Landmark Brookfield restaurant buys site in auction
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The Clam Box restaurant in Brookfield
The Clam Box, a landmark restaurant on Route 9 in Brookfield, now owns the land where it had long leased.
Tim Dugas and his wife, Cynthia, bought the site at 53 S. Maple St. in an auction April 12 for $310,000. Now that they own it, Dugas said they'll move ahead with plans for using an adjacent site they own at 47 S. Maple St. across Quaboag Street for overflow parking. If they didn't win the auction, they were prepared to build a new restaurant at the other site.
The Clam Box has been in business for 70 years, and the Dugases have owned it for more than two years.
The building, which looks like a quintessential Cape Cod seafood shack, has plenty of character, Dugas said, but limitations. When the state had a 25% occupancy limit because of the coronavirus pandemic, the restaurant was closed over the winter because staying open in such a small space wasn't seen as feasible. Instead, the restaurant has shifted to take-out orders, which quadrupled over pre-pandemic levels.
Ultimately, the Dugases may still elect to replace the old structure. But in the meantime, longtime area residents see nostalgia in a building that looks as it did when they grew up, he said.
"When you have a building that old, it has its special quirks," Dugas said.
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