Roy Boy’s Clam Shack & The Frozen Cow Ice Cream Shoppe; best of both worlds – Brendan Higgins

by Brendan Higgins, contributing writer

North Kingstown has a new Clam Shack, but it’s much more than just a place for incredible seafood.

Roy Boy’s Clam Shack and the Frozen Cow Ice Cream Shoppe (formerly Nana’s Ice Cream) are located at 6710 Post Road in North Kingstown. They opened on March 22^nd. The owners are Roy and Kim Ring. They are no strangers to successful restaurants. They also own the Carriage Inn, located at 1065 Tower Hill Road, just down the road from Roy Boy’s. They bring the same quality and friendly service to their new venture that the community has grown to love over the years.

If you live in the NK area like I do, you know we have pretty much every store and restaurant at our fingertips. However, a walk up, sit outside, casual, and most of all, traditional clam shack was missing. Not anymore.

I sat down with Dylan Lampinski to learn more about Roy Boy’s. As the general manager and executive chef, Dylan has his fingers on the pulse of everything going on behind the scenes. He is as hands-on as it gets. Before he spoke one word to me, I could feel the pride in his work. At just 22 years old, he is a well-seasoned professional in the restaurant world. Dylan explained, “My father, Shaun, was a chef. I started working with him when I was 14 years old. At the time, he worked at Fat Belly’s in Wakefield. He gave me a job washing dishes. Then he went to work for Buster Krab’s in Galilee. On my very first day, people didn’t show up for work, and I started cooking. From that moment on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to go to school. I wanted to be a chef.

I worked at Dan’s Place and that was where I met Roy. After that, I worked at the Carriage Inn for Roy and Kim. They had this idea to open a place like this before Covid. They had to shelve the idea for about a year. In January of 2022, he told me ‘we are definitely going to open this summer.’ He offered me the chance to run it. I was ecstatic. I learned how to fry seafood when I was 15, down in Narragansett, in Galilee. Our new menu here is extensive. The key is everything is fresh. Our burgers aren’t coming off a truck. We hand form them. We make them. As for seafood, its tedious.  You have to take your time. With that being said, there is a balance between not rushing people out the door or making them wait all day for their food. A lot of what we do is similar to the Carriage Inn. We do not half-ass anything. As far as the recipes, they are standard with proven track records. The execution and set up is what separates us from the rest. I take great pride in doing things properly. I can’t do any of this without my staff.

I have a great staff. My staff is small. My front house manager Julie is amazing. She takes care of so much. She holds the front down. She takes all the orders. She bags the food. Nothing gets by her that doesn’t meet her standards.”

Dylan added, “We are only scratching the surface on what we are going to do. On Memorial Day we had a line out to the street. We all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘this is going to be an awesome summer.’ North Kingstown is a word-of-mouth kind of town, and the word is definitely getting out. I grew up here. I did a segment for the Rhode Show and that was really cool. I have complete confidence saying what we are doing here is brilliant. The biggest thing I want to express is our incredible menu selection. We have something for everybody. Our seafood is the best around, but our burgers are also the best around. So are our sandwiches and wraps. On top of that we are doing our best to be cost friendly to our customers. Even with the cost of goods and how crazy prices are now, we will never break the bank with our customers. Roy won’t allow it. He puts his profit second to creating a real authentic clam shack for the town.”

Dylan didn’t need to convince me. I had already eaten at Roy Boy’s and rate my meal a solid ten out of ten. I consider myself a seafood snob. There is nothing worse than paying top dollar for a seafood plate and having it fall short. At Roy Boy’s, I was extremely pleased with my scallop and clam plate. The batter was light and cooked to perfection. The fries were seasoned and delicious. The coleslaw was incredible. I decided to go for it and have a chocolate shake with my meal. It was all as good as it gets. So much so I wanted to share with everyone my experience at the new local clam shack.

One of the things that stuck out was the way I was treated at the window while placing my order. The girl was smiling. She was polite and friendly. She seemed to genuinely like her job. That is a lost art these days. There is nothing worse than spending money on some food and being treated poorly by the person taking the order. That was not the case with Julie Hauke. I spoke with Julie to hear about her experience at Roy Boy’s. She said, “I was originally working at Carriage Inn for about 3 years. I was working there since I was 18. I was offered the position of front of house manager and here I am.”

If you have room for dessert, you won’t have to go far. The Frozen Cow offers 32 flavors of hard ice cream and 24 flavors of soft ice cream. They also make unique specialty sundaes for you to enjoy. In addition, they make a mean milk shake. I can personally attest to that.

You can view the entire menu at royboysclamshack.com or check them out on Facebook including the Roy Boy’s Clam Shack page and the Frozen Cow Ice Cream Shoppe page. You can also call (401) 885-8640 to place an order. Do yourself a favor and just stop in. You will not be disappointed.

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Brendan Higgins, writer and author, RIPTA bus driver, former professional wrestler (Knuckles Nelson), and North Kingstown resident.

We welcome Brendan as a contributing writer to RINewsToday.

To read a story about Brendan, from our sports department, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/knuckles-nelson-waking-up-from-the-wrestling-ring-to-the-yoga-mat-john-cardullo/

To read all stories by Brendan, here, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/brendan-higgins/

Higgins is the author of “Waking Up: From the Wrestling Ring to the Yoga Mat”