and falling for the island the way people do when they’re young and the salt air gets into everything. He started clamming, selling his catch to vendors up and down the island. His father’s advice rang in his ears: Don’t work for anyone else. Work for yourself. He took that seriously.
In 1981, he started his clamming business. The next year, when a tiny ice cream shop came up for sale, he saw an opportunity and he took it.
There was just one problem: he needed help running a restaurant. So he called the girl he’d met as a teenager, the one who’d grown up on the same street (her grandmother on the ocean side, his on the bay side), the one who’d since moved out to California to work at a spa. He asked her to come back.
She did.
“She left her job and came here,” Brianna says, with the kind of easy warmth that tells you this is a story she loves telling. “They ran the restaurant together, got married, had kids. And now we’re all about.”
The Place That Grew Up
When her dad bought it, Ship Bottom Shellfish was barely more than a takeout window in a converted ice cream stand. No dining room. No second floor. Just a little spot and a whole lot of ambition.
Two years in, they expanded. Put the dining room on. Hired waitstaff. From that humble start, a family institution was born; one that would eventually grow into Mud City Crabhouse, Black Whale, Parker’s Garage, and Old Causeway, each one a new chapter in the same family story.
However, Ship Bottom Shellfish came first. It’s the original, and in a lot of ways, it still feels like it.
The Menu Hasn’t Changed Much (That’s a Compliment)
Some things you don’t fix. The fried crab cakes have been on the menu since the beginning. So have the stuffed shrimp, the stuffed flounder, the garlic clams, and the mussels in wine and garlic. The homemade coleslaw? That’s Grandma’s recipe; the same grandmother who used to come in mornings to do prep when she was a little younger, because of course she did. This is that kind of place.
“The homemade onion rings,” Brianna adds. “That’s always been a big one from the very beginning.”
The recipes came from everywhere: family trips, grandmothers, Brianna’s mom’s own creativity in the kitchen. They’re rooted in the people who built this place, and eating here, you can feel that.
What’s also stayed consistent is the sourcing. The seafood comes from Barnegat Light when possible, which is right down the road and fresh off the boats. When they need to go further, it’s Fulton Fish Market in New York. Nothing is frozen. Every day brings a new shipment. The tuna comes in as loins from Uncle Rob at Cassidy’s Fish Market in Viking Village, cleaned of the bloodline and portioned by hand, in eight ounces for dinner and five for sandwiches. The yellowfin and bigeye are almost always local.
“We try really hard to get the freshest ingredients possible,” Brianna says. “Which is really important to us.”
If you’ve eaten here, you already know.
A Local Secret Worth Knowing
If you’re lucky enough to be here in season, keep an eye out for the stone crab claws. They come and go, impossible to predict, and people love them with an intensity that surprises even Brianna.
“I don’t know,” she says, laughing. “They’re good, but people just really love them. I think it’s because you can’t always get them.”
Scarcity is its own seasoning, apparently. The soft shells are the same way; grab them when you can. The menu follows the seasons and the tides, which is exactly how it should be.
Still BYOB (Sort Of)
Ship Bottom Shellfish has long been a BYOB, and that tradition holds. Last year, they introduced something new. They partnered with Ripe Life Wines, a California producer, to offer a rosé, a chardonnay, and a red blend that were all chosen to pair well with seafood. You can buy a bottle right there and drink it at your table.
On a busy summer night when the wait stretches long, they’ll set you up with a glass out back or on one of the benches outside. A little wine, some sea breeze, the smell of garlic coming from somewhere inside. There are worse ways to spend a half hour.
The Part That Really Matters
Brianna has been working here since she was 13. Her brother too. They’ve watched regulars’ kids grow up and now they bring in their own kids. They’ve seen staff members become like family.
To support the community, they run fundraisers through the winter with the Jetty Rock Foundation to help local families facing medical crises. The funds go toward things like hospital bills and a kid diagnosed with cancer. These are the kinds of situations where a tight-knit community like LBI shows up.
“They’re very good to us,” Brianna says of the LBI community, “and we try to do the same and give back.”
That’s not marketing speak. That’s just how it is here. LBI is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and where something bad happens and people rally. Ship Bottom Shellfish is woven into that fabric. It was here before most of us showed up, and something says it’ll be here long after.
Her favorite part of the job? “Seeing customers that have been with us for so many years. They’ve seen me grow up. I’ve seen their kids grow up. And now they have kids.”
Come On In
Ship Bottom Shellfish is cozy, family-oriented, and friendly in the way that feels genuine rather than rehearsed. Brianna says she makes a point of making sure every guest is greeted, said goodbye to, and thanked for coming. Nothing too fancy. Nothing pretentious. Just good service and really good food.
Forty-five years in, the clammer’s kid who grew up to run a restaurant raised two more kids to run it after her. The island that made it all possible keeps showing up, summer after summer.
Come on in and see them at Ship Bottom Shellfish. Tell them Brianna says hello, though she’ll probably beat you to it.
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