Chowder Off a Back Porch to a Pirate Shack on Beach Street: The Family Story Behind Stowe's Seafood

WEST HAVEN — Drive down Beach Street on any afternoon and you can’t miss it: a low blue shack across from the sand, a neon Stowe’s sign with a grinning skull and crossbones, buoys and ship wheels hanging off the fences, and a line of people waiting on fried clams. Stowe’s Seafood at 347 Beach Street looks like it washed up there. In a way, it did. The family behind it has been feeding West Haven seafood since the 1920s.

It’s cash only, it’s open all year, and the fish comes in fresh every day. Here’s the family story behind the pirate shack, and what to get when you go.

The neon Stowe's sign with a skull and crossbones on Beach Street in West Haven

It started with chowder off a back porch

The story on Stowe’s own website starts during the Depression. When hard times hit, Wayne Capone’s grandfather, Grandfather Stowe, went to work driving a truck for Bilco on Bay View Place. He and his wife rented a house on Bilco’s property, and she started selling clam chowder off the back porch.

That chowder stand grew into a market, and then into a full restaurant called Stowe’s Pilot House, which the family says was “a regional favorite clear into the 1970s.” The West Haven Voice names Wayne’s grandfather as Cedric Stowe and dates the family business on Bay View Place to 1927, the year NBC Connecticut also gives.

Wayne grew up in that kitchen. “I grew up there,” he says in the restaurant’s history. “I was cleaning fish and cracking lobsters when I was 10.”

Grandfather Stowe died in 1970, when Wayne was a freshman in high school. The family kept the Pilot House going for a couple of years, then sold it in 1972, “lock, stock and barrel.”

A carved Stowe's sign wrapped in rope, with West Haven beach across the street

Wayne and Karen bring the name back

The Stowe name didn’t stay gone for long. Wayne Capone and Karen married in 1977, and, as a tribute by Wayne’s lifelong friend Mark Palmieri in the West Haven Voice tells it, they set off across the country in a station wagon with their basset hound, Amber, looking for a new beginning. After a few months on the road, they decided the only place that made the grade was home. They came back to West Haven and opened today’s Stowe’s on Beach Street in the early 1980s. (The Voice tribute says 1982; other accounts say 1980.)

West Haven knew Wayne before the shack, too. His interception and touchdown as a defensive lineman against Notre Dame, on the way to the 1972 state championship, is still West Haven football lore, and he helped start the city’s lacrosse team, according to the tribute.

It wasn’t a restaurant at first. “For the first 10 years, we were just a fish market,” Wayne said. The fryers came later. Today the shack still sells fresh fish and lobsters by the pound, but most of the business is traditional New England fried seafood, cooked to order. “I get fish delivered every single day,” Wayne said in the restaurant’s history. “I cut the fish, bread it, everything.”

The seafood market counter and menu boards inside Stowe's Seafood

Over the years the place picked up its look: pirate flags, full-size statues, skulls, buoys, lobster traps, rope and ship wheels. NBC Connecticut reported that some of the decorations came from Wayne’s grandfather at the original Stowe’s, and Wayne and Karen added a treasure trove of knick-knacks from 20-plus years of Caribbean cruises. Customers donated pieces too. Wayne liked to bring new things back from vacation and make the crew figure out what was new.

The inside is a small market counter with chalkboard menus. Almost all the seating is outside, on a covered deck and at picnic tables under thatched umbrellas, right across the street from the beach.

The family carries on

Wayne Capone, known around the shack as “Captain,” died on Jan. 26, 2024, at 68. His children, Sarah, Ashley and Zach, were his world, along with three grandchildren, the West Haven Voice tribute said. He also called his longtime crew, John Biondi, Travis McCarter and Chris O’Brien, his sons.

Biondi told NBC Connecticut he has worked at Stowe’s since he was 15. “Eventually Wayne told me ‘If you’re going to come down and get food, you might as well help us out,'” he said. “So, I started doing tartar sauce with Ashley after school every day.” He remembered Wayne belting out songs with the crew at work, and being the first to donate when a baseball team, a soccer team or the band needed money.

The family told NBC Connecticut that Stowe’s would go on. Nearly three years later, it has. The shack is open seven days a week, all year, and Google reviews from this summer and fall describe the same busy lunch rush regulars have known for decades.

Buoys, ship wheels and a lobster sign decorate the outside of Stowe's Seafood

What to order

Prices below come from Stowe’s posted menus. Some are from an older version of the menu, and seafood prices change with the market, so check the boards when you get there.

The fried seafood plates

This is what Stowe’s is known for: haddock, shrimp, scallops, whole-belly clams, clam strips and more, fried New England style and served in paper boats with fries and coleslaw. If you can’t pick, the menu has a combo of two (listed at $39 on the older menu) and the Treasure Chest, the big sampler (listed at $50).

A fried seafood platter with fish, onion rings and fries from Stowe's Seafood

The lobster roll

Stowe’s makes its lobster roll three ways: sautéed in butter, fried, or cold as a lobster salad. All three are priced at market. Reviewers keep saying the same thing about it: a lot of lobster.

A lobster roll with a lemon wedge from Stowe's Seafood

Lobster bisque and the soups

The soup board goes back to the chowder that started it all. There’s New England clam chowder, lobster bisque, seafood chili and a house gumbo, by the cup or the bowl. For a party, the catering menu sells the chowder for $20 a quart, and the bisque, gumbo and seafood chili for $24 a quart.

A cup of lobster bisque topped with oyster crackers at Stowe's Seafood

Stuffed clams and the market case

Check the case by the register. Stowe’s sells stuffed clams ($6 each on the catering menu), stuffed shrimp, crab cakes, cheese potatoes ($5) and seafood potatoes, plus stuffed lobster tails and stuffed salmon. They’re good for taking home and heating up.

Stuffed clams and cheese potatoes in the Stowe's Seafood market case

Shrimp sandwiches and the lobster grilled cheese

Not in the mood for a full plate? There are seafood sandwiches, coconut and buffalo shrimp, and one item reviewers keep calling out: the lobster grilled cheese. Kids, or anybody who doesn’t eat fish, can get a Hummel hot dog.

A shrimp sandwich with peppers and onions from Stowe's Seafood

What people say

Stowe’s has a 4.6-star rating on Google from more than 2,400 reviews.

The lobster roll was loaded with fresh lobster, the seafood tasted like it came straight off the boat, and the whole place has that perfect laid-back New England vibe.
Jeremy, Google review

Jeremy added: “Nothing fancy, just really good food in a spot that feels authentic.”

Brian came in looking for good seafood and worked through most of the menu: lobster bisque to start, then fried haddock, fried shrimp, fried scallops and the lobster grilled cheese. “Shrimp was plump and juicy, haddock was moist and tasty, scallops were cooked to perfection, they were tender and NOT chewy,” he wrote. The grilled cheese was “full of lobster (no skimping here).”

The covered deck and pick-up window at Stowe's Seafood

Debra and her companion got there just after 11 a.m. and had the parking lot to themselves, but not for long. “Within 30 minutes at least another 15 to 18 people arrived,” she wrote. They each got the whole-belly clam plate with fries, coleslaw and a drink, for $48 total, and she called the prices “extremely reasonable.”

The food was great, the atmosphere was great, (right across the street from a beautiful beach), the service was great.
Debra, Google review

Not every review is a rave. One recent three-star reviewer loved the chowder and the huge onion rings, but said the stuffed clam tasted mostly of celery and wished the lobster roll’s bun had been toasted.

Picnic tables under thatched umbrellas on the Stowe's Seafood patio

Good to know before you go

Cash only. There’s an ATM inside.
Hours: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s open seven days a week, all year.
Seating is mostly outdoors, on a covered deck and at picnic tables. The lot is small, and one reviewer noted there’s no indoor restroom.
Get there early on a nice day. The lunch rush builds fast.
Feeding a crowd? Stowe’s sells heat-and-serve party platters, any four orders for $85, plus soups and salads by the quart.