Fathom’s Take-And-Bake Clam Bake Brainstorm

One of the things I like about Fathom? They work faster than they think over there. Case in point: A few minutes ago, owner Mike Stollenwerk put out this tweet.

“Starting Monday, traditional clam bakes including; lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, corn on the cob, red bliss potatoes, Andouille sausage”

That was rapidly followed by this one.

“Or take one to-go in Fathom’s custom cookware already steamed or assembled to steam later at home or on the grill and keep the pot!”

And that was followed immediately by my phone call to the place wondering A) how this awesome idea is going to work, B) how much it was going to cost, and C) what time did they open on Monday, exactly?

I got Stollenwerk’s assistant Nicole on the blower and asked her how everything was going to come together: how were they going to be giving  away kitchen equipment without going bankrupt, what would be included in each pot and what was the fastest way to get there from my office. Funny thing was, she didn’t really know, telling me, “Mike is infamous for having these kinds of ideas and we all have to catch up with him.”

Still, a quick conference and a call-back later, she had all the details for me, explaining that Fathom had ordered a bunch of pots, each one capable of holding enough seafood to feed up to four people, and had spent the past few days stenciling their logo onto them. With branded pots in hand, the kitchen will be doing clam bakes at $25 per person, mixing up all those ingredients tweeted above (the clams and the lobster and the potatoes and corn and everything else) and serving them in-house.

If, on the other hand, folks want to take the pots to-go, all it’ll require is an extra $10 up front (per pot), with the hope being that the seafood pot will function sort of like a growler–you get it filled, cook it off at home, eat your meal, then bring it back to have it refilled for next time. And when you do bring it back, not only will you not have to pay the pot-charge again, but you’ll also get 10% off your whole order. Nice, right?

Nicole explained that Stollenwerk and his crew would be able to serve the clam bakes in the dining room (obviously), cook them in the kitchen and let folks take ’em out the door all ready to eat, or assemble them raw with all the necessary ingredients (the seafood, the potatoes, the Old Bay and oregano and butter and wine) organized to steam evenly so that people could cook the whole thing up themselves at home.

According to Stollenwerk (who I could hear feeding answers to Nicole on the other end of the line), Fathom will be ready to “kick it off” come Monday, as planned.

And according to Google maps, it is exactly 4.8 miles from my office to Fathom’s front door.

Anyone wanna race?