The Lobster Shack: Maine food, without the plane trip

<p>In Maine, it’s perfectly possible to sit at a picnic table on a grassy hillside under tall trees and see a fishing boat chug up the bay toward you. It docks, and the crew immediately dumps baskets of live lobsters fresh from the ocean bottom into steaming tanks of boiling sea water. A few minutes later, you’re eating one of those lobsters — and it’s fabulous.</p><p>The lobster’s just the main course. First came the clam “chowdah” and a big bowl of steamer clams — not cherry-stones, which are called steamers here on the West Coast, but real steamers (Mya arenaria), the tender, delicious, soft-shell clams of New England’s mudflats and tidal waters. The trimmings include french fries, cole slaw and corn on the cob. For dessert, blueberry pie made with tiny, flavor-packed Maine blueberries.</p><p>Sigh.</p><p>Well, sigh no more. The Lobster Shack has opened in Napa with the express purpose of creating as close an approximation to a real Maine dinner as possible. And the approximation is pretty darn close, because the first two paragraphs of this review are personal experience and I can vouch for the authenticity.</p><p>First of all, the Lobster Shack’s venue is perfect. The building sits above the Napa River, an estuary of San Pablo Bay that sends a whiff of salt water your way. It was originally the Napa train depot, but it could be any building from the late 19th or early 20th century in Maine. The walls are hung with Maine sailing charts and lobster trap floats. The bar boasts three draft beers from “Down East” — Shipyard Ale, Old Thumper Ale, and Allagash White, all brewed in Portland, Maine.</p><p>Yes, there’s a wine list, but it shows a satisfying unfamiliarity with things Californian, such as its listing for Hannah Nicole Sauvignon Blanc from “Midera, CA.” One would assume they mean Madera, but one would be wrong. Hannah Nicole is actually in Brentwood. But what would a Mainer — or Maine-iac as they are known back there — know about the Central Valley?</p><p>Lobster Shack has three locations — one in San Francisco’s North Beach, the new one in Napa, open since March, plus the original Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City. The latter was named one of the 10 best area restaurants in 2006 by the San Jose Mercury News, and good on them. A Maine shore dinner is one of the world’s most incredibly delicious feasts, and for too long, it’s been denied to folks on the West Coast. But no more.</p><p>As a for instance, let’s start with dessert. We ordered Blueberry Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream ($5 ****). Although the waiter said it was all house-made, a little checking with management revealed that it wasn’t. Who cares? The blueberry pie was the real deal. Made in Redwood City for the Old Port, it uses real Maine blueberries, and the crust — well, you almost never find perfect, flaky, exquisite pie crust at restaurants. And yet here it is, served pleasantly warmed from the oven. The vanilla ice cream might as well have been house-made, it tasted so good with the pie, but it was just Dreyer’s.</p><p>Tables vary from room to room in the old depot. One room has round tables with high stools, another has lacquered picnic tables set with a vertical roll of paper towels, malt vinegar, Tabasco sauce and a bottle of Floyd & Fred’s HotLime Green Key Lime Habañero Pepper Sauce, made in San Francisco and used at your own risk. If you order Steamed “Lobstah” ($32.75 ****), as the menu puts it, you get a plate with a plastic bib, lobster pick, claw cracker, and a placemat printed with instructions on “How to eat a lobster,” just like they give the tourists who flock to Maine in the summertime.</p><p>Real Maine-iacs don’t need instructions, especially for the plump fellows they serve here. You twist off the claws, crack them open, slide out the meat in one piece and dip it in the drawn butter provided. Then you crack open the arms that held the claws and eat the cylinders of meat inside. Then you break off the tail and look hopefully for the greenish goo in the space between the carapace and the tail. This is the lobster’s liver and is a delicacy. Don’t miss it. Then you hold the tail by the flippers on either side, using two hands, and break them off a few at a time. This releases the tail meat. And by the way, if you know how to deconstruct a lobster properly, you don’t need a bib.</p><p>The lobster is served with hand-cut, skin-on steak-style fries and sweetish cole slaw that could be improved by cutting the cabbage more thinly and soaking it in ice water for an hour before draining it and balancing the sweetness with more vinegar.</p><p>The Lobster Shack does carry fresh soft-shell clams (steamers) but may also be out of them — the menu changes frequently, depending on what’s available. You can always get them fried, although they’re not fresh from the shell. They’re on the menu as Ipswich Whole Belly Clams ($10.75 half order **½), both Ipswich and whole belly being synonymous with soft-shell clams.</p><p>Of course they serve the sandwich that’s ubiquitous in Maine, the Lobster Roll ($17.75 ***). A New England top-loading bun — the kind they actually use in Maine — is stuffed with gobs of lobster flavored with Hellman’s mayonnaise (we call it Best Foods out here; they call it Hellman’s back East — same stuff), green onions, salt and pepper. There’s also an Oyster Po’Boy ($13.75 ***), same roll stuffed with plain fried oysters. But what’s a po’boy — a Louisiana institution — doing in a Maine lobster house? The sandwiches are served with kettle chips, cole slaw or potato salad, and sweet pickles.</p><p>New England Clam Chowder ($5.75 a mug ***½) is the real deal. It’s milky, like a good oyster stew, rather than pasty with thickener. Chunks of potatoes are joined by lots of minced clams. A bit of salt pork or bacon is used to flavor the pot. It’s simply delicious as well as authentic. Follow the chowder with the Shacktail Trio ($14.75 ****), a sundae glass filled top to bottom with lobster and crabmeat, plus fresh-tasting shrimp hanging around the rim, and served with a red cocktail sauce. The sauce is mild — but there’s always Floyd & Fred’s HotLime.</p><p>For salad, the Big Lobstah Louie ($14.75 half order **½) combines romaine lettuce with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, avocado and lots of lobster, all given a Russian dressing.</p><p>While you’re eating, you’ll be regaled with down home, if not Down East, blues. There’s something so right about eating steamers while listening to Muddy Waters.</p><p>To find this treasure of a restaurant, head east on Third Street, turn right on Soscol Avenue and immediately look to your left. You’ll see a big sign that says Greenberg’s Quality Motors. The shack is just south of that, bordering rows of used and new trucks. Go far enough south on Soscol to get past the median divider, make a left, then head back north, exit among the trucks, and pull up to the shack. It’s not easy to get to, but it’s worth it.</p><p>To sum up: The Lobster Shack is as close to a real Maine restaurant as you’ll find west of Portland — Portland, Maine, that is.</p><p>Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for A&E. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.</p>