SAMPLING THE NORTH COAST CHOWDER CRAWL
A guide to stand-out,
local clam chowder
BY NIKKI DAVIDSON
It takes some courage to confess this
on the North Coast, but for the fi rst 18
years of my life, the only “seafood” I
consumed was fi sh sticks.
The rectangles of processed mys-
tery fi sh from the freezer aisle are a
childhood staple in my Iowan home-
town – the exotic cousin to chicken nug-
gets. The Midwest is hundreds of miles
away from any saltwater, and we can be
squeamish about fresh shellfi sh.
Now that I’ve lived in six states, I
have made some serious strides in recov-
ering from that fear of eating things that
live under the sea. While I’ve tackled my
phobia of oysters and crawfi sh, I never
had the chance to try clams until moving
to the North Coast this summer.
So when United Way of Clatsop
County unveiled their new fundraiser,
the 2022 North Coast Chowder Crawl,
I couldn’t resist. The fundraising orga-
nization partnered with 21 coastal
restaurants from Long Beach to Can-
non Beach to off er Crawl Cards for $30
that allowed participants to try a cup of
chowder from each restaurant during
January. They also asked participants to
crown the 2022 King or Queen of the
Crawl by rating each bowl by scanning
a QR code.
“A lot of events have been canceled
in the last two years, so we had to get a
little bit more creative about fundrais-
ing,” said United Way board member
Rachel Schack. The new crawl sparked
a good amount of interest, and United
Way almost sold out of tickets. By the
event’s start, 160 tickets were sold, and
$7,000 was raised for local nonprofi ts.
ABOVE: Clam Chowder at Driftwood
Restaurant in Cannon Beach. RIGHT:
Clam Chowder at Dundee’s in Seaside.
With potentially 3,300 cups of clam
chowder consumed, there’s bound to be
a lot of diff erent opinions on who makes
it best. I’m sure locals believe an Iowan
has no business ranking who makes this
dish best. Still, I think I can off er a genu-
inely neutral take on chowder. After all,
I don’t have a family recipe to unfairly
compare all others to, and this was my
fi rst time visiting most of the restaurants.
See Page 15
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