[SamAdams76]

Well they must have at least done a trial at some selected restaurants because I remember it clearly. It was only available for a short time, probably the summer of 1978 as I remember Jim Rice was hitting a lot of home runs for the Boston Red Sox that year and they were playing a lot of Bee Gees on the radio.

It was the restaurant in Revere, Massachusetts, not too far from Kelly's Roast Beef (which also has great fried clams) and they definitely called it the "clam belly roll."

I don't know what they did with the clam strips, but the belly is the best part of the clam anyhow. I used to order the roll with no tartar sauce because I don't like tartar sauce. The roll was a bit messy to eat because those clam bellies were so juicy and like I mentioned before, they really jammed those clams into that toasted bun. Then all of a sudden, it disappeared off the menu, never to return.

[Huck]

The roll was a bit messy to eat

Krok might have been at the helm still. It might have been a trial run. I recall one big reason he didn't like the sandwich was because it was too messy.

[Huck]

PS- Jim Rice getting into the HoF was a joke! No way did he deserve it! :-P

[NonValueAdded]

mmmmm, Kelly’s

[Huck]

Now i’ve got a hankering for clam strips. Curse you!

[Welsh Rabbit]

The clam roll might have just been a regional New England offering. McD’s does a few of those sometimes to try to cater local tastes, but they usually don’t last. Here in the South, they came up with the Southern style chicken sandwich to compete with Chik-fil-A, but I think it’s been discontinued. I actually think it could have been popular in areas in where they weren’t in direct competition with CFA, but they were never going to win on the sandwich CFA invented.