Tag Archives: Lobster Roll

Profile: “J.T. FARNHAM’S” of Essex, MA

J. T. Farnham’s is an Essex institution that is often overshadowed by it’s down-the-street competition, Woodman’s. Both restaurants are considered fried clam royalty (Woodman’s actually claims to have invented the fried clam).

JT Farnham's In the spirit of full disclosure, one of us has a definite bias for Farnham’s over Woodman’s. This is because (a) this person truly like’s Farnham’s fried clams better, and (b) Farnham’s is the “little guy” in this fight. Woodman’s is the 800 lb gorilla of area seafood establishments. We can remember the original Farnham’s family hand battering their fried clams with care. At Woodman’s, it’s more of an assembly line. Although there’s nothing wrong with Woodman’s, there is definitely a feeling that supporting them is kind of like rooting for IBM or US Steel. Woodman’s is huge, diversified, and simply put doesn’t need our help or support. We’ve had Woodman’s lobster rolls, and they’re good, but that’s about it. So, for all these reasons, we chose not to include Woodman’s in our survey.

Back to the Farnham’s lobster roll. We happened to be driving through Essex and made an unplanned stop. As is often the case, the place was hopping and we had to wait quite awhile for our order to arrive. This gave us plenty of time for us to eyeball the delicious fried clams on everyone’s table, and had us second-guessing our decision to go with their lobster roll. However, then the order arrived we were not disappointed. Farnham’s lobster roll was generously portioned, but contained much smaller chunks of lobster than we prefer. It wasn’t “lobster salad” by any stretch, but it didn’t feature the large chunks of lobster that we see from our favorite destinations. The lobster meat, which rested on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce, was a bit wet, but not so much so that it was a problem. Standard split-top hot dog roll.

This thing that trips us up about Farnham’s lobster roll is that we can’t really remember anything outstanding about it. It was good, it was fresh, but, in the end, it was unmemorable. We would stop short of recommending the Farnham’s lobster roll, but neither would we discourage you from trying it. So, we’ll give an ACCEPTABLE. Here’s how it stacked up (0-100):

  • T’s Rating: 83
  • P’s Rating: 83
  • AVERAGE: 83

J. T. Farnham’s can be found at 88 Eastern Avenue in Essex, MA. They don’t appear to have a website, but their Facebook page can be found here. PHONE: 978.768.6643.

We borrowed this snap from Kathy YL Chan, and will be happy to remove the image upon request.

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Profile: “THE CLAM SHACK” of Kennebunk, ME

The Clam ShackIn the spring of 2012, we loaded our road bikes onto the car and headed north to Maine for a leisurely 30-mile ride along the coast. Our route took us from Wells to Cape Porpoise, and through the towns of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. By coincidence, we’d just seen the Travel Channel show “Food Wars,” which featured a showdown between two local restaurants for Best Lobster Roll (you can see the episode here). The contenders were Alisson’s Restaurant of Kennebunkport, and The Clam Shack of Kennebunk. Although the two are in different towns, they are literally a stone’s throw away from each other, with the Clam Shack located just over the bridge into Kennebunk. What sparked our interest in the show was that last December we had lunch at Alisson’s and were honestly not too thrilled with the experience. In fact, we were later told by colleagues who lived in the area that “locals never go to Allison’s.” Whether this is true or not, we have no way of knowing… but we weren’t surprised by this feedback.

Based on previous experience we chose not to include Alisson’s is The Lobster Chronicles, but we feel that a comparison between the two will shine a light on the differences between The Clam Shack, and various posers. (1) The Clam Shack uses soft shell lobsters, while Alisson’s uses only hard shell. (2) The Clam Shack stores their lobsters in fresh sea water before picking, while Alisson’s refrigerates their lobsters. (3) The Clam Shack uses claws, knuckles and tails (which are more pricey), while Alisson’s uses only claw and knuckles. (4) The Clam Shack offers their lobster rolls with either mayo, butter OR BOTH, and the do NOT coat their lobster meat in mayo – instead, the mayo is spread on the bun, where Alisson’s makes their lobster rolls wet with mayo [in our travels, we found mayo+butter to be a definite advantage]. And (5), and this is a bold move, The Clam Shack uses a home-made round bun, where Alisson’s uses the traditional split-top hot dog roll. And, of course, The Clam Shack makes every roll to order.

Without giving away our results, we can enthusiastically say that The Clam Shack maintained its position as #1 Lobster Roll for the better part of the summer. We HIGHLY RECOMMENDED The Clam Shack, and here’s how their lobster roll stacked up (0-100):

  • T’s Rating: 94
  • P’s Rating: 93
  • AVERAGE: 93.5

The Clam Shack can be found at 2 Western Avenue in Kennebunk ME. WEBSITE: www.theclamshack.net. EMAIL: theclamshack@adelphia.net. PHONE: 207.967.3321

The Clam Shack Lobster Roll

Since we had no idea that this visit to The Clam Shack would lead to the creation of The Lobster Chronicles, we never bothered to take a photo of the  Clam Shack lobster roll. But to show you what you’re missing, we borrowed this image from Martha Fung. We’ll be happy to take down this photo upon request.

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