The blog of In My Footsteps Podcast host and author Christopher Setterlund. It contains a buffet of topics. The wackiness of daily life with Initial Impressions 2.0. There is a link to the weekly In My Footsteps Podcast. Poetry collections, life topics, some history, and more. There is something for everyone here much like with the podcast.
Some of the most memorable commercial jingles of the 90s. A trip back to Cape Cod's beloved Bassett's Wild Animal Farm. Historical Leap Day events. Episode 134 takes a trip back to simpler times. First, it begins with a trip back to the days when a petting zoo was popular entertainment. In the time before the Internet and smartphones, young people had fewer options for fun on Cape Cod. One such attraction that is looked back upon fondly is Bassett's Wild Animal Farm in Brewster. Animals both native and foreign to Cape Cod were front and center for generations of kids. Learn the story of that beloved spot. Simpler times continue with a lot of earworms in the form of some of the best (and a few worst) commercial jingles of the 1990s. We go way Back In the Day and dial up the nostalgia to 11. Do you remember any of these? Once every four years we get an extra day. Not a warm summer day, but a day nonetheless. This week's Top 5 will share some of the historic events to happen on Leap Day, February 29th. Of course, there will be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule focusing on the creation of the very first National Park, Yellowstone. For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon or Buzzsprout!
Long
before there was a yearly Chowder Festival held on Cape Cod there was
one restaurant which could lay claim to being the king of clam
chowder. Mildred’s chowder was so beloved that everyone from
Presidents to the average Joe would flock to the cozy establishment
abutting the Barnstable Airport. In the forty-plus years it was in
existence this restaurant and the name Mildred would become one of
the most popular establishments the Cape had ever seen.
Mildred
Bassett was born in 1897
in West
Dennis to J. Franklin and Abbie Bassett. She
married James Desmond and had 2 children, James Jr., and Bernie.
After they divorced in 1925 she
moved to Hyannis
while James moved to Boston. She later married Maynard Johnson.
Shortly
thereafter Mildredbegan
to showcase her cooking skills for the public. Before
she opened her
legendary Chowder House Mildred was
already staking her claim to the best chowder on Cape Cod.
Beginning in 1934 she was in charge of serving said chowder and her
equally beloved apple pie at Liggett's Drug Store
at the East End of Hyannis' Main Street.
Years of honing her craft coupled with rave reviews from customers
led her to bet on herself and branch out
on her own.
The
choice for her initial establishment was 251 Iyannough Road in
Hyannis. A small restaurant more akin to a coffee shop it was a
perfect starting point.
She enlisted the help of her
son James
to manage it. He had been doing the same job down the road at Carl's
Restaurant, formerly Brad's Soda Shoppe, in West Yarmouth. Together
they crafted a homey feeling places suitable for Mildred's cooking.
C. Sturgis Library
Opening
day for
the restaurant that
bore her name was
June 17,
1949
with the help of James and his brother Bernie.
The building had the ability to seat 44 in the dining room and
another 10 at the counter.It
was a much quieter time on Cape Cod in the years just after World War
II but the family created mouth watering dishes that soon set the
senses aflame of any customer that passed through the doors.
In
the early days of Mildred’s Chowder House the competition was much
different than in later years. Mega-chains and fast food spots would
not come creeping in until the 1960’s and 1970’s. Back then it
was other one-off establishments, many run by families that dominated
the scene. Quality and service were how these places got popular; it
was often an uphill climb that took a while to build a reputation.
Mildred's Menu c. Sturgis Library
Mildred did not fear the hard work it took to give her eponymous
restaurant the glowing reputation it would develop. She served
up fresh local seafood including classics such as fish and chips,
clams, scallops, lobster, and shrimp. As tempting and necessary as
the abundant seafood offerings were the Chowder House also dipped
into steaks and chicken dishes as well, in case there were any
customers who were not fans of meals from the ocean’s waters.
Of
course any restaurant with ‘chowder’ in the name had better make
a worthwhile representation of the New England favorite. Mildred’s
succeeded in making a truly legendary clam chowder that is still
talked about to this day. How popular was Mildred’s chowder?
President John F. Kennedy would order the base from the Summer White
House in Hyannis Port. He also ordered
a specially made lobster stew made by Mildred’s son Bernie. It
would consist of only knuckle meat; it took twenty-five pounds of
lobster to get a pound of knuckle meat which was put in the stew for
the President. Mildred’s chowder recipe was often imitated and
never duplicated. A former employee even sent in the recipe as they
remembered it to the Cape Cod Times in 2008 helping many people
longing for another taste make it themselves. Although the recipe
would have to be scaled down as only large batches of the sumptuous
soup were made.
The purported recipe for Mildred's Chowder./Pinterest
Mildred
Johnson died suddenly at her home on Norris Street on April 13, 1961
at the age of 64. This left the immensely popular Chowder House in
the hands of her two sons.
They were more than capable of continuing on the legacy their mother
had created. The first new step was bringing entertainment to
Mildred’s. The Happy Hour at one point featured Cape Cod’s First
Lady of Jazz, Marie Marcus. She played there for about eight weeks
along with Jim Blackmore and Carl German before moving on to Rooster
in West Yarmouth which would later become Johnny Yee’s.
Soon
though the little restaurant grew
to become too busy to have room for entertainment, the Desmond’s
had
to
focus solely on the food. Mildred’s became
a destination for those vacationing on the Cape during the summer.
It was in 1969 that things hit the tipping point and a large addition
had to be put on to the little chowder house to allow the
ever-increasing crowds to be served.
In
the 1970’s it became commonplace for Mildred’s to serve 900
customers a night for dinner with a line out the door waiting to get
in every night of the week during the summer from 5-9pm. Despite the
addition Mildred’s was still too popular to fit all of its adoring
public. It was necessary to have a staff of sixty waitresses and
eight busboys each summer to handle the volume the establishment was
putting out. Business was booming, Mildred’s had become one of
those rare restaurants that was known outside of New England, being
mentioned by newspapers in New York and Chicago.The little chowder house had
become a Cape Cod landmark.
C. Sturgis Library
In
1983
Mildred’s sons Jim and Bernie had
become understandably burned out from years of the high sales
restaurant business. They looked to the family to continue on the
legacy but seeing no takers they sold
the restaurant
to a group headed by Robert Allen of South Dennis.
Allen
had previously run Lobster in the Rough and Ship's Fare in Yarmouth.
Despite
the ownership change its legacy continued
even as things around them were changing with an influx of big chain
restaurants like Chili’s, Pizzeria Uno, and an increase in fast
food spots like Wendy’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The
1990’s saw
business begin to slow down at the iconic Mildred’s. The
restaurant was
rumored to
be for
sale.
Then after five decades of building a reputation as one of the
premier restaurants on Cape Cod Mildred’s Chowder House was sold a
final time in March
2000
to Mark Bobola. He renovated
the property and reopened
it as Fish Landing Bar and Grill. Nothing could replace Mildred’s
and the new venture was closed after
the 2002 summer.
The empty building was discussed as a possible homeless shelter in
2003 but nothing came of it. It was torn down in 2005 and as in
2020
all that remains of Mildred’s is the overgrown parking lot.
For
five decades Mildred’s Chowder House was one of the most popular
restaurants the Cape had to offer. Its chowder is the stuff of
legends and countless people still speak of it to this day with
adoration. Places like Mildred’s come once in a generation and are
not easily replaced. Neither are the memories of it.
