The Best Lobster Rolls in Maine
There is, effectively, no lobster roll that is not a Maine lobster roll. Connecticut may lay claim to a style of this seafood-shack favorite—served warm and doused in butter—but as warming water pushes lobstering up into the far northern stretches of New England, the only place where you can eat a roll in close proximity to where the lobster was actually caught (which, let’s be real, is the optimum dining setting) is on the coast of Vacationland.
But while the best lobster rolls can be found in Maine, lobster rolls can also be found everywhere in Maine, at restaurants and gas station alike, and many of them are garbage. If you don’t want to eat rubbery shellfish caked with mayonnaise, any old lobster roll won’t do. In short, what you’re looking for is a golden-grilled split-top bun, a pile of tender-cooked lobster, just enough mayo or just too much butter, and, ideally, an appropriately placed picnic table where you can eat it. Or, you know, Instagram it, then eat it.
Red’s Eats
The origins of the lobster roll are murky, but the mayo-dressed version is in the tradition of other thrifty sandwiches like chicken or tuna salad that extend a bit of protein with a few vegetables for crunch and a dressing to hold it all together. At Red’s, there is no thrift on display: Your reward at the end of the ridiculously long line at this Wiscasset institution is a whole lobster plucked from its shell, plopped inside a split-top bun, and doused in butter. It’s austere (and, at more than $20 a roll, expensive), but if you think about it, is there anything else that you really need in a lobster roll other bread, shellfish, and butter? No, there is not. And there’s a good reason why so many people are willing to wait in line for the Red’s experience.
Luke’s at Tenant’s Harbor
Enterprising restaurateurs like Luke Holden, who grew up in Maine, have helped to make lobster rolls into a veritable trend over the past 6 or 7 years. By serving rolls at restaurants in the East Village, Luke’s followed other New York City restaurants like Pearl Oyster Bar in bringing what was once more of a summer-vacation affair down the coast and into the city. The setting at other Luke’s may be missing a view of granite ledges cutting down into a grey harbor ringed in pines—but not the one at Tenant’s Harbor. Here, the restaurant shares a dock with the Tenant’s Harbor Lobster Coop, which supplies all of Luke’s restaurants. The roll is on the small side, but features plenty of knuckle and claw meat dressed with a hearty amount of butter. You’ll also find some of the best cocktails of any lobster shack in Maine—insomuch as they actually serve drinks here. That may be an odd side effect of the hipsterization of the lobster roll, but when you’re drinking a decent Dark & Stormy and watching the boats come in, it’s hard to find a reason to complain.
Beal’s Lobster Pier
Bar Harbor is so achingly quaint that it’s understandable how slammed with tourists it is during the summer months. Things are a little less crowded on the far side of Mount Desert Island, past Acadia National Park, and towns like Southwest Harbor are no less cute. Beal’s, which occupies a long dock on the waterfront, has an unbeatable view of the inlet—an element of lobster-roll dining that shouldn’t be underestimated—and the sizable rolls, which are served with your choice of butter or mayo, are expertly made—even if they could do without the weird little piece of lettuce at the bottom.
McLoons Lobster Shack
Spruce Head is the kind of island so close to shore that, if you aren’t paying close attention to what is a road and what is a bridge, you can drive on to it without realizing. But sitting at a picnicking table overlooking the small working harbor, looking out at the lobster boats that brought in your lunch, it’s a spot that has the kind of remote idyll that makes these tiny island communities so special. To make things even better, the rolls here are as perfect as the setting: Served with butter, a schmear of mayo on the bun (which is kind of a radical move), or both, the lobster is sweet and tender, and is by no means overwhelmed by its dressing(s). If there’s a sleeper hit on the McLoon’s menu, it’s the crab roll, which is so “lightly” dressed with mayonnaise as to be almost imperceptible, letting the mound of freshly picked local crab shine.
This story originally appeared on GQ.
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