Evelyn's Drive - In
As Seen in the Providence Journal

Evelyn's was profiled in the Providence Journal on June 24, 2004.

"They're happy as clam cakes"
By Robert Higgins
Special to The Journal

Picking up where Evelyn left off at Evelyn's

TIVERTON

     Overlooking Nanaquaket Pond, an inlet of the Sakonnet River, Evelyn's Drive-In is a classic New England clam shack, heralded by a vintage red Coca-Cola sign beside Main Road.

      The place was opened 37 years ago by Evelyn Dupont, now 70, who, for 13 years, has run a clone (food-wise, anyway) of the original restaurant in St. Cloud, Fla. It's called Evelyn's New England Seafood.

     The original Evelyn's, she admits, was a gold mine. Looking back, she's sorry now she ever sold it.

     "But what are you going to do?" Evelyn says by phone. "You can't cry over spilt milk."

     Evelyn's was bought by Domenic and Jane Bitto, a couple then in their early 20s from the Boston area.

    They had met while they were attending Westfield (Mass.) State College and they were engaged and thinking about going into a business.

     Jane, now 42, was working at Boston University arranging alumni reunions.

     Forty-three year old Dom, a business major at Westfield, found himself "out selling a lot -- anything from windows to stocks."

     "I even worked for a collection agency," he continued. "For four weeks. These people were having a rough time. I had been taught how to manipulate them. I quit. It just wasn't my bag."

     Dom's parents ran a pizza restaurant in Weymouth. But Dom hadn't any plans to follow in his parents' footsteps. "When first met Dom," Jane remembers, "the one thing he told me he would not do is own a restaurant."

     But people often have a change of heart. Dom did. To him, running a restaurant seemed super.

     But Dom recalls how the Evelyn's deal almost didn't happen.

     "I was on Route 24 on my way to the Cape," he says. "I stopped and asked someone where I could have lunch. They said, 'Evelyn's.' "

     Dom drove over. "I was hungry and the food was great," he says. "Someone told me the place was up for sale. It just so happens that I was on my way to the Cape to look at a restaurant for sale."

     But before a deal could be struck, he and Jane had to see the place.

     "I came down with my mother to have lunch," she says. "I love clams so I ordered steamed clams -- which I wanted to split. But Evelyn said I couldn't. No splitting. We had to order something with it. I ordered chowder to go with it. Mother and I got our clams."

     And not long afterward, Dom and Jane got their clam shack.

     Evelyn figured Dom's mom and dad were in the business so their offspring had to know something about cooking and running a restaurant.

     Wrong.

     "At first, we were pretty overwhelmed," says Dom. "We were working 90 hours a week," adds Jane. "We were overwhelmed -- but happily so."

     Well, most of the time.

     "Since we were young we took a lot of things personally," Dom recalls. "I can remember a lady complaining that she had too many string beans on her plate." Jane remembers. "I cried that day," she says, smiling. "It was too much for me to bear."

     The first summer, the Bittos lived at his folks' summer place in Wareham. The following year, they moved to Tiverton. Home is now Portsmouth.

     Jane was born in New York, the daughter of an engineer. In her early 20s, she did a bit of modeling. "A wee bit," Jane emphasizes. "I was picked by the clothing store I worked in to do an ad. I remember I had to smile even though I wasn't feeling happy -- I had to fake a smile. I promised myself I'd never do that again."

     Says an admiring Dom: "I still think Jane's the nicest looking fry cook in the state."

     Away from Evelyn's, Dom's a jock. "Since high school I have played ice hockey," he says. "I always started, played first line and was captain. I still play a lot." Two years ago, Dom pulled a tendon and Evelyn's closed a few weeks early. Still, it was the best year the place ever had.

     In summer, Evelyn's takes up most of the Bittos time. They share the cooking chores -- one of them works days, the other nights. That's to make time for the three children at home, a boy and two girls.

     "The last time," says Jane, "I actually fried through the pregnancy."

     Come winter, Evelyn's, like other clam shacks, closes for the season.

     "It's a weather business," Jane says. "People aren't running out for fish and chips in cold weather."

     Says Dom: "If we have a warm spring, it's a profitable season. If it's cold and rains a lot, it's not."

     Winters -- and when the kids have school vacations -- the Bittos travel south of the border, with Bitto family renunions in Mexico.

     Now that it's summer, the Bittos and their 15-person staff are busy getting out what Boston Magazine calls "the menu delights ... perfectly fried clam cakes, chowder, stuffed quahogs and succulent shrimp."

     Its reputation has grown to the point that the Today show was filming the restaurant the other day for a segment on where visitors to Newport can go for daytrips. The footage will air July 8.

     The work's still hard, but the Bittos wouldn't want it any other way. Says Dom, "It's too much work not to really love it. And we really do love it."