$1,499,000 Buys the Shack. Cobie's Isn't Included.

The Route 6A clam shack closed Sept. 6 after what it calls its 78th season. The building, the cottage behind it and 1.7 acres are now on the market. The name, the recipes and the business are not, and whether the window opens in 2027 depends on what happens next.

The website still has two banners on it. One says "We're Open for 2026! Come Celebrate Our 78th Season!" The other, the one that went up after the last day of the season, says "Cobies is Closed Until the 2027 Season. Thank You for Your Patronage!"

Neither one mentions the listing.

Commercial Realty Advisors is offering two parcels on Main Street in Brewster together for $1,499,000. At 3256 is the restaurant building, 906 square feet. At 3260, behind it, is a 544-square-foot cottage the shack uses to house its seasonal crew. Together they come to about 1.7 acres.

Here is the line that matters. The listing says the Cobies operating business, its assets and its goodwill "are not included." The trade name, equipment and inventory aren't in the price either. A buyer gets the building with the order window in it. The name over the window is a separate conversation. The broker says there "may be an opportunity" for a buyer to negotiate for the business with the seller.

Rob Slavin, who runs Cobie's, told the Cape Cod Times what that means for next summer: "If I don't sell it between now and next summer, I'll open again."

So the answer to the question every regular is asking is: maybe.

A textile man from Lowell

Cobie's opened on June 23, 1948. According to the shack's own history, Coburn "Cobie" Emery was a textile manufacturer from Lowell who summered here and golfed at Cummaquid. His wife, Celia, ran the hot dog stand much of the time. They kept it almost 20 years and sold it in 1967.

For a stretch after that it belonged to Cape Cod Sea Camps, the same Sea Camps whose land the town of Brewster now owns. It changed hands twice more. Then in 1986 Bob Slavin bought it, a man who had worked for Weyerhaeuser and Harbor Millwork and had never run a restaurant. He inherited two cooks from the previous owner.

His son Rob took over day-to-day in 1998. Bob died in 2017.

Seventy-two years without a beer

The shack moved slowly, on purpose. A covered deck went on in the 1970s. In 2002 there were 12 parking spaces. A septic replacement in 2003 is what produced the back lot.

Beer and wine arrived in 2020, after 72 years without them. The family credits that, and the deck, with getting them through the pandemic summers.

The shack's own history also puts a number on something every cyclist on 6A already knows: by its count, nearly a third of its business comes off the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which runs right behind it. If you've ever stood in that line in bike shoes, you were part of that third.

Not the only window with a sign

Cobie's isn't the only Lower Cape clam window with a sale attached this fall.

Nick Nickerson announced on Facebook on Sept. 13 that he is selling Arnold's in Eastham, which we wrote about in August for its ton of onion rings a week. "After 50 wonderful and successful years, the time has come for me to sell Arnolds Lobster and Clam Bar," he wrote. No price or buyer has been announced.

And Van Rensselaer's in South Wellfleet, which we wrote about last week, is listed at $2,950,000.

Last week we passed along the line on Cobie's website: closed until 2027. It's still there. It's just no longer the whole story.

The part with no price on it

Here is what the $1,499,000 doesn't buy. The name Cobie Emery put on a clam shack in 1948. The recipes. The know-how that came with the two cooks in 1986. Unless somebody negotiates for those separately, they stay with the Slavins.

Rob Slavin's answer is on the record, and it's conditional. If the property sells, Cobie's future is a negotiation. If it doesn't, he says he'll open again.

Until then, the banner says 2027. At the end of Linnell Landing Road, the shack waits.

Cobies | 3260 Main St. (Route 6A), Brewster, at Linnell Landing Road

Closed for the season since Sept. 6, 2026. Website banner: "Closed Until the 2027 Season."

508-896-7021 · cobies.com