Consider the lobster roll: fresh chunks of buttery lobster, gingerly laced with mayo (not too much) and piled high into a pillowy, just-toasted, top-split roll. Some add celery, Old Bay or chives, but everyone agrees the crustacean should do the heavy lifting.
It is the very essence of a moneyed summer in New England – a Pottery Barn beach cottage catalog wrapped in a hot dog bun. But because your average New Yorker spends their summer not in the Cape but sweating bullets in Midtown, the lobster roll has become a mainstay of summer meals in the city.
There’s a New Yorker furtively scarfing one down in the back of the Chelsea Market; here’s another, carefully cutting one into fours at the elegant Lure Fishbar. Here’s a Mets fan mowing one down at Citi Field; there’s a Brooklyn dad handing baby a bite at the Brooklyn Flea. Luke’s Lobster has opened a second branch on the Upper East Side, and next weekend, dining newsletter Tasting Table will hold a competitive lobster roll tasting, or “claw-off” with eight participating restaurants.
In short, lobster rolls, which have been gaining for awhile, seem to be hitting a boiling point this summer. (Some even wonder whether they’re becoming the new cupcake.) We asked a few new players on the scene to weigh in on the boom.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Wall Street Journal.