PAGE 12 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
RESTAURANT REVIEWS, DINING DEALS & FOOD NEWS
A variety of New England clam chowders found at Central Oregon restaurants.
Finding Central Oregon’s best
New England clam chowders
STORY AND PHOTOS BY BARB GONZALEZ • The Bulletin
T
here’s nothing like a warm bowl of clam chowder after spending a cold winter day on the beach. Here in landlocked Central Oregon, the
beach may be replaced by a snow-covered mountain, but the steaming, creamy bowl of chowder still takes the chill off. As a fan of the
smoky seafood soup, I sought to test clam chowders from local restaurants.
There are two types of East Coast
clam chowder- creamy New England
Clam Chowder and tomato-based
Manhattan Clam Chowder. There’s a
history of New Englanders rejecting the
Manhattan style as they claim a chow-
der is cream-based. The feud may have
reached its peak in 1939 when a Politi-
cian from Rocklin, Maine, drafted a bill
to make it illegal to make clam chowder
with tomato. According to the New En-
gland Historical Society web page, the
law would punish offenders by requir-
ing that they “dig up a barrel of clams at
high tide. As any clammer will tell you,
that is not only cruel and unusual pun-
ishment but impossible.”
New England style clam chowder is
traditionally made with clams, clam
juice, salt pork (often bacon), onions
and potatoes in a creamy soup. Like
those in Maine, clam chowder purists
believe there should be no herbs and no
flour or thickening added to the milky
base.
While all of the soups here in Central
Oregon follow the basic recipe, no two
clam chowders are alike. Each of these
restaurants has fans that believe their
chowder is the best. In the past, I’ve
favored Barney Prine’s Clam Chow-
der and stopped for it when driving
through Prineville. Now that I’ve sam-
pled clam chowder at other restaurants,
I’ve come to appreciate other local of-
ferings for their different flavor profiles.
Barney Prine’s Steakhouse
Clam Chowder
Barney Prine’s clam chowder is only
available on the weekends. Now that in-
door dining is expected to open soon in
Prineville, the restaurant has discontin-
ued takeout dinners. But you can still
get the clam chowder to go.
This chowder has the most satisfying
balance of all I tried. No flavor stands
out above the others. It’s creamy with
finely diced vegetables and clams in ev-
ery spoonful.
Chef Matt Casaubon has been per-
fecting the recipe for the past 10 years.
He uses frozen wild sweet clams,
lemon, garlic and parsley. A bit of tar-
ragon is one element that makes this
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