Maine Lobster Roll appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Maine lobster roll · Portland
Cold Maine lobster meat (claws, knuckles and tails picked the morning of) tossed with mayo, salt and lemon, piled onto a buttered and griddled top-split New England roll. Soft-shell season runs late May to September.
The lobster roll is widely credited to Perry's Restaurant in Milford, Connecticut, in the 1920s, when chef Harry Perry put hot buttered lobster meat onto a long bun for a travelling salesman. The Maine-style cold-mayo version evolved separately along the Maine coast through the 1930s and 1940s at shore-side lobster shacks. The top-split bun, baked by J J Nissen Baking Company starting in the 1940s, became the structural canon: flat sides griddle in butter like a panini. Eventide Oyster Co's brown-butter lobster roll on a steamed Bao bun (2012, from Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor) reset the modern interpretation. Today both styles run at Portland lobster pounds and tasting menus alike.
Where to eat in Portland:
- Eventide Oyster Co
- Scales
- Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room
- Bite Into Maine at Allagash