The Maine Lobster Lady Story!
This whole thing started while hauling Maine Lobster traps aboard the “Shock Wave”, my island Lobster fisherman partner, Greg’s, Lobster boat.
Oftentimes, my catch in the traps included “Maine Peekey Toe” crabs which I would save out and bring home to pick the luscious meat each evening and the next day, set out the freshly picked meat on ice in a cooler on an old Lobster crate with an empty mason jar and a cardboard “Fresh Crabmeat” sign. Each day when I returned from work aboard the boat I’d find my cooler empty and my jar full of cash-I was hooked!
Nowadays Fresh Crabmeat is DOUBLE that price!
My tiny business grew to where I added several more old crates covered with a red checkered tablecloth and an umbrella stuck in the ground and offered Lobster Rolls, Crabmeat Rolls, soups, baked goods and preserves as well as fresh vegetables and flowers from my garden.
Eventually I gave up working on the boat to stay on terra firma and tend my growing business.
Soon folks started asking me to come to their island homes to prepare dinner parties where they could entertain their “come from away” guests without having to do the work themselves.
There are no restaurants on Isle au Haut and this provided a novel opportunity for islanders to take their guests out to dinner without leaving home. A win, win!At around the same time the only inn on the island was put up for sale and I saw an opportunity to feed my culinary longings and fill a niche that was soon to close.
I found a gorgeous turn of the century home situated right on the water with an owner willing to let me renovate and start up a new inn business, which included a 14 seat restaurant where I could offer overnight accommodations with all meals included while still catering to the summer population as a place to take their guests for amazing 5 course dinners dinners with an equally amazing view…my Island Inn dockside dinner table.
Little did I know then that the logistical issues of ordering and receiving supplies from the mainland, coordinating guest arrivals and departures by boat along with all the other difficulties of running a business on an offshore island were preparing me for what I now know is what I am meant to be-a Food Trucker, specifically a Maine Lobstah Roll Food Trucker!
Changing tracks……..
While visiting Greg’s daughter in the Phoenix Arizona area during Christmas, we saw first hand the deprivation of all things seafood and the lightbulb went on. Knowing the Maine Lobster industry from trap to table, it seemed a no brainer to bring a taste of the best Maine has to offer in the form of Maine Lobster Rolls, along with other traditional Maine fare to the incredibly Lobster/Seafood deprived.
Winter of 2010 was spent developing a plan to do just that.
Visiting Lobster processors turned up one with a unique process which uses only wild caught, sustainable, Maine Lobster, traceable back to the boat that caught it. Bingo!
I formulated a plan to get my supply from Maine to Arizona, which is now my proprietary process, had a 16′ trailer built and wrapped, applied for and got all the necessary health department permits and started applying to venues that I thought would be a good fit for my menu.
After 8 years of operating my island inn, I closed up shop in late September of 2011 and in January of 2012, along with Greg and my 3 daughters, The Maine Lobster Lady Food Truck made her inaugural appearance at The Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Show and Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.
We continue to return annually to this prestigious event as well as others including Scottsdale’s Arabian Horse Show and The Scottsdale Festival of the Arts to name a few, even traveling to Las Vegas each spring for a large Food Truck festival!
In addition to my Traditional Maine Lobster Roll (which can also be ordered Connecticut Style – warm, drizzled with melted butter), my menu includes other Maine fare such as Lobster Bisque, Seafood Chowda, Lobster-Lobster Mac & Cheese, Fried Whole Belly Maine Clams, Fried Haddock Sandwiches, a wicked healthy and beautiful salad topped with Lobster, fresh veggies and fruit and my special Blueberry-Citrus Vinaigrette, Maine Blueberry Lemonade and Homemade Whoopie Pies. All menu items are scratch made right on the truck.
We have been operating seasonally in Arizona, returning to Maine for the summer months in order for Greg to keep up his Lobster fishing business while I operate a version of my Maine Lobster Lady truck on Isle au Haut.
Fast forward nearly a decade to 2020. My family and I have been serving folks in the Phoenix area from first, a 14ft trailer, then up until March of 2020 from a 32ft Freightliner food truck.
We have served folks from our truck from San Diego to Las Vegas, won many awards for our Signature Maine Lobster Rolls and made many friends and followers along the way. We have been incredibly blessed.
I think of how we started, at our very first Arizona event back in January of 2012, hanging out the window of my trailer trying to entice some very skeptical folks into trying a taste of my lobster on the end of a toothpick. There were more “no thank-you’s” than takers. From that…to a line that could sometimes be 4 hours long.
Then COVID. And change.
We were loaded and ready to attend the 2020 Scottsdale Festival of the Arts when at the 11th hour it was canceled. We sent out a Hail Mary call to “Brett the Vet” in Scottsdale, a location we had been to on several occasions and asked if we could set up in his parking lot to try and sell what we had stocked for the canceled event. He, as always, welcomed us. As did all of you, showing up on such short notice. We sold out at what turned out to be our final event for the Maine Lobster Lady Food Truck in Arizona.
(Yes, you read that right. Our food truck won’t be returning to the streets of Arizona. It’s ok to cry a little – we did, too!)
After that event, with all that was unfolding, we decided that it did not feel socially responsible to ask folks to come out and stand in a long line, close together when some virus we had just started hearing about was sickening so many. And I was worried for my family. The last thing I would ever want is to chance putting them or anyone else in harm’s way. My decision to call it a season was made.
The family crew at this point was my life partner, Greg, my daughter Rachel and her husband Patrick, my daughter Ruby and myself. My youngest daughter Rozalyn along with her husband, Luther, and my two grandkids were back in Maine as the kids are now school age and had to stay put after several seasons of working with us on the truck. Roz runs the island version of the truck during the summer months. And Sally, the person who brought us to Arizona to begin with, had moved back East to be closer to family.
Now that our season was cut short, we wanted to get back home so we could all be in one place. I felt very anxious being separated by so many miles during such an uneasy time. It was the end of May 2020 before we were able to travel back home to Maine and arrived around Memorial Day.
I had realized that the long periods of separation during the winter months coupled with the thought that if something happened and I couldn’t get back quickly or they couldn’t get to me, was overwhelming. And I’m not….ahem…a youngster, so there’s that.
I knew I had to figure out how to get my Maine Lobster Rolls into the hands of those who wanted them while staying home, close to my family.
I, along with lotsa others in the country, looked to online ordering and delivery. I thought, why not Maine Lobster Lady Lobster Rolls?! Maine Lobstah Love, in the form of kits shipped straight to your door with no lines and no waiting. We’d been selling them off the truck for years. We just had to teach ’em how to fly.
It took nearly a year from inception to our first shipment on July 27, 2021.
We have already shipped our Maine Lobster Roll Kits and other Lobster meal kits to 21 states. We are still doing this family style. Team Lobstah as ever, only a bit differently. We want you all to know that we care about what goes into each and every box and how it is packed. We notice where each package is being shipped and recognize some of your names and recall the faces that match them. And we will certainly miss those faces, and want to be sure to stay connected online. You all gave us a chance. Your trust and loyalty has been overwhelming and will never be forgotten. We love you all!
I need to thank my family for their undying love and support. Uprooting themselves each October to travel, schlep their belongings and pets so far away and work tirelessly so I could live my dream. Family is everything. Family IS The Maine Lobster Lady. There is no way in hell I coulda done the last 10 years without them. Nor would I have wanted to.
Lastly, with all this, please know, this is not the end by any means, but a new beginning. It’s adapting, bending with the wind. It’s about gaining wisdom with age and knowing priorities. A new chapter in our book. I hope you’ll like the read. More soon….
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We welcome your questions, comments and pictures.