The Old Clam House in San Francisco, California

In 1865, the world was Samuel’s Clemens’ oyster—and his clam and his mussel. Under the pen name “Mark Twain,” he had just scored a nationwide hit with his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Now a literary luminary, he promptly ensconced himself in San Francisco’s finest hotel and commenced consuming mass quantities of local shellfish of the variety purveyed at the Oakdale Bar and Clam House. Since renamed The Old Clam House, the establishment opened in 1861 and is still shoveling shellfish to its patrons over a century and a half later, making it the oldest original-location restaurant in San Francisco.