In Search Of Connecticut Lobster Rolls
Butter Makes It Better! Plus, a RECIPE for a Quick Homemade Lobster Roll.
One Saturday in August of 2020, Robert and I decided to drive from Brooklyn to Cape Cod for a lobster roll and then drive home again, on the same day.
An unusual day trip, to be sure, but it was the pandemic and contactless day trips were de rigueur for us then. For the first summer in decades, I hadn’t spent every weekend with my parents on Long Beach Island eating seafood all the time and, when Robert learned that I had been remiss in my lobster-roll education, we decided in was time for a lesson. My mom was from a long line of East Coasters and I’ve eaten plenty of shellfish, but none of it on rolls.
We made a pit-stop in Providence, Rhode Island, at the original Olneyville New York System for a couple of hot dogs before the sun was over the yardarm. Then it was on to Captain Frosty’s in Dennis, Massachusetts. This was favorite spot of Robert’s. We ordered a fresh fried fish sandwich, fries, hush puppies and a lobster roll. I was so excited. And I have to say the lobster roll looked beautiful—giant plump pieces of lobster, lightly tossed in mayonnaise on crisp slice of lettuce, nestled in a roll. I couldn’t wait, I took a bite.
“What do you think?” Robert asked.
“It’s good,” I said.
It was. It was good. It reminded me of a lot of the shrimp salad sandwiches my grandmother and mother had made me growing up. They were good, too.
I could tell that Robert was disappointed at my reaction (and he somehow did not lose his mind when I ate the lobster out of the roll with a fork), but he consoled himself with his delicious fish sandwich, served on a soft, fresh white roll, with crispy coleslaw, a side of hush puppies and an Arnold Palmer.
In the car, on the way home, Robert mentioned that there was a place in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, called Johnny Ad’s. He said they had a different kind of lobster roll—the Connecticut Lobster Roll. It was served hot, with drawn butter on a toasted roll. As we would need a break on the drive home, and this sounded great, I needed no convincing.
Johnny Ad’s in Old Saybrook, CT
Due to the pandemic, Johnny Ad’s had set up picnic tables on one side of the parking lot and the whole front of the place was made into a take-out window. Robert got a chili cheese dog, and some fried clams. And I ordered the Connecticut-Style Lobster Roll.
Now, mine was a big lobster-eating family, and I grew up having hot lobster with drawn butter at our home on Long Beach Island. But I could not remember having lobster like this before: hot lobster coated in butter on a toasted, top-loaded, white-bread hot-dog bun made wet from the butter, but not doused or soggy.
The sandwich was a revelation to me. The taste stayed with me. So this was what all the lobster-roll fuss was about!
A Brief History of Lobster Rolls
Simonson has told me a million times that if an origin story involves some guy at a bar or restaurant making up a drink or a dish on the spot to please a customer, I should doubt that story. And I do. But sometimes those stories are true. And this may be the case with the Connecticut Lobster Roll.
Usually, there are competing stories as to the origin on a popular dish or drink. But not in this case. We haven’t found one person, place or newspaper that did not state that the Connecticut Lobster Roll was invented in the late 1920s by a guy called Harry Perry (seriously) at a place called Perry’s Restaurant in Milford, CT.
Perry’s opened in 1908. The tale goes that Harry thought up the sandwich for a traveling salesman customer so he could eat it on the run, and the rest was history. He had a sign out front of Perry’s since 1927 saying it was “Home of the Famous Lobster Roll.” It was said that he put his first lobster sandwiches in a slice of white bread. But the buttery bread fell apart, so he opted for a homemade roll.
I’m not sure if I believe this, but I’m still looking for some alternate story and haven’t found one. Coming from a long line of coastal people from Maine down to Atlantic City, I know that my mom and gram added mayo, celery seed, pickle, chopped celery or onion to just about anything they had leftover from dinner, from diced ham or turkey to bits of crab or shrimp, to make a sandwich for lunch for the family the next day. But they never had the gall to take a precious hot lobster, coat it in drawn butter, then smack it on a hot dog bun. No way.
And I never had one until 2020. But, then, apparently, the Lobster Roll was not a ubiquitous treat until fairly recently and was strictly a regional food until the 1990s. With the Internet not around to homogenize American palates, people had to go where the lobsters were.
A wide-eyed New York Times article by Nancy Jenkins from July 14, 1985, titled “In Maine, Lobster On A Roll,” introduced readers to the exotic and strange Lobster Roll. In the story, Jenkins writes that even her 75-year-old, life-long Mainer father had never even heard of a Lobster Roll until after World War II! This was regional food at its finest.
One more thing: the Connecticut-style Lobster Roll is the original version. Its mayonnaise-laden cousin, which was called a Lobster Salad Roll back in the day (and still is at some stands), came later in the 20th-century. At that time, mayonnaise had been around for at least a hundred years, and lobster salad was a popular dish in Victorian times. But it was served by itself or on a bed of lettuce. Not on a roll. That was Perry’s innovation.
Looking for Lobster Rolls in Connecticut:
First things first. This is the thing that needs to be said: Connecticut Lobster Rolls are better than Lobster Salad Rolls. Period. I am firm on this point. There’s no contest. Now let’s move on.
In June of 2021, we took a trip to Maine and sampled many very good Lobster Salad Rolls, but none were my favorite. The cold roll just isn’t my style.
Inspired by my Johnny Ad’s revelation, this year we decided to go in search of the best Connecticut Lobster Rolls. However, the quest began inauspiciously. In March, I was eager for a Connecticut Lobster Roll, so Robert suggested we take a trip to Johnny Ad’s on our way to Boston. My expectations were high and I never thought about the fact that it was barely spring.
The lobster roll was a total disappointment and I felt like a jerk for messing up my perfect memory.
That day, I learned one important rule: Lobster Rolls are a summer food and shouldn’t be ordered in any month that doesn’t end in “It’s summer.”
Determined, we decided to delay our search until after the Fourth of July weekend, so that every seafood shack had a fighting chance to deliver its best roll.
1) Lobster Landing, Clinton, CT
The Roll: 4 oz. lobster with butter on a toasted roll, $28.50
Lobster Landing lies off exit 63 on Hwy 95, in a picture perfect seaside Connecticut town of Clinton, which is filled with the Revolutionary War-era homes of my dreams. To get there, you drive down surface streets until you get to Clinton Harbor and stop when you hit the shack, just short of the Atlantic Ocean.
The shack was bustling the day we visited and most of the were tables were full by 11:20 a.m. This is a hit spot. Under a little tent was a lobster cooker up front and a roll assembler area next to it. A staff of two assembled the rolls. In front of them, the friendly and efficient cashier took our name and asked us to wait. We didn’t wait too long.
I watched the lobster cooker take a mesh bag of lobster meat out of the hot water bath (maybe this was the equivalent of seeing how the sausage is made). The completed roll was coated in salted butter and placed in a local top-loading toasted roll and then wrapped in foil—as would most of the rolls we had that day. Plump lobster meat filled the roll, just warmed up, not hot. The roll was so moist with butter it was kind of spongey and I worried it would fall apart. It was good. Yes, just good. I loved the people who worked there, the view of the harbor, the shack, the town, but the roll was just OK. No flavor fireworks.
Robert thought that perhaps I loved the original Johnny Ad’s roll because it was my first one. Driving away, I said, “Maybe because they are by the sea they don’t have to try as hard.”
2) Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale, Madison, CT
The Roll: Lobster with butter on a toasted New England-style roll, $27.90.
It was on to Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale, just a short drive from Lobster Landing. As you walked in there was a makeshift wall of bookcases filled with souvenir t-shirts. To the left was the old fast food counter where people used to order before Covid did away with that. Now a woman at the hostess stand takes your order if you are getting it to go. Otherwise, you sit at a table for waiter service.
The scene wasn’t impressive and at first I thought this wasn’t going to be good. In about 10 minutes we were given our paper bag with the cardboard clam shell container holding a lobster roll and a small cup of coleslaw.
When I took the first bite into the perfectly grilled split top bun, I noticed there was lots of butter, but the bun was not soggy yet. An amazing burst of lobster flavor hit me like a sledgehammer. It was the lobster roll I had dreamed of. I thought, “Maybe too much butter. The bottom of the bun is soggy right away. No, no, this is really good. I don’t care if I have to cradle it a bit to keep it from falling apart.” I loved it.
Robert ate the coleslaw that came with the roll, and he said it was delicious and refreshing. He said the coleslaw was a good counter to the buttery bun.
Although the restaurant is close to the ocean, the sea was nowhere to be seen from Lenny and Joe’s. I could see only the highway and a Dunkin. So, maybe there was something to the idea about having to try harder if you aren’t a cute, seaside lobster shack.
3) Lobster Shack, East Haven, CT
The Roll: Lobster with lemon and butter on a toasted New England style roll, $31.
The Lobster Shack in East Haven is a bi-level restaurant, with a typical newish-looking shore bar (read: neon and granite countertops) as you walk in the front door. You can sit down in the restaurant on either floor and look at the ocean or take you meal out back and sit at picnic tables that overlook an estuary. There are a couple of osprey nests to observe as well, should you choose the back. We did.
The lobster roll came with French fries and cole slaw. This was a good lobster roll as well. Robert was thrilled with his Foxon Park White Birch Beer, which is made in East Haven and is a staple at New Haven pizzerias. He wasn’t thrilled with the cole slaw. The lobster roll was on a white split-top bun, grilled on the outside. There was less butter here than Lenny and Joe‘s, and the lobster flavor was derived mostly from the flat claw tips of the pincer claw, which to me sometimes have a more bitter taste and definitely odd texture. I prefer the soft plump meat of the crusher claw and the firm white tail meat.
Robert commented that the roll fit in with my theory that the closer shacks are to the water, the less effort they make.
4) Bryac Black Rock, Bridgeport, CT
The Roll: Sautéed lobster on a toasted soft roll served with lemon and drawn butter, $19.
Bryac Black Rock is in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Black Rock. It looks like a typical live music bar and restaurant, situated on the Main Street of this area. There were high top tables with stools, a bar, bikers, couples in the back, students drinking out in the sun. It was not the place I’d expect to buy a lobster roll, but Robert saw Bryac’s sandwich mentioned on many best-of lists and we had to try it.
On the menu it was advertised as, “the perfect lobster roll.” It was actually kind of crazy. The lobster was shredded into little pieces and seemed to me to be shredded crab claw meat like the kind I used to buy pasteurized in the can to make crab dip. There was sweetness to it, and a spice added, something like Old Bay. Was there shrimp in this? Because the shellfish was ground down to a mulch, I wasn’t sure what I was eating.
The toasted hot dog bun was buttered, and there was also butter on the side, but you didn’t need it. Robert said the cole slaw was soft and too creamy and unremarkable. All in all, the lobster roll was tasty, if untraditional. Maybe I would sell this as a “lobster sandwich.”
5) Harry’s Place, Colchester, CT
The Roll: Lobster with drawn butter on a toasted roll at $24.99.
Harry’s Place, located in land-locked Colchester, is far enough away from the sea that you feel like you shouldn’t order a lobster roll. It is known for its burgers; burger expert George Motz recommends it in his book, Hamburger America. Robert wanted to stop here to try the burger, and also the Hummel hot dog, which are ubiquitous in Connecticut. (Robert will tell you more about that later.) But—surprise!—Harry’s Place serves one of the best lobster rolls in Connecticut.
The roll is perfect and toasted on each side and piled high with lobster. Chunks and shreds of white and pink lobster meat rose high above the bun. Punchy lobster taste filled the roll and there was just the right amount of melted, salted butter. The roll wasn’t sopping or soggy. It was shocking to get that fresh lobster taste so far inland. It was perfect. I regretted every bite that Robert took because it was one less that I got.
6) Abbott’s Lobster In the Rough, Noank, CT
The Roll: “Famous Hot Lobster Roll”, a quarter pound of pure lobster meat mounded on a golden toasted roll with melted butter, $24.95
As we approached Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough, I wanted to stop the car and take photos of the idyllic seashore scene with shingled cottages and stone fences and winding roads that lead to the sea, which was filled to the brim with docked sailboats. Abbott’s is the quintessential seafood shack, albeit on a enormous scale.
With at least fifty picnic tables outside facing the Mystic Harbor, some of them under a tent, and some in a little air-conditioned area attached to the pick-up counter, Abbott’s is ready for locals and even more ready for tourists. There are plenty of souvenirs and lobster bibs, people celebrating birthdays and crying babies. I can see how you would remember the Abbott’s visits of your youth fondly and take your own children there.
We went with our usual order of the quarter pound lobster roll, the same that we had asked for everywhere else. We were stunned to see that Abbott’s serves their smallest lobster roll on a sesame-seeded hamburger bun. It was lightly toasted and buttered with a tiny cup of butter on the side, along with a cup of coleslaw and a small bag of Lay’s classic potato chips.
I was initially horrified by the sight of the lobster roll on a hamburger bun. In order to get a hotdog bun, you have to order the 7-ounce “OMG” lobster roll for $34. I felt like Albert Brooks in “Defending Your Life” buying the cheap BMW.
But what little lobster roll there was was delicious. There were big chunks of fresh tasting lobster, seemingly from the tail and the large part of the claws. It tasted superb and, after I got over my anger, I ranked it as one of the best of our search.
Later on, I read in that 1985 New York Times article that one of the lobster shacks in Maine served their roll on hamburger bun. So Abbott’s presentation is not without precedent.
Bonus points: this place smells like the sea.
7) Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock, New London, CT
The Roll: Small, hot lobster roll served with butter, $24.95
With the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and its own Amtrak stop, this seashore town is actually a bustling city. But New London is also home to several seafood shacks. We stopped at Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock, which, along with Abbott’s, is one of the state’s most famous lobster-roll destinations. It is picturesquely situated, straddling Shaw Cove and Coits Cove. The train whizzes by every few minutes.
We stood in the blazing heat in a line of about forty people that never seemed to get any shorter. Scott’s gave us our longest wait for a lobster roll by far. Captain Scott’s has two sizes of lobster rolls, small and large. Small has 4 ounces of lobster and is served with a regular size hot dog bun, large has 7 ounces served in a foot-long hotdog bun (that one is $29.95). The lobster roll was nicely toasted, and the salted butter was amply served on the lobster roll. But to me, the lobster meat was mostly the flat tip of the claws and texture-wise is not my favorite. It was another good, not great version. And I wanted great. Maybe I was just spoiled by Abbott’s ample plump white meat.
Back to Johnny Ad’s?
I think there are two lobster rolls in theory: the one past generations made with leftover bits of lobster to savor every morsel and stretch the budget; and the newer fancier lobster roll comprised of the tender claw meat and the firmer, tail meat. The latter is a more luxurious food. To quote a Hamptons-spoofing comedian I saw on Instagram last year, “Let’s have a Lobster Roll. It’s like a sandwich, but it costs forty dollars.”
Dining out and ordering the modern Lobster Roll is a pricey endeavor. The stakes are high when lunch for two can cost near a hundred dollars. And although you may be sitting in the hot sun, wearing flip-flops and swatting away curious insects, you are looking for a supreme taste treat with this roll and disappointment hovers nearby, waiting for its closeup. I was not gravely disappointed with any of the Connecticut Lobster Rolls but Lenny and Joe’s, Abbott’s and Harry’s Place took the sandwich to the next level. At those three places, I did not feel cheated.
I think this search will end when I go back to Johnny Ad’s. I need them to have a good one waiting for me, but I’ll be alright if they don’t. I think a great lobster roll is like a perfect summer day, unforgettable and rare. But summer days in general are all pretty good, just like lobster rolls, so who’s to complain?
Robert here. If you don’t like lobster, or don’t eat seafood, don’t fret—Connecticut lobster shacks have you covered.
The hot dog manufacturing business, unlike many other food lines in the United States, is hyper-regional. Every state/city has its favored local hot dog brand. In New Jersey, stands serve either Sabrett or Thumann’s. In Pennsylvania, Best wieners are common. In Rochester, New York, you’ll find Zweigle’s links. In Chicago, it’s all about Vienna Beef.
Hummel Bros. hot dogs are the pride of Connecticut, and you’ll find them without fail on the menu at most seafood shacks in the Nutmeg State. William and Robert Hummel, German immigrants, founded their company in New Haven in 1933. In the 1950s, Hummel became one of the first companies to make hot dogs without artificial red coloring.
I saw Hummel Bros.’ beef-and-pork franks at every stop on the Connecticut Lobster Roll trail and I was sorely tempted to order one at each place. But we had some lobster eating to do, so I exercised restraint.
I finally broke down, however, at Harry’s Place. I reasoned I had my best shot at getting an excellent dog at a place best known not for lobster rolls, but burgers. And I was right.
I ordered the chili cheese dog. It was served on a split-top bun, with a square of white cheddar cheese and a couple tablespoons of chili placed under the dog, not over, as is usually the case. This allowed the chili to stay warm, and the cheese to melt slowly and combine with the chili. An ingenious and excellent hot dog.
—Robert Simonson
RECIPE: Quick Homemade Lobster Roll
My parents loved these rolls for lunch on Saturday.
Ingredients
1 1.5-2 lb. lobster
3 ounces butter (plus a bit more softened to use to grill the outside of the rolls)
2 New England Style hot dog buns (like Pepperidge Farm)
If you want, you can have the person at your local seafood store cook you a 1.5 - 2 pound lobster in the steamer. I like to bring home a live lobster. I bring a stock pot of water to a boil. Then, with tongs, I take the lobster by the back and immerse him head first in the boiling water until it is no longer moving. Then I cover the pot and boil for about 7 or 8 minutes until red. I take the lobster out of the pot and let it drain on a plate.
While this is going on, I melt the butter. Just melt it and then say it’s drawn butter. It tastes better this way. Trust me, it’s drawn butter.
When the lobster is still hot, but cool enough to touch, rip off the legs and the tail. Use the rest for whatever you want (perhaps to make bisque) or discard. Then, with a lobster cracker and a mallet, take the meat from the claws. I usually slice the tail down the middle of the soft opaque shell on the inside, tear it open and remove the meat that way. You can shred the meat or cut it to your preference. Toss the lobster into the melted butter.
Spread the butter on the outside of the rolls and gently grill each side in a frying pan.
Put each roll on a plate, open the roll, take tongs and add 1/2 of the lobster meat to each roll, then cover with as much of the leftover butter as you see fit. Err on the side of less, putting the remainder butter in a small dish, which can be added later.
I don’t do fresh squeezed lemon or fresh ground pepper, but you can. Try it. Serve the roll with chips and a glass of rose. If you don’t have chips, serve with 2 glasses of rose.
I grew up on Lenny and Joe’s. We would gather with my dad’s family who lived in various parts of the state to enjoy lobster rolls, fried clam bellies and piles of fried onions and zucchini. I remember the old days when it was a shack. I don’t get the obsession with Maine mayo style rolls. CT style is perfection.
Nice round up! Coincidentally, we are in Old Sayville today, and we had lobster rolls at Lenny & Joe’s for lunch. They were spot on, as they usually are. (I’ve eaten there almost 20 times—Summer only—and I only recall one slightly sub-par experience.)