The Lobsta Truck came about after a innocent autumn trip
to New England.
It all started after a long drive through the White National
Forest, arriving at our first lobster shack in South Freeport,
ME, the Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster Company. Here
we ordered two fresh cooked Maine lobsters with drawn
butter, fried clams, and some lemonade. The meal was delicious,
but it was only the start of our two-day Maine lobsterfest.
As it was still early in the afternoon, we decided to
leave South Freeport and head for the most famous lobster
shack of all, Red's Eats in Wiscasset, ME.
Upon arrival, we saw the customary line and proceed to
wait our turn. After a one hour wait, we were finally
rewarded with our first and best lobster roll of the trip.
The lobster roll was overflowing with lobster meat, falling
out and into our tray as we ate it. We had ours prepared
without any condiments, but dipped it in butter and mayonnaise.
The large chunks of lobster tail and claw meat were delicious
and it was well worth the wait.
We ended up calling it a day for lobster after Red's
Eats and headed back to Portland, ME. While lobster was
not on the menu for dinner that night (we went to a very
good restaurant called Fore Street in downtown Portland
and had more seafood), we were ready for more the following
day.
Our first stop of the day was at the Clam Shack in Kennebunk,
ME (the same Kennebunk that the Bush family compound is
located in). There was not much of a line at the Clam
Shack and the lobster roll came out fairly quickly along
with some steamer clams we ordered. Instead of coming
out on a traditional New England split top roll, the lobster
roll came in hamburger style buns. The lobster roll was
good, but not as good as our first roll and definitely
did not have as much meat as Red's. After our meal, we
strolled around Kennebunk for a little while and then
headed to our next lobster meal at Barnacle Billy's in
Ogunquit, ME.
Ogunquit is a beatiful little town and definitely worth
a visit if you're in the area. Barnacle Billy's is not
in the main part of Ogunquit, but rather located at Perkins
Cove, which has great views of the Maine coastline. On
top of this, they have a cute little draw bridge to allow
for sail boats and lobster boats to enter the cove. Nonetheless,
we ordered our food at Barnacle Billy's and sat outside
to take in the great weather and crisp clean air. When
we got our food, a lobster roll and clam chowder, we dug
in right away. The lobster roll was mixed with a little
mayonnaise and dusted with paprika. It was a decent lobster
roll, but both Red's and the Clam Shack delivered a better
product. After our meal we went to the towncenter and
strolled around. We visited the beach and proceeded to
check the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean and boy was
it cold (I guess that's what makes Maine lobster taste
sooo good). After grabbing some ice cream, we proceeded
to find our next lobster roll.
Our next lobster spot was supposed to be Chauncey Creek
Lobster Pier. Unforunately it was closed and we had to
find another place to get our final roll. We ended up
coming across Bob's Clam Hut and decided it was worth
a try. We ordered a lobster roll along with some fried
clams. Being our last lobster roll of the trip, we were
hoping for a home run. Nonetheless, we did get a good
lobster roll and some good fried clams, but Red's Eat
was officially the winner of this two day lobster binge.
A few weeks after the trip, it was decided that we were
going to open the Lobsta Truck. With the lobster shacks
in Maine similar to the taco shacks in LA, it seemed like
the perfect fit. We proceeded to find a supplier that
could deliver us fresh lobster and worked on developing
our own lobster rolls. We tried a few types of bread,
as we couldn't find the traditional split top New England
rolls in LA, but it just wasn't right. As a result, like
the lobster, we get our bread fresh from New England.
We couldn't just have lobster rolls as our only menu item,
so we decided to also add crab rolls, New England clam
chowder, Cape Cod chips, and fresh squeezed lemonade.
With all the pieces in place, we were ready to roll!