This is a story of an unusual creature that made good. This creature was known as “squid”. Today it is called calamari. When it was known as squid there were no sales of this product. It was not on any restaurant’s menu. It just had no appeal to the public or to restaurant cooks or owners.
Prior to 1950, the Gloucester fishing fleet would have some mixed in with their catch of other fish such as whiting or ocean perch. The fishermen did not get paid for this product. It was considered waste.
However, some of the workers, including this author, would on occasion take some home to be cooked. In my case, I had to do the cooking because the squid would have some water in them and this would splatter. I overcame the problem, but I kept the job.
Sometimes if I had cooked more than the family could consume I would bring the extra to the fish workers. Many had never eaten this before. Now there wasn’t as much waste. The workers started to bring some home to be cooked.
About a year later I assumed the position of manager of the Gloucester House Restaurant. Now I had to teach the cooks how to prepare the squid for cooking, then the proper timing to cook, then I had to overcome the dining room staff’s reluctance to suggest this item to the customers.
We overcame these problems by first changing the name from “squid” to “calamari”. Then to introduce the product, for about a year, we put a small sample on each table for customers to try at no cost. Then the next year we put it on the printed menu.
Today there are probably a thousand restaurants in the United States that have calamari (not squid) on their menus. We think that ours is still the best.
This started in Gloucester, by the Gloucester House Restaurant and the Linquata family, the owners of the Gloucester House Restaurant.
PHOTO OF MIKE LINQUATA BY JASON GROW
Good Morning Gloucester 
Great story, great man!
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Crediting Cheryl, the Gloucester House bartender, for sharing the story, and for Michael’s granddaughter Lily for sending it me, as well as the suggestion to use Jason Grow’s photo.
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Gloucester House has the best squid in the city of Gloucester .. I’ve been eating it down there since the days of the old Gloucester House when the bar area was in front on the left of the building . My mother and I would go on Friday nights when I was s kid and have it .
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I am crazy for it too, Jackie!! Thanks for sharing that.
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Serving calamari may have been started on Cape Ann at The Gloucester House in 1950, but it’s been served and enjoyed as “calamari” (from the Late Latin calamarium, “pen case” or “ink pot”) since ancient Greece. Viz. this Renaissance cookbook treatise:
[15th century Rome]
“Squid. Those who call them calamari would better and more properly call them atramentarii, since they have a head in the shape of an inkwell and pour out ink [atramentum] like cuttle-fish. Large ones are cut up in pieces and boiled with finely chopped parsley and spices; small ones are eaten fried in orange juice.”
—Platina: On Rigth Pleasure and Good Health, a critical edition and translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valeltudine by Mary Ella Milham, Book X no. 65 [Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies:Tempe AZ] 1998 (p. 461)
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Thanks zincwriter– Mike wasn’t claiming to have invented the name calamari, only that locally, he called it that to entice customers.
The first time I had calamari was when i was living in Boston’s North End, at a wonderful Sicilian restaurant, The Daily Catch. This was in the 8o’s and I don’t think too many other restaurants were serving it even back then. I believe that the The Daily Catch family had their humble beginnings serving calamari in the 1970s because the cost of clams was much less affordable.
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Of course not; perhaps “changing the name…to calamari” was an unfortunate way of saying it. But I thought readers might also be interested in the long history of eating squid (sorry, “calamari”); there are some intriguing recipes available dating back to imperial Rome. Fennel and coriander seem to have been favored seasonings…
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Just curious @zincwriter, do you have a particular interest in food from the Renaissance? Interested because my husband frequently publishes recipes from that period as he is the editor of Renaissance Magazine.
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Oh shoot, replied to your previous question rather than this one. Well, you’ll find it I’m sure…
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I have an interest in “antique” recipes developed from being a Classics major (Roman cuisine) and having worked at the late, great American Heritage Publishing Co. back in the day (Horizon magazine had interesting articles on that sort of thing).
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Thanks for sharing that zinkwriter, very interesting.
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Another Gem from the wisdom keepers! Thanks for sharing Kim! 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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I love Squid fried stuffed in the gravy and a calamari Salad…my mother introduced it at the dinner table on special occasions such as X-Mas in the fifties…Thank The Gloucester Fishermen for this delicasy..!!!Anthony Prezi
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Yes, thanking the fishermen Anthony!! I love squid stuffed, fried, grilled, and in salads, too, and I am sure other ways as well, if given the opportunity to try something new!
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Hi, I just wanted to say Hello to Mike, I’m from Gloucester, but I haven’t lived there for close to 50 years. I worked as a waiter at the Gloucester House in the 60’s, 64 and 65, when Joe was tending bar and Mike was sometimes hosting at the door and Anton Rodolosi was the chef. I worked alongside Paul and Tommy Kolterjohn. There dad worked in the kitchen. They were heady days. I doubt Mike would remember me after all these years. Heck,it took me a few moments to recognize him from the photo. I’m glad to see he’s holding well. All the best, Skip Tobey Keep up the good work at GMG. It’s a real lifeline!
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We will Skip Tobey, and thanks for the good words!
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It has been my privilege to sit with Mike in the wonderful Gloucester House, and listen to him telling facts and stories about the harvest from the sea. Not only is his knowledge extensive, but it is told with fun .and one gets to taste these famous calamari , yum yum ! Indeed a Gloucester signature – and treasure .
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Thank you, Joey , for the cleaning demonstration. Nicely done ! And quite a job …we all owe thanks to the ” squid cleaners ” !
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Gloucester house best calamari ever!
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