A lobster roll is a sandwich native to New England, where lobstermen and women have gathered crustaceans from the Atlantic Ocean for centuries.

Chunks of lobster meat are served on a grilled New England-style hot dog-style bun with with squared edges, the roll opening on the top rather than the side like conventional, rounded hot dog rolls.

Some lobster rolls are simply lobster on a buttered, toasted roll. Sometimes, the lobster is mixed with different ingredients: mayonnaise, melted butter, diced celery, chopped scallions or onion and/or lemon juice, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Potato chips or french fries are the typical sides—and of course, a beer

Luke’s lobster roll is the first style: lots of lobster in a great toasted, buttered roll for $16.

Luke’s Lobster is nationwide upscale chain of lobster shacks and trucks that has brought delicious lobster rolls, shrimp rolls and crab rolls and other goodies (lobster grilled cheese, lobster mac ‘n’ cheese and more) to crustacean lovers at 28 locations nationwide (and more overseas).
 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE ON THE LOBSTER ROLL: ADD CAVIAR

For the holiday season, now through January, the already luxurious Luke’s lobster roll has gotten a royal garnish: fine sturgeon caviar from Petrossian.

You can order the lobster roll with a 20-gram tin of of Petrossian’s Baika caviar (Acipenser Baerii—photo #2) from Lake Baikal in Siberia. The caviar retails at Petrossian, $65 for 30 grams. For $45-$50, depending on location, you get the $16 lobster roll plus the 20g tin of caviar.

The caviar is enough to top the roll; some people may be tempted to dip the side of Cape Cod Potato Chips into it.

Alas, it’s only available at some Luke’s locations. Check for the one nearest you.

You can give a gift card from Luke’s Lobster, and order caviar and other delicacies at Petrossian.

[2] Baika sturgeon caviar from Petrossian (photo courtesy Petrossian).

According to the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, the lobster roll originated in 1929 at Perry’s restaurant in Milford, Connecticut. It was initially served hot.

Its popularity then spread along the Connecticut coast, with the warm sandwich called a lobster roll and the cold version a lobster salad roll.

When did the butter come in? As far back as 1970, chopped lobster meat heated in drawn butter was served on a hot dog roll at roadside stands in Maine [source].

In our opinion, simplest is best. The mayo, celery, etc. are only needed when the lobster isn’t fresh and naturally sweet. Which it always is at Luke’s Lobster.

In North America, the lobster was not eaten by genteel people until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste for it [source].
 

There were so many lobsters in the waters of New England that they just washed up on shore, and were looked at as if they were refuse. They became food for the poor, the way for the hungry to get their protein.

Lobsters were collected and fed to prisoners, as well. Here’s more about it.