From being milk merchants for the rural community of Hubbards, N.S. to serving lobster suppers and live music every Saturday night since 1946 when the Shore Club opened, the Harnish family still give a big tourism boost — and provide the summer soundtrack — for this sleepy hamlet that hugs the Atlantic Ocean.
Before the live music arrived, Guy Harnish boiled lobsters by the seashore in a copper pot on Hubbards Beach.
“There was not a lot of tourism here in my grandfather’s day,” says Rhys Harnish. “Lobster then was considered a worthless commodity that only poor people ate.”
When that perception changed and these clawed crustaceans became a delicacy, the Harnish family turned their beach boils into a booming business by offering lobster suppers on the beach beginning in 1936. In the decades since, celebrities like Mariah Carey, politicians like Hilary Clinton, and royalty like Prince Charles and Princess Diana have all enjoyed this East Coast tradition. Still going strong 78 years later, the Shore Club has now served more than one million customers.
A decade after the lobster suppers began, the Shore Club opened. In the economic upturn that followed the end of the Second World War, a national dairy distributor arrived in Nova Scotia and took over the milk delivery in the province. Overnight, the Harnish families’ milk merchant business was gone. With plenty of pastureland on its property and despite the existence of a dancehall on every corner — and hundreds more between Hubbards and Halifax — 27-year-old Roy Harnish and his wife Lois (who ran the Shore Club until 1985) took a gamble. The couple hired a crew of boat builders from Mahone Bay who used reclaimed wood from the retired military base near Truro and constructed this new entertainment destination and tourist draw within four months.
“It was definitely a risk!” says Rhys Harnish, who, as a child, along with his siblings, hid in the loft above the dance floor. “Today, this space is used for storage and doubles as a green room for the bands, but when I was a kid we lived up there. The band room was right next to my bedroom, so I didn’t get much sleep, but I did get to know all the groups.”
On August 24, 1946, the Shore Club opened with a crowd packed tighter than a fisherman’s net after a good day at sea. Jerry Cunningham and his Six-Piece Orchestra provided the soundtrack for couples to dance the night away; every Saturday night since, from April to October, live music has reverberated off these weathered walls. In the first few decades, the venue had only a couple simple rules: men could not enter without female accompaniment and they were required to wear a jacket and tie. If a gentleman forgot to don his finest duds, the club usually had a few sport coats lying around to loan for the night. Apart from this dress code, which is no longer in effect, the venue remains more or less the same as when its doors opened. Fishnets hang from the ceiling and the wood floor is original. By the time of the last dance (on Halloween), the boards have worn thin, so it does get resurfaced every fall.
When The Rankins recorded a Christmas concert for CBC TV at the Shore Club several decades ago, the public broadcaster rebuilt the stage, but besides a few other tweaks over the years, it also has not changed much. The biggest change came just last year when the club added a large patio extension at the side of the venue, complete with a bar and washrooms that allow more patrons to mingle outside before the show and enjoy the view of Hubbards Cove.
From Big Bands to Rock ‘n’ Roll
The Shore Club always features regional artists first. Renowned Maritime musician and trumpeter Don Warner was one of the most popular local acts in the venue’s early existence. Other Nova Scotians who performed at the Shore Club in its first 35 years include singer-songwriters Richie Oakley and Dutch Mason.
Rhys Harnish was still a kid, but he remembers the day in the early 1960s when his father told him about a new five-piece rock band from Moncton, N.B. called The Gemtones.
“My dad heard their debut record on CBC radio and booked them,” Rhys recalls. “For locals, the day The Gemtones rolled into Hubbards, all packed together with their instruments in their parent’s station wagon, and stepped out in front of our club, felt similar to the excitement Americans experienced seeing the Beatles arrive on U.S. soil for the first time.”
The popular teen dances, held Wednesday and Friday nights, started in the mid-1960s and coincided with the Gemtones Shore Club debut. People drove in from Halifax and surrounding towns to shake a leg and find romance. To accommodate the growing amount of tourists, Hubbards Beach Campground and Cottages were added in 1955, run by Rhys’ brother Clyde.
Where the Matts Are Welcome
Matt Minglewood holds the record — one that will never be broken — of playing the most gigs at the Shore Club. The Cape Breton native played his first show at the historic venue in 1969 with a band he called Sam Moon and the Universal Power and the musician has returned every summer since.
“In the same way people ‘fan-boy’ overseeing some of the bigger acts that play here today, for the older generations, and even for young Cape Bretoners, it’s a rite of passage to see Matt [Minglewood] here,” says Luke Harnish. “He still has more energy than a lot of the groups half his age!”
This past September, the 77-year-old celebrated his 55th consecutive year playing the venue. The artist remembers few details from his first gig other than it was memorable enough — and enough people showed up — that made him want to return.
“My band and I had just moved to Halifax from Sydney and we didn’t know anything about the Shore Club,” Minglewood recalls. “All we knew is that we had a gig down at this beach and campsite place. I remember going in there thinking, ‘this place is really old and it is truly unique.’ Our show must have gone over well though because we’ve played there every year since!”
In the past couple of decades, with Luke Harnish now booking the acts, younger East Coasters like Tim Baker, Hey Rosetta! Joel Plaskett, Wintersleep, and Matt Mays are now regulars; these artists love to return annually to play this special spot along the ocean shore.
“The ghosts have never left its walls,” says Mays, who in 2025 will play the Shore Club for the 20th year. “The place is half-surrounded by the ocean and almost sits on a peninsula. Immediately, after you turn off the highway, you enter a mystical land … it’s a perfect venue.”
All in the Family
The risk Roy took nearly 80 years ago still pays the rent for the Harnish family as the Shore Club is now in the hands of the fourth generation. Luke [Roy’s grandson and Rhys’ son) runs the day-to-day operations while his cousin Jared runs the beach and accommodations side of the business. For Luke, whether he would take over the club one day was never in doubt, it was more a matter of when.
“It’s in the blood,” he says. “I started bartending the day I turned 19, but I joke with my dad that I’ve been working here since I was two years old! When we started bringing in the Matt Mays’s level of bands, I got more involved to deal with their agents and to try and attract some younger acts.”
The seasonal venue remains a special place for both the acts and the audiences who share a communal and unforgettable experience at every show. Mays says the little things like the vibe, the locale — and especially the crowds — are the mix of ingredients that make the Shore Club one of his favorite venues in the world.
“We just provide the soundtrack,” says the Juno award-winning singer-songwriter. “Everybody is always in a good mood and nobody is a wallflower. Playing there is about that relationship between the crowd and the band. It’s this incredible bond that as the night goes on you take higher and higher; it’s such a soulful and beautiful experience.”
Even though Rhys [Harnish] now leaves the booking of artists like Mays and the club operations to his son, he still attends most shows to soak in the magic in the room. “I have a place in one of the corners where I stand and just watch the crowd to see the joy on their faces,” he says. “We’re on our fourth generation now of family ownership, but it’s also the fourth generation of patrons … this is their venue.”
In 2024, Alan Doyle, who regularly sells out soft-seat theatres for crowds of 1,500 or more, played the intimate venue for the first time. “He’s way too big for the Shore Club, but he wanted to play here,” Luke Harnish says. “We scheduled him on a Tuesday night and then added two more shows and they all sold out immediately.”
Following his three-night stand, Doyle told Harnish that he has played all over the world, but, as a musician, the Shore Club is “the venue I’m always trying to find.”
