00:00Good morning Greg. Great to see you again. Good to see you guys. Good to see you. I always tell you a great radio voice. You missed your calling.
00:10Thank you I guess. But you took your family's, I'm always interested in the stories of entrepreneurs. Your family had a fish market in Inman Square, Cambridge.
00:23Okay. From like 1950 on and when no one was eating fish. You know we were funny. We were one of the few Jewish families that lived for Lent and Fridays. And when the Pope decreed you no longer had to eat fish on Fridays we thought oh this is it for us. It's over. Forget about it. And then when did you open the first legal?
00:47So it's the first legal. So Inman Square in Cambridge was actually the first legal. We had some space. Next my grandfather had a little mom and pop grocery store and my father opened up a fish market next to the grocery store.
01:05And you know people said how did you get the name legal? And the name of my grandfather's market was legal cash market. They used to redeem legal cash stamps which were the forerunner of the S&H green stamp.
01:17Wow. And my father just wanted to show that hey the same family tie in because my grandfather was known for quality and meats and produce and now we had fish and that's sort of how we got ahead. So we had a sort of a food background.
01:31And you built it into 35 legal restaurants around the country. Yeah. Yeah. Mostly East Coast. East Coast. Yeah. And the legal chowder if I remember correctly was served at every presidential inauguration. Yes. Yes. Yes. For a long long time. Yeah. Now what you brought in today is your new venture. Yes. And your new double clam chowder. Right. Exactly. So when I when I sold a few years ago I couldn't
02:01take the recipe with me. So I thought well I still want to I still want to sell fish and I still want to I love chowder. So I had time to think about it. I said you know what we're just going to come up with a better clam chowder.
02:14And and and and so I thought well how can I let people know it's better. And I go well the reality is it's twice as many almost three times as many clams in that clam chowder than almost any other clam chowder because no one's stupid enough to put that many clams in.
02:31But we thought you know what the hell let's let's let's let's give it a shot. And actually you know the the funny thing is the the inspiration believe it or not for doing a double clam chowder had to be had to do with a sports figure in in Boston.
02:49A guy by the name of Jermaine Wiggins. Well well there is a there is a a Patriot story that I'll get to but actually the guy that actually had the inspiration on the channel was a guy by the name of Red Auerbach.
03:03Oh yes. And Red was what was sort of a friend. I you know I always thought of him as like an older brother you know kind of like a mentor.
03:12Or and the great thing about Red is that he would he would just call it out as he saw it. So I remember when we first opened in D.C. Red kind of took me under wing and introduced me to some of his friends down there and in real estate and whatnot.
03:29And so I anytime I would go down to D.C. to check on the restaurants I'd give Red a call. But Red loved Washington. I mean his whole you know all his friends family stayed in Washington. He loved it.
03:45And so I I called him up because we get together for lunch or dinner. And so on one call I said right we're going to get together for lunch. He goes yeah. He goes you know what but I got a complaint.
03:56I go okay. You know because when Red had a complaint you listen to him because he usually was spot on. He goes I had your your clam chowder in Costco. I know the flavor's pretty good. He goes but there was a problem with it. And I go all right.
04:14Got it. Did you dump out of that shine? You did. Yeah I did. I had to. Not enough. Good job though. Not enough F in it. I'll use F in it. I love a good F bomb.
04:23So I ended up pulling it off the market. I go all right. I got it. You know because you know it might be a little thing to you but to me it's a big deal. I go I get it. I get it Red.
04:35So so I pulled it off and and as I was you know coming up with this new chowder I I sort of channeled Red. I gotta put enough F in clams in this clam chowder.
04:47I think you did. It's very very good Courtney. It's unbelievable. And I like when there's like a bit of pepper taste. There's good pepper taste in this as well. Very very good.
04:56Good balance. We really rich stock. And that's the key because a lot of people cheat on chowder. You know a lot of flour and and you know sometimes you see chowder.
05:07You stick a spoon in it and it stands straight up. It's like a cement. And that's not that's not clam chowder. People eat clam chowder. They want to taste clams.
05:14And so well it's Rogers Fish Company and it is the double clam chowder and you can get it if you go to Market Basket or you go to Cafe Nero Dave's Fresh Marketplace Sip Cafe and Post Office Square and ask for it wherever you normally go and give it a try.
05:34Yes absolutely.
05:35OK. What was your Patriots story.
05:36Oh so the Patriots story. So years ago there was a study done in it at Harvard that showed that men who had a lot of zinc typically through oysters because oysters have more zinc than any other product.
05:51It gave men in particular more energy whether it's at home or on or on the field and and there was a guy Tom Hoffman.
06:05I don't know if you remember Tom Hoffman. He used to be the head of publicity for the Patriots.
06:10He was a it was a friend. And I said you know Tom men who eat oysters actually have better performance because the more you sweat out in the field the more zinc leaves your system.
06:22So if you have a higher zinc build up you're going to perform better.
06:25So I used to do oysters for the Patriots before every game every home game.
06:30But then they were going to play the Jets one year and they I got a call.
06:35Can you can you get the oysters to go.
06:38So it was a little cumbersome trying to keep it in the shell.
06:42So I put it in these pine containers and I shipped it off.
06:46And I remember watching the game that Sunday and there's one player in particular that's having a career game.
06:53And it was Don Hasselbeck and and he was just catching everything in sight.
07:01And after the game the Patriots won that game.
07:04And the next morning I get a call from Hoffman going with the oysters all right.
07:09I go yeah fine.
07:11And he said well one of the players was feeling really queasy after eating the oysters.
07:17And it turned out it was Hasselbeck.
07:20And I said well how many did he eat.
07:22And they couldn't tell him.
07:23They go well let's go buy a container.
07:25Long story short he ate eight dozen oysters.
07:30Eight dozen oysters.
07:31Eight dozen oysters.
07:33And he had a career game.
07:34So yes.
07:35Cracking oysters on the sidelines.
07:37They catch their passes.
07:38Hannah used to eat them.
07:40You know.
07:40Well he doesn't eat seafood.
07:42No.
07:42You could have extended your career maybe.
07:44Yeah I probably should have.
07:46I probably should have.
07:47Career at home as well.
07:48Well I mean forget about it.
07:49I'm talking about on the football field.
07:51Sounds to me like with the extra zinc we ought to get some of this double clam chowder to Bill Belichick and his new lady.
07:56Oh yeah.
07:58Maybe.
07:58All right.
07:59So this is Roger.
08:01I'm so appreciative of you bringing this in this morning.
08:03And we are delighted that this is your new venture.
08:06And congratulations.
08:07And be on the lookout for the double clam chowder.
08:11And you can order online.
08:12Right.
08:12You can order online at rogersfishco.com.
08:15Okay.
08:16All right.
08:16Roger Burke.
08:22All right.
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