In Search Of A Roll Like Mabel's Roll

Even though Missouri is in the middle of the continent, I was hoping for a roll just like Mabel's roll on my 71st birthday.

Mabel is the namesake of  Mabel's Lobster Claw restaurant at 124 Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport, Maine.

My history with lobster rolls goes back to the time I moved to New England, and I was in a seafood restaurant with some New England friends.  My friends asked me if I was going to order lobster---actually, my friends asked me if I was going to order lobsta.

I said, "No, it is too arduous to get the meat out of a lobster." 

  

(My history with lobsters goes back to my childhood when my mother ordered a lobster in a New York restaurant.  Much fanfare ensued.  The waiter put a plastic bib on my mother; then brought her a bunch of tools to attack the lobster with.  The whole lobster was served and Mom attacked.  It seemed like a lot of fuss.)

My New England friends immediately suggested that I get a lobster roll.  No plastic bib, no extra tools, no attacking, no fuss.  To make a lobster roll, someone in the kitchen takes the meat out of the lobster shell, adds a touch of mayo, and puts it in a split-top white-bread bun.  The waiter brings you the roll; all you do is pick it up and eat.

I ordered a lobster roll that night, and enjoyed it.  During my years in New England, I decided my favorite lobster roll was at Mabel's in Kennebunkport.

I now live 1,300 miles from Maine, but I have lobster roll dreams.  I dream of finding someplace in St. Louis that can replicate Mabel's roll.

I first went across the Missouri River to a restaurant that served me a lobster roll where the lobster had been doused in mayo (thumbs down), and celery was added (thumbs down), and it was served in a split-side hoagie roll (thumbs way down).

Then I tried a restaurant on this side of the Missouri River.  They served me a lobster roll where the lobster had a touch of mayo (thumbs up), and celery was added (thumbs down), and corn kernels were added (ditto).

But it was served on a split-top bun (thumbs up).  In fact, the bun was like the ones in Maine: it resembled a hot dog bun except it had flat sides, so it could be toasted on a griddle before the lobster meat was added.

For my 71st birthday, we tried the new seafood restaurant run by one of St. Louis' celebrity chefs.  The chef had gone to Maine and had made friends with lobstermen there.  Photos of the lobstermen are displayed on the restaurant walls.  The restaurant is designed to look rustic, almost as if you were at a seafood shack in New England: exposed cement floor, stressed wood on the walls, metal furniture that makes noise when it scrapes against the floor.

I ordered a lobster roll.  The waiter served me my 71st-birthday lobster roll.  The lobster had a touch of mayo (thumbs up), no celery had been added (another thumbs up), no corn kernels had been added (thumbs up again), and it was served on a flat-sided split-top bun (thumbs up).  But wait - it was a brioche bun!

Definitely not a tradtional roll like Mabel makes.  I wonder if Mabel can even pronounce or spell brioche.

So, I have not found a roll in St. Louis that matches Mabel’s.  

This means I need to travel 1,300 miles to Kennebunkport to get the real deal.  But I am worried.  What if I go all the way to Kennebunkport, order a lobster roll and find celery in my roll?  What if I get to Kennebunkport, and my lobster roll is slathered with mayo?  What if the lobster roll comes, heaven forbid, in a brioche bun? 

Nah, Mabel would serve me the same lobster roll she served me many years ago.

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A 3-minute tour of Mabel's lobster claw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O-XyifV16k

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  Find out more at http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com