Category Archives: Seasonal

Footbridge Lobster – Ogunquit, Maine

Posted on April 18, 2013 by lobstergal

Ken was pretty confused as to how a lobster roll that involves lobster served up fresh by a lobsterman on a bakery fresh bun, so far south on the Maine coast had not been eaten yet. Frankly it baffles me too. But no matter, I found out about it this winter, and thanks to Facebook, I found out that they would be opening on the very day we were planning to drive to Bar Harbor. What luck! This actually makes this very lobster roll, my first of the 2013 seasonal lobster roll establishments.

Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, which is normally insane and unapproachable in the summer months was quiet, but waking up on the Friday before Easter, opening day. I get very excited eating a lobster roll on opening or closing day, preferably both. Footbridge Lobster is just a cute little window for take out where I ordered a lobster roll and lobster grilled cheese from the man who, I’m not sure, but may have been a lobsterman himself. He told me about how they had many of their own traps where they got the lobster. I can’t remember the number, but he did. I’m a sucker for all lobster rolls that cut out the middleman. There is really no seating at Footbridge, save two chairs by the window, so you’ll need to find your own spot to enjoy your lobster roll. I suggest you head over to the walk around the harbor on the other end of the parking lot and snag one of the park benches overlooking the ocean.

This was a lovely lobster roll, chock full of large chunks of tail and claw with few spongies and minimal mayo. They actually mix the lobster meat to order, so you can get it however you like, another huge plus in my book. The bun was nicely grilled, and I believe was bakery fresh from what I could see of the bags, but didn’t seem to impart any different flavor from the standard style bun. Take that however you like, I still give them points for bakery use. The meat flavor was good, but somehow not as flavorful as I was hoping. The claw meat was perfect, but the tail meat had a just slightly off texture, almost like it had been stored too cold. Not quite frozen, but it messed with the texture, just a smidge, or maybe it was some other reason, that was just my guess. The lobster grilled cheese was amazing, perfectly grilled, generous amount of lobster meat, gooey cheese mixing in with the lobster and heating the meat seemed to remedy the tail texture situation. Footbridge serves up a very good lobster roll. I will most certainly be back. I feel strongly about supporting lobsterman owned lobster roll establishments, there are so few of them. Particularly ones that use bakery fresh buns. I also want to try it again to see if the tail meat was just working out an opening day kink.

Weighed in at 6.7 oz.

Footbridge Lobster Facebook Page

Play Prev|Next

Visited March 2013

Leave a comment

Posted in cold, Maine, mayo, Oceanfront, Seasonal, Shack without seating, View, Waterfront and tagged cold, footbridge lobster, fresh picked, lobster roll, lobsterman owned, maine, mayo, mixed to order, oceanview, ogunquit, perkins cove. Bookmark the permalink.

Ruth and Wimpy’s – Hancock, Maine

Posted on April 17, 2013 by lobstergal

I never actually imagined I would be trying this place so soon. I mean, it’s north of Bar Harbor, which is of course kind of no man’s land. It was on my list as it had been in the lobster shack book I love to reference and for some reason I think it was on some food show. So, imagine my surprise as we headed up Rt 1 on Easter Sunday to see it right there, not far from Elsworth and shock of all shocks, open on Easter Sunday, until 8pm! Since my stomach was in no mood for lunch at the time, I just stopped in to confirm that they had a lobster roll and that it was fresh picked by them, never frozen. Sure enough, in fact the waitress I asked actually gave me a bit of a friendly eye roll, like, of course it’s fresh picked, why would it be anything else, that’s ridiculous? I agree. So, we stopped back by for dinner, and by dinner after poking around the coast and the ”other” Acadia. Worth seeing, by the way, if you have not.

The evening shift didn’t seem quite as on the ball as the lunch shift. After standing there for a few minutes, a waitress told me to have a seat anywhere. I did, then a lady sitting at another table informed me that the table I had chosen was reserved. Once settled in at an approved table with menus, it took a rather significant amount of time before I was able to place an order, longer for water, the food came fairly soon after placing the order, but the check was another wait. I don’t like to color my judgement of the lobster roll at a location because of the service, but this gal really made it challenging. On the other hand, the owner (I assume she was the owner) was an exceedingly friendly woman, who was having a great time making the rounds to the tables and being the Easter bunny. You could pick out an egg from her basket and you won candy or other menu items, every egg was a winner. I saw a guy win a shrimp cocktail app. It really was fun and a nice touch, she even noticed when Ken came in and joined me, some time after I had sat down. I did win a lovely bag full of Easter candy and received it, well before I got water or saw my waitress, so that happened.

Ruth and Wimpy’s really is quite a unique place. Kind of like a museum of Americana/diner/lobstering establishment. I quite liked it. Outside, there is a guy with steaming pots in brick ovens where you can walk up on a boat and watch him work. I’m not entirely sure what he was doing that day since it seemed to be mostly locals and I didn’t actually see any whole lobsters come out. There is a classic car parked across the front and apparently there is usually a huge lobster statue, but I guess he hadn’t made it out this early in the season. The inside is quite cute, pine walls, diner booths, toy car collection covering one wall (if you collect them, I assume you don’t call them toys, but I don’t know what to call them). License plates covering the other walls, quite kitschy in a fun way.

I ordered the regular and the jumbo lobster rolls. The regular was good size, standard buttery bun, could have been better grilled, fresh picked tail, claw, knuckle lightly coated in mayo. It was decent, but I felt like Tracey’s, farther up Rt 1 was way better. But, to be perfectly honest, it could have been my mood from sitting at a table for 45+ minutes before food arrived. The jumbo was really something to behold. It really was a bun the size of a large hoagie, filled with lobster and shredded iceberg. It was also good, but pulling of a good meat:bread:lettuce ratio would be impossible without putting in so much meat that you would have to charge $50+. It was more of a sub experience than a lobster roll, but still good and worth trying. The weight really, is mostly the dense bread. I, of course, pushed the meat down the bun until I had the meat:bread ratio the way I like it, but Ken thought it was quite good as is, and liked that it was more filling. Ruth and Wimpy’s is certainly worth a try, and is obviously very popular with the locals, which is always a good thing. Maybe I’ll try it again, but judging by how crowded they were on Easter Sunday, this place must be a mad house in the summer. On the other hand, maybe they have a take out window then, which could only be a good thing.

Regular weighed in at 4.8 oz., jumbo weighed in at 13.9 oz.

Ruth and Wimpy’s website

Visited March 2013

Leave a comment

Posted in Booze sold, cold, Maine, mayo, Seasonal, Shack with seating, tail and claw meat and tagged cold, fresh picked, hancock, lobster roll, maine, mayo, ruth and wimpy's. Bookmark the permalink.

Tracey’s Seafood – Sullivan, Maine

Posted on April 15, 2013 by lobstergal

On Easter Sunday, Ken and I decided to venture off Mt Desert Island and head north on Rt 1. It felt like a really adventurous move at the time, I’ve actually never been so far north on the Maine coast. Sure am glad we did because we were lucky enough to stumble over Tracey’s seafood on Rt 1, making this the farthest north lobster roll I have ever eaten. This wasn’t on any of my lists and I had never heard of it, but where you’re exploring Maine as early as Easter, you kind of just keep your eyes peeled for anything that is open. Finding a place open that also served a fresh picked lobster roll is something of an Easter miracle. I actually made Ken pull off and u turn after we passed Tracey’s and I tried not to get my hopes up that they had a lobster roll at this little roadside stand, but sure enough, there was the sign, $10 for a lobster roll and fries. Of course, I was going to buy it either way, desperate times and all, but I immediately assumed frozen meat. I mean, picked lobster was running at an all time high, around $50-$65/lb (usually $35-$40 in summer). I half didn’t even believe the gal at the order window when she said that they catch, cook and pick their own meat.

We got the lobster roll and took it into their little dining room. It’s a quaint, simple, nautically decorated eating area. It appears that part of the area has live lobsters in the summer, but turns out that this was opening day, so they had not arrived for the party yet. The carpet in the dining room could stand to be replaced, preferably with something besides carpet. I’m just opposed to the use of carpet in dining areas, they are impossible to sanitize and are bound to hold on to all manner of scents until the end of time.

The lobster roll sure looked to be fresh and had confirmed chunks of tail, claw and knuckle. The standard hot dog bun was perfectly, buttery grilled. Sure, it was smaller than usual, but remember, it was $10, with fries, no less. When I bit in, I immediately knew that she was most certainly telling the truth about this being fresh picked. It had all the briny yum of lobster that has been swimming in the cold waters of Maine not too long before it was in my mouth. I would have scarfed the whole thing down and told Ken to buy his own had I not just stuffed myself to the brim with my favorite breakfast in Maine, blueberry pancakes from Two Cats in Bar Harbor. The amount of lobster meat did not actually throw off the meat:bread ratio. There were still good chunks of lobster and bread in every bite. I even forgot to order my melted butter to dip the lobster roll in and didn’t even miss it.

I like to say “expect nothing and you’ll never be disappointed”. Some think this is a depressing view of things but I disagree. Those who don’t hold this view will never experience the unbridled joy that comes from expecting absolutely nothing and being blown away by the fantasticness of what you find. Discovering a completely unexpected, unknown, fresh picked, lobsterman owned, lobster roll this good on Easter Sunday when the rest of Maine is closed or not carrying lobster until Fathers Day, just bliss. I actually jumped up and down and one point, no lie. I sure hope in the summer they consider doing a jumbo version and charging double. As the kid in the hilarious AT&T commercials says, “when you really like it, you want more”.

Weighed in at 4.1 oz.

Tracey’s Facebook page

Play Prev|Next

Visited March 2013

Leave a comment

Posted in cold, Maine, mayo, Seasonal, Shack with seating, tail and claw meat and tagged acadia, bar harbor, cold, fresh picked, lobster roll, lobsterman, maine, mayo, mdi, sullivan, tail and claw, tracey's, two cats, value. Bookmark the permalink.

The Lobster Shack at Two Lights – Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Posted on March 22, 2013 by lobstergal

This is one of the more famous lobster rolls in the state of Maine. In fact, when people find out I eat a lot of lobster rolls and write about it, I would say I get asked if I’ve tried Two Lights most often, more so than even Red’s. When I arrived at this location, it was immediately clear why this place is famous and I suspected it wasn’t for the actual lobster roll. This is truly THE most stunning view in the state of Maine that is accompanied by a lobster roll. Sure there are other gorgeous views, Five Islands, Stewman’s and Dolphin immediately come to mind. Those examples may not be the best, because Five Islands is a rare convergence of a stunning Maine view and the best of the best lobster roll. Dolphin has a very good lobster roll and Stewman’s is decent. But, I guess a red flag always goes up for me when a place I’ve heard has a great lobster roll has an amazing view. People tend to color their opinions with the entire experience, which, I suppose is normal. I mean when you’re in Maine wanting a lobster roll, ideally it should be the whole ocean/lobster experience. I get the opposite phenomenon when I pull up to a lobster roll place and it’s a total dump with a view of a highway and I’ve heard it has a great lobster roll. In those cases, I get super excited because I know this lobster roll is likely to be a real life changing eating experience because the lobster roll is biased in no way by the ambiance. Fisherman’s Grill, I’m looking at you.

Two Lights lobster roll did indeed live up to my expectations or I should say, lived down to. I had seen photos of this roll and couldn’t for the life of me imagine how what was in the picture could possibly be good, let alone great. Every picture I had seen involved what looked like a hot dog bun, half of which was covered with a giant blob of mayo and the other half with a pickle slice. Yuck, I couldn’t imagine how that could be right, there must be some amazing stuff under that, but it looked like only enough lobster to barely show through. I can say one thing for them, they are consistent. What I received looked exactly like every picture I had seen. I found the mayo blob much more confusing once I actually had it in hand. The pickle can easily be removed without leaving much pickle residue. But, what are you really supposed to do with that blob? If you really like mayo, do you just smear it across the top? You certainly can’t toss it so every piece is equally coated, as is ideal. It seems like trying to spread it around would just make for a huge mess and cause the lobster to fall out. I chose to scrape it off, but this had its challenges too. These are pieces of lobster, so even scraping it off leaves a rather significant amount still caught in the pieces. The only way I could think to remedy this would be to remove and wipe off every piece with a napkin of knife, but that seemed unsanitary. So, I proceeded to eat a half completely dry lobster roll and a half mayo chunky lobster roll, just weird. Actually, to be truthful, after trying the disappointing combo of dry and mayo, I went to the counter and got a cup of butter to dip the whole thing into. Everything is much better that way. The lobster amount in this roll is rather skimpy and on the low-end of average lobster roll weight after I removed the mayo blob and pickle for weighing. The meat is fresh picked every day here and they include both tail and claw, which is always good, and it is tasty but they sure don’t give you much of it. I have a system of moving all of the lobster meat down the bread so that I always get an ideal meat:bread ratio in each bite, regardless of the overall ratio. Using this system, I had a full half of the empty bun left over. The bread is your standard split top bun, the grilling technique leaves some butter and crunch to be desired.

I wouldn’t say this is a bad lobster roll, just disappointing because it is so far away from matching the beyond stunning view that accompanies it. They do home-baked desserts here. I think I would get that when I return. And yes, I will absolutely return. This truly is exactly what you picture when you think of the Maine coast. The cute, cozy, creatively decorated, very comfortable on a cold day, dining room has wrap around windows overlooking the ocean. The picnic table area is right on the ocean on a flat area with evenly spaced, very clean, bright red picnic tables interspersed with a very comfortable amount of trash cans to keep it clean. This is in every way, a top-notch quintessentially Maine, seaside seafood shack. Clean, efficient, well maintained, bright, cheery outside, cozy inside and all this is on one of the best spots of real estate where lobster is served on the Maine coast. I really can’t say enough good things about the actual location and the restaurant itself. Except the lobster roll, it’s the only thing that just doesn’t measure up.

Weighed in at 5 oz.

Two Lights website

Play Prev|Next

Visited April 2012

Leave a comment

Posted in cold, Maine, mayo, Oceanfront, Restaurant, Seasonal, Shack with seating, tail and claw meat, View, Waterfront and tagged cape elizabeth, cold, fisherman's grill, five islands, lobster roll, maine, mayo, oceanfront, portland, reds, seasonal, shack with seating, tail and claw, two lights, view. Bookmark the permalink.

Bite Into Maine – Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Posted on March 8, 2013 by lobstergal

It’s not easy to find this cute, silver purveyor of tastiness if you’re not familiar with the area, but it’s well worth it. It’s actually located in a park and my GPS got confused by that destination. The gentleman at Bite into Maine couldn’t be nicer, on the phone he walked us through directions and when we got there, he was more than happy to talk about his fantastic lobster roll and what makes it great. The lobster meat he uses is fresh picked, which is always key to a top tier lobster roll. He pointed out that it’s a question that needs to be asked before ordering a lobster roll because so many in Maine these days, even ones you don’t think, use previously frozen lobster meat.

The choices here involve Maine style (mayo) and Connecticut style (butter) and four more , which I didn’t have the stomach space to try this time around. Frankly, when they were ready, I really couldn’t tell which was which. They are both served with the meat cold, which isn’t technically Connecticut style, it would need to be warm meat for that. This inability to tell the difference was a good thing for the Maine style roll because the meat was tossed with just enough mayo to make it glossy, but not visible. For the CT style, the butter was served on the side. I have to say, I didn’t prefer this one. Most likely because I was expecting it to be warm, but also because I prefer my butter tossed to poured on myself. I like a cup of butter to dip my cold, mayo lobster rolls into. When there is no mayo and you try to dip, the meat all falls out and doesn’t stay in the bun for a good butter bite.

Bun was your standard split top white bun, perfectly buttery grilled on both. I had heard the hype about Bite Into Maine being one of the great lobster rolls in Maine and I must say, every bit of it is true. The meat is perfectly cooked, tender, flavorful, chunks, generous amount, minimal spongies, and perfect meat:bread ratio. It had everything I look for in a great lobster roll except tail meat (and a bakery fresh bun, but that’s so rare, I don’t take off points for not including it). This was one of the rare times when a lobster roll is so good that I don’t even miss the tail meat, putting it in in my top tier of all lobster rolls. Actually, the only other time I didn’t miss the tail meat was Sander’s Fish Market. They use a bakery fresh bun, so technically, I have to give Sander’s the edge on this one, but Bite into Maine is well worth driving far out of your way for.

I really knew I loved this lobster roll on my victory lap of Columbus Day weekend in Maine. What is a victory lap you may ask? Well, I try lots of lobster rolls all season long, and honestly, many of them are crap, lots are decent, but not good enough for me to want to hit again. Then there are the good and the great ones. Victory lap weekend is where I figure out the difference between whether I thought it was good or great. Some lobster rolls have all the elements of a very good lobster roll, but when I get to Maine, I’m not feeling the overwhelming need to be sure I eat that lobster roll before it disappears for the long winter. It’s kind of like a last meal, but my last meal lasts for a four day weekend and involves as much lobster as I can fit in before I pop. This one made my victory lap craving list. FYI, here’s the victory lap list from 2012, in quasi order, I can never really decide: Clam Shack, Five Islands, Boothbay Lobster Wharf, Bite into Maine, Sanders Fish Market, Erica’s, Red’s, and Muscongus. Also, picking up lobster meat at Atlantic Edge to make a few when I get home. I can’t say this is an exhaustive list of lobster rolls I crave, it’s Mainely focused (pun intended, ha) and seasonal focused. I also find myself craving Woodman’s, JT Farnham’s, Captain Scott’s, Roy Moore’s, Eastwind, High Tide Gourmet, Champlin’s and Ford’s.

But, I digress, back to Bite into Mane. The other thing that sets this cute little not quite truck, not quite trailer apart, is the view. I would eat this lobster roll anywhere, but it happens to be in a lovely park overlooking the ocean with a lighthouse. If you can handle not eating your lobster roll right away, which is tough, you could walk across the street and find a picnic table with one of the best views in Maine while eating one of the great lobster rolls of Maine.

Weighed in at 7 oz.

Play Prev|Next