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Elderly Lobster Spared by Oceana Restaurant
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 26, 2009
Modified Oct 26, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 26, 2009
Modified Oct 26, 2009
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These are tough times for the high-end dining industry, and the seafood restaurant Oceana could have made a cool $275 just for tossing a septuagenarian lobster into a pot of boiling water. Because lobsters' age can be determined by weight, the Oceana owners believe the 11 pound crustacean, nicknamed "Peter," is approximately 70 years old. This guy was old enough to bite a infantryman's foot at Omaha Beach; does that make him too old to eat?
Apparently so, because Oceana has taken Peter off the menu, after being "bombarded" with calls begging them to spare the senescent arthropod. It's unclear what's next for Peter, but executive chef Ben Pollinger seems a little frustrated, telling the Daily News, "People have had emotional reactions. What's the big deal, why are we being persecuted for this lobster?" And Oceana patron Beth McAuley wonders, "What does it matter if it's 1, 3 or 70 years old? If you're going to eat it, you're going to eat it."
But do you really want to? A-list chef Michael White (Marea, Convivio, Alto) Tells Bloomberg News, "I can only imagine that it tastes like (expletive) because it’s so old and tough. It depends on how you cook it, but it’s like eating a 70-year-old cockroach." In January, City Crab & Seafood Company released a 20 pound, 140-year- old lobster back into the ocean after PETA complained. So it's nice to see there's hope for lobsters imprisoned in the tank: Get fat and old fast.
Tagged
fat
lobster
nyc
oceana
old
seventy
spared
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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