Lobster Pot restaurant in Provincetown is for sale, after 43 years for McNulty family

PROVINCETOWN — The Lobster Pot waterfront restaurant known for its top-notch food, service and neon lobster sign in the heart of Commercial Street is on the market. The price? $14 million.

“It’s time to pass the torch,” chef and owner Tim McNulty said in a recent interview. “It’s got to be the right person.”

The McNulty family has owned the restaurant for 43 years. Joy (Mary Joy) McNulty bought the restaurant in 1979. She has retired, but her sons, Tim and Shawn, and her daughter, Julie Nichols, currently own the business.

Tim McNulty was 10 when his mother moved to Provincetown and got into the restaurant business. When she bought the Lobster Pot in 1979, he had been working in restaurant kitchens, learning about cooking and the food business for seven years.  He was a dishwasher, prep cook, and a line cook, and he learned from those with whom he worked. He credits Chef Clem Silva Jr. with teaching him how to make clam chowder and roux, and with being an important influence in the Lobster Pot’s Portuguese menu items.

The current menu is huge and includes hot and cold appetizers, soups, salads, bouillabaisses, fish, shellfish, meat and chicken entrees, ala carte vegetables and starches, sandwiches, and the namesake lobster — pan roasted, baked stuffed, or boiled. Three tanks fed by water from the bay sit just inside the front door and carry a couple thousand pounds of the crustaceans, according to McNulty.

“We've always worked hard, long hours, day and night,” McNulty said. “That's what you do in the restaurant business.”

Why is the McNulty family selling the Lobster Pot?

But the siblings have gotten older, their children are grown, and some have moved on. The family is looking at the inevitable, McNulty said.

"It’s time to look at the reality,” he said. “We still love it and go to work every day. We always have loved it. It’s a big, big, big part of our lives.”

John E. Ciluzzi, president of Premier Commercial, has been hired to sell the land, the building, business, equipment and the brand. The restaurant went on the market late in the day on Tuesday, Jan. 17, Ciluzzi said. The next day he had received calls from overseas, the West Coast, New England and the region.

“The site has national interest and international attention,” Ciluzzi said. “There is substantial interest.”

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The two-story, 8,293-square-foot building has two dining rooms, bars and a waterfront view of Provincetown Harbor. The long, showpiece property is 24 feet at its widest according to town records and assessed at $3.6 million.

Joy McNulty, her three children and their children worked long days building the restaurant’s reputation. It is in the top .5% of restaurants according to data on restaurant grosses, according to Ciluzzi. He would only share the source of that data with qualified buyers, he said.

“I know what we gross, what we net, and I know what it produces for us and our staff,” McNulty said. “It's worth 14 million.”

The Lobster Pot Express in Provincetown, and the Lobster and Chowder House on Route 6 in South Wellfleet are not included in the sale.

“We're not looking to retire,” McNulty said. “We're not running away. We're just facing reality.”

McNulty said he will stick around as long as needed for a smooth transition, adding it could be months and even years for that transition to be complete. That’s assuming a new owner will want that. McNulty hopes a new owner will keep the entire staff as it stands now, a trained and organized unit.

“We’ve had a lot of wonderful guests,” McNulty said. “We’ve had a wonderful staff over the years. We’ve had a good life. We absolutely love Provincetown.”

Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: McNulty family to sell Lobster Pot restaurant in Provincetown