California Clambake on Coronado Beach

It's a warm-weather tradition times three, with June, July, and August dates ahead.

ALFRESCO EATS: So many of our favorite foods are tied with particular times of the year, but there's a special subset of supping that is all about dishes made under the sky. Venn Diagram those two notions -- edibles that fall during certain annual occasions, and edibles prepared in the Great Outdoors -- and you have a particularly iconic strata of cuisine. Of course you can make s'mores at your stove, but they're very much about high summer and campout fires (and having to stick your marshmallow-gooey fingers in the nearest stream after you've devoured six or seven). And hot dogs on the grill? That tends to be a taste associated with the start of baseball, in the spring. Clambakes, too, pop up during the toastier time of year, and they're very much associated with a single sort of destination: the sand. It turns out Coronado Island has a surfeit of sand (spoiler alert) and a hotel-close tradition that involves this New England-famous favorite. If you can't make Maine, but you want your clambake in 2016, best make for...

HOTEL DEL CORONADO... on June 24 or July 22 or Aug. 12. Those are all Fridays, woot woot, and the Del will put together a full-on feast of oysters, clams, shrimp, crab, and that sometimes unsung star of the clambake pot, corn on the cob. Will everything cook in sea water? That's tradition, so you bet. Will there be nearby games (yay, bocce ball) and tunes and such, as befits a clambake-y confab? We're going to break out the word once again: It's tradition. And can you join in, if you're not staying at the historic hotel? You can: Price is $99. The "seafood spread will be paired with a signature cocktail from Zaya Rum or a local beer," says the Del, but if you want a different bev head for the cash bar.

WE DO ADORE S'MORES... and barbecue cookouts, but there isn't a supping situation as sandy nor sunset-y as a summertime clambake. 

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