When Jack and Jean Riordan bought The Half Shell in 1968 they inherited a restaurant with a twelve seat bar, liquor store, a dining room with 8 booths, 8 tables and a back room for private parties. Most of the staff stayed with the change of ownership and management. And the most fascinating was the friends and customers that included a group of young men known as the Drapes.
Thet were in their late twenties, early thirties in 1968. They were a fun group and they left many memories. One of those young men was Whitey Schmidt.
Whitey loved the cultural revolution unique to the Sixties. And Whitey loved to talk about crabs. I remember him waiting for Jack so they could talk about Crabs. Jack and Whitey had many a conversation over the Raw Bar at the front end of the bar.
Whitey worked on his passion which is now a brilliant collection of books about crabs loaded with fabulous recipes.
We lost Whitey several years ago but we can still use his fabulous recipes.
RIP Whitey. Your memory will always live in your books. A true masterpiece.
