Popei's Clam Bar pops up at Amsterdam in Patchogue

Brothers Joe and Ralph Reale, owners of Popei’s Clam Bars in, respectively Deer Park and Coram, have been operating the cavernous venue at 52 W. Main St. in Patchogue for 13 years. And it took them 13 years to bring a little of their storied seafood into their Patchogue kitchen. You can now start your meal with clams or oysters on the half shell, steamed clams or mussels or fried calamari and then proceed to lobster, crab legs, beer-battered cod or the "Popei’s famous boil" with lobster, mussels, clams, shrimp, corn and potatoes. (There are plenty of land-based options as well.)

Popei’s got its start in the old Nassau Farmers Market in Hicksville and opened in Bethpage in 1983. (That store is owned by Joe and Ralph’s cousin, Joe Reale.) Thereafter, the family established satellites in Kings Park and Sayville that are no longer in business; Deer Park and Coram both opened in 1994.

In 2013, the Reale brothers opened That Meetball Place with two partners. It had a good run but, at the end of last year (and with new partners Scottie Campbell and Mike Stephani), they ditched the meatballs, built a stage and launched Amsterdam, which focuses more on drinks and live music.

"The meatballs were killing us," Joe said. "We would hand roll thousands of them every week. But with the rising cost of beef and labor, the math was not mathing." The spot already had a lively bar scene, "so we decided to lean into nightlife." (They also converted some unused storage space in the rear of the restaurant into a retro-style burger joint, Millie’s Smash Bar.)

Amsterdam had a menu of bar favorites but, after a few months, it dawned on the Reales that Patchogue was full of bars with bar menus but, Joe observed, "there was nowhere to get crab legs in this town." They whittled down the Deer Park / Coram menu by two-thirds, and launched it on Tuesday evening. As luck would have it, that menu features unlimited crab legs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and, sure enough, at 4 p.m., one customer was already tucking into his first tray of crab legs at the bar.

Popei’s serves so many crab legs, the Reales buy them by the shipping container, dealing not with a local wholesaler but with a crab boat out of Seattle, Washington. If you like crab legs, their Tuesday-Wednesday deal is a good one: For $72, you start with three clusters, weighing almost two pounds, with four flavors of drawn butter. Once you’ve finished your dozen legs, flag down a server and you’ll receive another tray, and then another and another until you say "uncle."

Popei’s at Amsterdam, 52 W. Main St., Patchogue, 631-569-5888. Open Tuesday to Saturday 4 to 10 p.m., Sunday noon to 8 p.m., Instagram: @amsterdam_tmp