The Clam Box: Wollaston Beach landmark has a new owner

QUINCY − The Clam Box, a Wollaston Beach landmark since 1968, will open for the season next week with a new owner.

The Schwanke family sold the restaurant for $1.325 million Feb. 3 to Marko Fani, of Braintree, according to The Warren Group, which tracks local real estate.

Fani also owns Strawberry Fair in Norwell. He said he respects the history and tradition of The Clam Box.

"It's been here forever. I like that old feeling," Fani said.

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For 55 years, the Clam Box has been a beachfront favorite that specializes in fried seafood. In a Facebook post, the Schwanke family, who owned the restaurant for 18 years, thanked customers and wished the new owner luck.

“It has been our pleasure to have served you and to have owned such an institution as The Clam Box," the post stated. "We will miss you and wish you the very best. We wish new ownership all the best in the next chapter of The Clam Box.”

"It's an institution where people expect what they're used to getting," Fani said. "(The previous owners) were doing a a great job. We'll keep it that way and make it better."

Fani said he hopes to eventually run The Clam Box as a year-round restaurant.

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Fani also bought The Baja Box, the taco shack next door opened by Bryan Schwanke and Tom Holloway in 2018. The restaurant will continue to serve tacos, nachos and ice cream, Fani said.

In 2005, the Schwankes took the reins at The Clam Box. The following year, they obtained a license to sell wine and beer and in 2008 began serving alcoholic beverages on the patio overlooking the beach across Quincy Shore Drive.

Fani moved to the United States in 1993 from Albania, where he completed culinary school and worked as a chef. He came here alone at age 22 without any English and worked as a dishwasher at Niko's Restaurant in Weymouth's Jackson Square. Then he worked at Anthony's Pier 4, the famed Albanian-owned restaurant in South Boston that closed in 2013.

His first business venture was in 2010, when he and Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund bought the Four Square Restaurant and Bar at Weymouth Landing in Braintree, which Fani sold in December 2019.

In 2017, Fani bought Strawberry Fair, a lunch and breakfast restaurant on Pond Street in Norwell that had opened in 1975.

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Fani is not the first Albanian restaurateur to become a success in Quincy. Leo Keka, who owns Alba in Quincy and Hanover, immigrated to the United States in 1990. Like Fani, Keka spoke no English upon arrival and entered the industry at the bottom rung, also as a dishwasher at Anthony's Pier 4.

"Leo's a friend," Fani said. "He does a good job for Quincy and the Albanian community."

Fani said he expects to open The Clam Box by the end of next week and The Baja Box in late April.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: The Clam Box on Quincy's Wollaston Beach has changed ownership