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Have Lobsters Jumped The Shark? NYC's Five Millionth Lobster Roll Place Opens
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 20, 2011
Modified Jan 2, 2012
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Courtesy Cody Raisig/Thrillist
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 20, 2011
Modified Jan 2, 2012
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It was fun a couple of years ago when a lobster glut contributed to a big lobster roll boom in NYC, with the excellent Luke's Lobster opening up and an underground lobster guy delivering illegal rolls to street corners. But now it seems like the city is crawling with lobster rolls, and with the opening of The Claw in Chelsea—where a lobster roll sets you back $16.50—we're about ready to tear off our plastic bibs and pull an Eddie Furlong on this lobster tank crane game.
The Claw's $16.50 roll seems to be setting a new standard for overpriced crustaceans on a roll—at least at casual joints. The small "shack" is the kind of place where, according to Urban Daddy, you'll sit on "a white banquette beneath a wicker ceiling fan and treat yourself to a basket of crab beignets (yourself will thank you) or some brioche-topped lobster mac." In Greenpoint, it gets even more obscene: The lobster rolls at The Lobster Joint cost $17! Luke's Lobster's rolls have crept up to $15 (originally $14), while Ditch Plains costs $14 and the long-running Red Hook Lobster Pound weighs in at $16.
At the Urban Lobster Shack, meanwhile, you can get a "decent" $11 roll that, according to Midtown Lunch, "tastes somewhat like lobster." On the other end of the spectrum, there's Ed’s Lobster Bar in Soho, where the roll costs $27 and critic Ryan Sutton says it tastes "awful."
Still, we have to admit there's something irresistible about buttery, succulent lobster meat nestled in a perfectly toasted roll—and all this trash talking about lobster rolls has us craving just one more for the road. Then that's IT, it's time to fetishize another seafood sandwich concent. Clam Rolls, your time has come.
Tagged
crustaceans
lobster rolls
lobsters
the claw
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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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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