Clam shacks are so much a part of a coastal New England summer; everyone seems to have an old reliable to which they return again and again.  On the other hand, a little variety never hurt anyone, and in that spirit we offer up this article which recently appeared in Elan.  Susan Cornell surveys a dozen Connecticut clam shacks, and talks to the people that run each of them.  We also learn which celebrities are frequenting which shack;  for instance, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have been seen at Bill's Seafood in Westbrook, and Conan O'Brien is a Cove Fish Market man.

Pictured above is a fried clam plate at Sea Swirl in Mystic, from Michael Stern's Roadfood.com review.  Other Roadfood.com-reviewed restaurants appearing among the clammy dozen are Lenny's in Branford (Roadfood.com review), Clam Castle in Madison, Johnny Ad's in Old Saybrook, and Abbott's Lobster in the Rough in Noank (Roadfood.com review).