Most summer-style eats can be enjoyed while wearing your favorite cut-offs, while sitting at an old picnic table, while someone blasts an AM station from a nearby car.
It's chillaxed cuisine, in short, and that doyenne dish of the Maine summer table, the lobster roll, is no different. Except, perhaps, in price: It's not going to run you what a standard hot dog and mustard might cost, because, well: lobster. But is it an easy-breezy warm-weather staple? Absolutely. Could you eat it in cut-offs, grooving to golden oldies? Yes.
Though the AM radio and old picnic table will be replaced by 14 lobster roll stations when the Tasting Table Lobster Roll Rumble unfolds, like paper around a fresh bun, at the Cooper Design Space downtown on Friday, Aug. 1.
We're tempted to just type "14 lobster roll stations" about a dozen more times, over and over, but that may wear down our keyboard (and your patience).
It's a notable number, though, because lobster rolls? There was a day when finding a lobster-chunky sandwich west of the Mississippi took some research. Now though local spots from BP Oysterette to Cousins Maine Lobster to Santa Monica Seafood have their own creamy, piquant take on that delightfully messy, get-it-all-over-your-cut-offs New England classic.
As for the insinuation that lobster rolls cost more than your average hot dog? Well, they do, and that's that. A ticket is $100, but, again... 14 lobster roll stations. Plus "savory sides and Cape Cod potato chips." Open bars shall be doing the beer thing, too, because lobster rolls? They go together like the Atlantic and a craggy coastline.
By the by, the "rumble" part in the event's handle is no joke: These restaurants, and their rolls, are going head-to-head (or, um, bun-to-bun). You'll get a say, too, if your mouth isn't full the whole night.
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Chances are good, though, it will mostly be. Because 14 lobster roll stations. See? We definitely weren't done typing that. Must. Not. Type it again. But the urge is strong.
