EVELYN'S DRIVE-IN,

There's something primal about a clam shack. Probably, when the first caveman staggered back with an armload of more fish and mollusks than he could pig out on, he opened the first such eatery. Evelyn's Drive-In isn't much fancier than that would have been. But it's in Tiverton, overlooking the Sakonnet River, so customers aren't staring at anything other than the sailboats moored and bobbing or drifting by. Like so many places up and down the seaboard, where long lines are forming at noisy order windows this very minute, function long ago superseded form. (Some 15 years ago, the present owner took over from the namesake, who'd run the place for about a dozen years, according to our waitress.) The building is so small that eating is mostly done at a scattering of umbrella tables and a line of picnic tables sheltered by a long tin roof. To remind us of all the seafaring and heavy lifting that was required to bring us our fish & chips platters, a thick hawser droops between pilings amidst crushed clamshells, serving as a fence. The outdoor orientation -- we're talking a single Porta-potty -- means that Evelyn's closes mid-October.

Full review.