PrintThe $9 Lobster Roll at Fairway
Never content with just hitting up one locale on a Sunday eating excursion, most of the Serious Eats meet-up crew was already planning their next move mid-huarache. While Ed and much of the group set off towards chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, I was pulled in a different direction; tracking down a supposed $9 lobster roll at the Fairway Red Hook location.
Lucy Baker mentioned it casually in her Cook the Book post last week but I needed visual (and gustatory) confirmation. So even with an empanada and horchata-filled belly, I headed over to the Red Hook Fairway for this very important research. You know... "for professional purposes."
Don't be side-tracked by the lobster salad sold at the deli counter ($8.95 for a 1/4 pound). For the sandwich, you need to head to Fairway Cafe at the back right-hand corner of the store. Unlike the cafe in the Upper West Side Fairway, the Red Hook location is on the ground level with an outdoor deck overlooking the East River.
As promised, the $9 lobster roll is on the menu and comes with potato chips, cole slaw, and a pickle. With a standard size hot dog bun as the roll, the Fairway version passes two important lobster roll tests.
#1. They butter the inside of the bun, and toast it on the flat top. #2. Whole pieces of claw are visible. I can't confirm the appearance of tail meat, but what do you expect for $9? There is chopped celery in the mix, but the mayo-to-lobster ratio was perfectly acceptable (although the same thing can't be said for the cole slaw.) No trace of lemon juice either, if that's your thing.
Seafood is not something you want to skimp on, and the last thing you want is a price that leaves you wondering what on earth they did to this thing to make it so cheap. But occasionally you'll find an item that tows the quality-price line with perfection. For those of us who love lobster rolls, but can't afford to pay "market price" each time we get the craving, this is the perfect solution.
I guess what I'm saying is, if you are a lobster-loving-cheapo (like me) you are going to love this one. The only hard part will be avoiding the equally-appealing-to-cheapos Ikea Cafe and Red Hook ball fields.
Fairway
480-500 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (map)
718-694-6868
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7 Comments:
Butter the inside of the bun? Heresy; means they are using the wrong kind of bun completely. The lobster be up against the fluffiness of the roll with the buttery crunch on the outside. Never in Maine (where my partner is from, and I have been many times) have I seen it done otherwise.
Barbara Hanson at 4:27PM on 07/28/08
Haha. You're totally right Baha- but as you are well aware top sliced hot dog buns are very hard to come by here in NY, and you can't really toast regular hot dog buns the same way... so, we take what we can get!
Zach Brooks at 4:44PM on 07/28/08
Funny thing is that, after my great roll search, I found them in my local Key Food, where I never thought would have though to find them.
(And I guess i meant "the lobster should be"; I've been editing a book on thermodynamics [about which I know nothing] in my office/front bedroom, which is without a/c, which has rendered me both cranky and ungrammatical.) But if you can get them in Key Food...just saying. Problem is that my partner has turned me, fifth-generation Brooklyn, into a rock-bound Maine purist. Go figure, as we say in Flatbush.
Barbara Hanson at 10:05PM on 07/28/08
Good god, more grammar problems. "Where I never would have thought to have found them" was my intent. My brain is clearly melting.
Barbara Hanson at 10:08PM on 07/28/08
Not a fan of the Fairway lobster roll. It's OK, but I'd much rather wait until I'm outside NYC for a good, cheap lobster roll.
It's also pretty hard to pat $30 for one here after paying a third of that up north.
DKA at 2:07PM on 07/29/08
Barbara, never copyedit a techie book in a hot bedroom. That's just good brain hygiene.
annien at 9:07PM on 07/29/08
Is there such a thing as a good cheap lobster roll?
I admire fairway for their quality and price point.
Anyone else have a place they reccomend?
ohiogal at 12:31AM on 07/31/08