The story of how the lobster roll became New England’s most iconic food

Few foods evoke summer in New England like the lobster roll. The sandwiches are as iconic as lighthouses and the dropped r’s of the northeastern U.S. region’s unique Yankee dialects. Once a lowly work lunch for fishermen, the lobster roll is in such demand today that Hannaford supermarkets has announced a $10 version of the coastal classic, available across stores until Labor Day.

“As New England tourism has grown, the rise of the lobster roll has gone along with it,” says Evan Hennessey, chef-owner of Stages at One Washington and the Living Room in Dover, New Hampshire. “It’s this incredible, flavorful, quintessential right-from-the-ocean New England food that—and here’s the key part—you can walk around and eat.”

History of the lobster roll

Lobster didn’t always have such cachet. The crustaceans were once so abundant that they could easily be caught in shallow waters. “For a long time, [lobsters] were just local food—stuff you ate if you lived on the coast,” says Boston University food historian Megan Elias.

Branden Lewis, chef and sustainability professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, says that English and Portuguese sailors, shipwrights, and fishermen created the earliest iteration of the lobster roll by tucking the discarded trimmings of tail and claw meat between pieces of bread.

Lobster recipes didn’t gain cultural capital until the country’s nascent elite began vacationing along the East Coast, especially in states like Rhode Island, where they built summer “cottages.” The rolls were a mainstay until the early 1960s, when the country found itself besotted by the “proper” cooking techniques of Julia Child.

New England’s iconic sandwich came back into fashion in the 1990s, with the renewed interest in American regional foods. “By then, lobster is even more expensive,” Elias says. “There are even fewer of them. So it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s regional and it’s also hard to get, so it must be cool.’”

(These are the dishes taking Boston by storm.)

Lobster population in decline

Cool doesn’t always equate to sustainable. A 2023 lobster assessment in the Gulf of Maine demonstrated a 40 percent population loss over a three-year period. In southern New England, the hardest-hit areas include Buzzard’s Bay, between Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, and Long Island Sound, off the coast of Connecticut, where the harvest has decreased by 97 percent since 1998.

Jeremy Collie, oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island, attributes the decline to decreased production, predation of small lobsters by larger fish, shell disease (which is not harmful to humans), and overfishing. All but the last “are related directly or indirectly to increasing [ocean] temperatures,” Collie explains.

(Is climate change putting the lobster roll in jeopardy?)

Is it okay to eat lobster rolls?

“The short answer is yes,” Collie says, thanks to strict regulations that include minimum shell size and trapping limits, and releasing breeding females, which can carry 20,000 eggs on the undersides of their tails, back into the water. Although laws vary by state, fishermen who violate the rules are subject to fines starting at $500 per violation. Repeat offenders can lose their fishing licenses.

Lewis recommends that visitors diversity their seafood choices to reduce the risk of overfishing, and asking restaurants where they source their lobsters from. “The U.S. has the most regulated fishing waters in the world, so if you buy American-caught, you are making a more sustainable choice,” Lewis says, noting that there are rules in place to prevent seafood fraud.

Where to find the best lobster rolls in New England

The perennial debate surrounding the lobster roll relates to its two predominant types. Connecticut style, served warm with drawn butter, is sometimes credited to now defunct Perry’s restaurant in Milford, Connecticut. The Maine-style sandwich, sometimes attributed to Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine, uses a cold mayonnaise‒lemon juice dressing seasoned with herbs like chives or chervil. Some say it’s a spin-off of an 1829 recipe in The American Frugal Housewife cookbook that combined lobster meat with egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, and cayenne pepper. 

One constant in lobster roll evolution, at least since the 1920s, is its delivery system: the hot dog bun. The mixture of high and low end is part of the sandwich’s allure, says Elias. “It’s not fussy. Americans love food that you don’t need a fork and knife to eat it. We are just crazy about anything we can put our paws on.”

Attend one or more of New England’s signature seafood festivals [see box below] to try both styles. Or look for chefs who are finding creative ways to honor the history of the lobster roll while updating it for adventurous modern palates.

At Stages at One Washington, Hennessey serves a glammed-up Connecticut-style sandwich, swapping the white roll for a potato bun and heating the steamed meat with a lobster reduction. He dresses it with smoked butter, pickled seaweed, citrus peel, cumin, coriander, and chives.

In Portland, Maine, Mimi Weissenborn, executive chef of Sur Lie, has leaned into regional nostalgia. “I thought it would be a cool idea to stuff a popover, another classic New England food, with something,” she says. Inside the bread’s air pocket, she tucks a corn and fontina puree, and lobster blanched in butter.

Hennessey also recommends the Lobster Shack in Ogunquit, Maine, which serves an overstuffed Maine- or Connecticut-style sandwich, on a griddled hot dog bun. Lewis names Providence eatery Dune Brothers, which combines both mayonnaise and warm butter into its roll. For Weissenborn, Maine-style Luke’s Lobster in Portland has the freshest, off-the-boat flavor.

Still can’t decide? Hook + Line, in Boston’s Seaport District, serves one Maine style and one Connecticut style roll, on the same plate.

Top New England seafood festivals

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Seafood Festival: Now in its 12th year, this celebration of the local seafood industry includes food vendors, chef demos, and live music.

MAINE
Maine Lobster Festival: At this five-day festival along Maine’s Midcoast, look for a variety of lobster dishes, a seafood cooking contest, parade, and even a race atop floating lobster crates.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Hampton Beach Seafood Festival: One of New England’s oldest seafood festivals, New Hampshire’s features more than 50 food vendors, live entertainment, and an artisan market.

RHODE ISLAND
Charlestown Seafood Festival: New England’s longest running seafood festival is a smorgasbord of crustacean-based dishes, including lobster rolls, clam chowder, and clam cakes.

Rhode Island Seafood Festival: Look for nearly a dozen takes on the lobster roll, from a steamed bao bun topped with the crustacean to lobster grilled cheese and lobster quesadilla.

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