Picnic table epiphany: Hot lobster and butter in a toasted, split-top roll.
Eating a whole lobster requires knowledge (where’s the meat?), skill (how exactly do you get it?), and physical labor (cracking, picking, and sucking). Eating a lobster roll is easy. A bun filled with picked lobster meat, it demands only to be lifted from the plate and put into one’s mouth. The cold lobster roll—meat bound with mayonnaise and bits of celery loaded into a bun that may or may not be toasted—has been a New England shoreline staple for over a century. Known also as a lobster salad roll, it remains the more popular variation along the Maine shore.
In 1929, Harry Perry, proprietor of a seafood shack in Milford, Connecticut, came up with a new twist: the hot lobster roll. He eliminated the mayonnaise and piled warm picked meat bathed in butter into a toasted bun. Perry’s invention was such a success that his restaurant soon sported a sign boasting that it was Home of the Famous Lobster Roll. His outrageously rich creation became what Connecticut magazine editor Charles Monagan has called “Connecticut’s greatest contribution to the world of regional cuisine.”