Bob O'Malley's Whaleback in Sandwich has a whale of a story - and $9 fish and chips

SANDWICH ― Bob O’Malley’s Whaleback Restaurant has 28 seats, a century of stories and a $9 fish and chips plate that hasn’t seen a price increase in 20 years.

“It used to be kind of a dive bar. Now I tell everybody it’s the cleanest dive bar on Cape Cod,” said owner Stu Coggeshall, who started working at the bar in 1999 when it was still owned by Bob O’Malley.

O’Malley died in 2002 and Coggeshall set about buying out the two partners who had taken over. Working days as a UPS delivery driver and nights at the Whaleback, Coggeshall bought the place in 2017 and put fried fish on a menu that had been primarily hot dogs and hamburgers.

It’s still a small menu that fits on a 5-by-7 laminated card and includes several fried items with fish purchased fresh from local companies, including Superior Lobster & Seafood in Sandwich, Southeast Shellfish in Wareham and Ocean Fresh in Sagamore.

“My favorite is the buffalo shrimp over coleslaw. That one’s just off the hook,” said Coggeshall, who works behind the Whaleback bar Wednesdays and Saturdays with his wife, Tina.

The Whaleback offers an $18 lobster roll with chips and a 16-ounce soda and a $22 fisherman's platter with shrimp, scallops, whole clams and fish filet priced about half of other restaurants.

“It’s a little taste of summer in the winter,” Coggeshall said of the fried fish. “If you have 50 things on your menu, you don’t know what people will want to eat. I don’t want to ever throw anything away, so I just make sure it’s cheap enough so I sell everything.”

Jake Silins, executive chef at The Bistro & Wine Bar at Mirbeau in Plymouth, found himself passing O’Malley’s Whaleback on his way home to Barnstable.

The restaurant is in what looks like a ranch house, set back from the road, with a 35-seat patio off to one side. It is located at 1052 Old Sandwich Road ― listed as 1052 Main St. in some GPS systems or even seen as an extension of the Cranberry Highway. The Whaleback is at the point where the road forks, with the left branch leading to the Sagamore Bridge and the right to the Bourne Bridge.

“I kept seeing all these cars there,” Silins said. ”I went in and the bartender was Stu, hanging out with his Hawaiian shirt on. He’s so outgoing, talking to everyone. It was kind of like this little hidden gem, this little hole in the wall.”

A commitment to remaining a small business

Silins said he admires Coggeshall for his commitment to remaining a small business that sells good, simple food “by buying the best and doing as little to it as possible.”

“He’s not trying to sell out. He’s running it with his family and his friends. It’s a pretty cool place,” Silins said. “I don’t feel like there's a lot of places like that in the world anymore.”

Coggeshall said the Whaleback increased its takeout business during the pandemic when the tiny place was limited for weeks to seven patrons inside at a time. On a recent Friday visit, a steady stream of customers ― mostly locals, the bartender said ― came in to collect takeout they had ordered ahead.

“It’s like the (TV) show, ‘Cheers,’ where everybody knows your name,” said Ron Backnick Jr. whose father started the Whaleback with O’Malley in 1975.

The men, who were brothers-in-law, also owned Whaleback Hills Cottages, formerly Taylor’s Motor Court, on Route 6A in East Sandwich.

Backnick remembers growing up, playing ball in the lot behind O’Malley’s Whaleback. A pilot who recently moved back to East Falmouth because of its residential airpark, Backnick said he’s looking forward to becoming a regular at O’Malley’s and enjoying the restaurant as an adult.

Things look a little different than they did when Backnick’s father and uncle ran the place in the '70s.

A renovation with a historic bar

Last year, Coggeshall renovated the Whaleback, doing away with the tables and adding a historic bar of polished wood that weighs nearly a ton. It had to be taken apart to get through the door.

“That bar came out of the Admirals Club at Logan (International Airport),” Coggeshall said. “It was the American Airlines travelers club in the '50s. The guy I bought it from in New Hampshire said there is a photo of Jack Kennedy and Peter Lawford drinking at that bar. I’d love to get that photo and hang it over the bar.”

Coggeshall said the main complaint before the renovation was that there were not enough seats at the bar. Now, the bar dominates the tiny building. There is also a rail around the outside of the room to provide more seating. In a touch of modernity, hanging off the wall is a digital jukebox with 40,000 songs that people can buy and play using their phones.

Was Bob O’Malley’s Whaleback ever known as The Orange Ladder?

It was, and before that Gene’s Fine Foods.

“Initially, it was the Sagamore Hotel. (Warren G.) Harding and (Calvin) Coolidge slept there when they were in office,” Coggeshall reported of the presidents. “But it burned down in 1931. And the family who owned it, rebuilt it (using scrap wood) in the height of the Depression.”

The Whaleback catered to workers at Canal Generating Plant in the '60s and the harpoon they dropped off with the name of their union is still in the basement. The Murphy bed where Backnick’s uncle Bob O'Malley would nap in the kitchen between lunch and dinner rushes is gone, though.

Asked if he ever planned to change the name of Bob O’Malley’s Whaleback, Coggeshall said, “I adored the man, so as far as I’m concerned it’s Bob O’Malley’s Whaleback. I’m only steering the ship while he’s gone.”

Gwenn Friss is the editor of CapeWeek and covers entertainment, restaurants and the arts. Contact her at gfriss@capecodonline.com. Follow her or X, formerly Twitter: @dailyrecipeCCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bob O'Malley's Whaleback Restaurant: Fresh fish, history in Sandwich