Remember the adventure-oriented chapter books you adored as a kid? Remember how there was always a character who had a magic piece of chalk, the kind that could draw enchanted doorways to faraway places?
'Round about summertime a lot of gourmands on the West Coast long for such a piece of transporting chalk, the better to draw doorways to Brunswick and New Harbor and Stonington and all of those great Maine towns that serve up lobster rolls so very well.
The people behind Tasting Table understand our longings to teleport to the Atlantic for a buttery, drippy sandwich, one of summer's classic sammies. So they're staging #LobsterRumble LA, a night devoted to not one, not two, but seventeen different lobster rolls, "America's top lobster rolls," in fact.
But here's the happy twist to the Thursday, Aug. 13 event: The West Coast is now home to some authentic humdingers in the lobster roll category, as are places beyond the craggy shores of Maine.
Examples? Well, eaters at the rumble will sink their chompers into a "butter-poached Maine lobster served with brown butter aioli on a crispy butter & cream cheese roll" from Ironside Fish & Oyster in San Diego as well as a butter, mayo, and lemon mixture, plus 100% lobster, from Slapfish in Huntington Beach.
Did the magic chalk doorway bring the flavors of Maine to California in recent years? Seems like it. This is sounding wicked good.
The specifics? Attendees get to vote for their favorie roll, A. B? It sells out way ahead of August, or is expected to, this year, if past is prologue. And C: The lobster roll fans are legion; some 1,200 lobsterians will be at Los Angeles Center Studios, lobstering.
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You know, whether you've eating a lobster roll at a picnic table in Maine or not, that you wear clothing that can receive a coating of butter, right? There's no way you're not leaving in a differently patterned top than the one you arrived in. Prepare. Drips are part of the experience.
Tickets are hundred bucks plus tax. Trotting through Maine-magnificent lobster rollage over the course of a single night, no magical transporting chalk doorway required, has no price.
Dry-cleaning your buttery shirt the next day, however, will, so best add that to your budget.
