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April 15, 2009

Streetlevel: Lobster Pound Coming to Red Hook

Just in time for summer, the husband-wife team of Susan Povich and Ralph Gorham are getting ready to open the Red Hook Lobster Pound at 284 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. Every week, the duo (or one of them, anyway) will drive a truck up to Maine, back it up to a boat that's just come in off the water and drive the bounty back to Brooklyn. While the proprietors emphasize that the Lobster Pound will not be a restaurant but it may be possible to have the lobsters steamed. The store opens April 24. Yummmmm! GMAP

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Wow, that sounds like fun. Stop down in Red Hook, pick up a fresh steamed Maine Lobster and go eat it with a friend and a bottle of wine in Prospect Park...

Posted by: 11217 at April 15, 2009 2:19 PM

Great news--they're opening just in time for backyard parties and summer barbecues. Surf and turf, anyone?

Posted by: gracias at April 15, 2009 2:27 PM

Will it be cheaper than Fairway? B/c unless it is by a bit, I don't know why I'd go to this place instead....

Posted by: new2hood at April 15, 2009 2:33 PM

seriously
this just made my day!

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 2:34 PM

While Fairway is fine I guess (I don't shop there because it's too far from my house and think it's asinine to put an urban store like that only accessible by cars) I don't think they're going up to Maine weekly for what sounds like the freshest lobsters one could attain...

I'm all for the mom and pop whenever possible. Bring it on.

Posted by: 11217 at April 15, 2009 2:38 PM

hey new, how about...

fresher

smaller corporation(spread the wealth more locally)

shorter lines(quicker)

more friendly.

if cheaper is your only metric you may be in the wrong city.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 15, 2009 2:46 PM

Seems to me, something's "fresh" if it was alive right before I ate it.

Fairway is a local company..so they should be penalized for success?

Maybe it's just my timing, but check-out has never been an issue there

And the seafood fellas at Fairway are lovely..and who says Susan and Ralph are more "friendly?"

So yeah, given my satisfaction with Fairway, I guess cheaper would really be the only reason I'd go there.

And, wrong city or not, here I be.

Posted by: new2hood at April 15, 2009 3:11 PM

Anyone know where Fairway get their lobsters from? I would guess somewhere between here and Maine, and quite possibly right off the boat. I agree with new2hood - Fairway has good product and at a good price ($10 a pound I think, a little more to have them steamed? - you're not going to do much better if you go to Maine yourself). And they are nice folks at the seafood counter there.

Still, I will surely try this place out (even if it is only 8 blocks closer than Fairway and still requires a car to get to), and I hope it succeeds.

Posted by: WBer at April 15, 2009 3:24 PM

I shop at Fairway a lot
it's a local chain when you think about it guys!

I find the three guys that are always at the fish counter to be super nice abd helpful
But I still will check out this new place!

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 3:28 PM

Lobster is easily the most overrated food in the country.

Posted by: East New York at April 15, 2009 3:40 PM

I'm an omnivore but killing live lobsters has got to be pretty high up on the list of sad and undesirable things to do. I like mine already cooked and served on a platter.

Posted by: tiptoe at April 15, 2009 3:41 PM

ENY
agreed if you only eat at Red Lobster-hhahahahahhahah!
come on - Lobster is DELISH!

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 3:43 PM

I was just checking out the Lobsters at Fairway last week. My 2 year old thought they were pretty exciting. Some of them looked fairly 'alive and frisky' others, not so much. The sign said "LOBSTERS FROM MAINE". If I remember correct the price was $12 per pound.

I hope this new Lobster Pound that is opening nearby, has good fresh lobsters at a reasonable price and does well. It is a great idea.

Posted by: Dan76 at April 15, 2009 3:47 PM

come on - Lobster is DELISH!

It's OK at best. At worst, it's disgusting. Lobster even LOOKS disgusting. I'd love to know what sick maniac first observed a lobster and said, "MMM...I'll bet that must taste good!"

Posted by: East New York at April 15, 2009 3:48 PM

ENY!!!
Jacques Costeau(sp) said of lobsters:
"They are the garbageman of the sea"

yikes!
still delicious

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 4:00 PM

"Jacques Costeau"

Eurotrash

Posted by: East New York at April 15, 2009 4:02 PM

Oh please. Fairway is easy enough to get to on the bus, I would hardly call it "only accessible by cars" and I live further away from the precious 11217 area.

Posted by: guestla at April 15, 2009 4:05 PM

Sorry ENY, I love them!

Ya know Maine lobster is about the only sustainable fishery success story in the world. That is, where we are not depleting the ocean. In fact Maine is crying the blues as wholeslae prices are very low. Somehow that hasn't been translating to retail. Voila, therein lies an arbitrage opportunity that Susan and Ralph are taking advantage of.

11217, why on earth would you hump a fresh lobster back to Prospect Park? I'd enjoy eating it right there on the piers!

Posted by: denton at April 15, 2009 4:09 PM

ENY - I hope u r not calling me Eurotrash?

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 4:09 PM

I find the idea of going on a bus (and back) to get and haul groceries to be a bit silly to me. A lobster, fine...bags of food, nah.

Sorry I don't love your precious Fairway...

;-)

Posted by: 11217 at April 15, 2009 4:11 PM

Born and raised in Maine...

ENY is almost right, although I'd say chocolate is the most overrated food overall. But lobster - eh. Big overgrown insect crawling around the dirty, rocky shore. Some delicacy. Lobster was poor people's food for years, BTW. Not a dainty dish - ever eaten a lobster in the shell?

I prefer crab.

Posted by: infinitejester at April 15, 2009 4:16 PM

"I find the idea of going on a bus (and back) to get and haul groceries to be a bit silly to me. A lobster, fine...bags of food, nah."

Wow, so I guess all those people who do this every day must be silly huh? The little old ladies who take their carts to the supermarket on the buses must be morons.

Posted by: guestla at April 15, 2009 4:19 PM

I'm definitely with you on that one infinitejester....Maryland Blue crabs are my favorite food on the planet earth. Blows lobster outta the water.

Posted by: 11217 at April 15, 2009 4:19 PM

Guestla:

You seem to have a problem with reading comprehension. My sentence said...silly TO ME. Can you read? Are you the CEO of Fairway?

I don't need or want to go to Fairway to do my grocery shopping. Why is that so hard for you to believe...?

This is a free country. The little old ladies can be my guest. I simply said that TO ME it's silly to travel all that way for groceries.

Posted by: 11217 at April 15, 2009 4:21 PM

"ENY - I hope u r not calling me Eurotrash?"

Of course not, gemini10. I don't even know where you're from! Besides, I happen to be a Gemini myself. I was referring to Jacques Cousteau.

"Sorry ENY, I love them! Ya know Maine lobster is about the only sustainable fishery success story in the world. That is, where we are not depleting the ocean."

Don't worry about it. I feel sorry for YOU, actually. If the lobster industry was dependent on people like me, there wouldn't be an "depletion" issue in the first place.

"Big overgrown insect crawling around the dirty, rocky shore. Some delicacy."

Exactly...you also forgot "disease-carrying descendant of prehistoric species."

Posted by: East New York at April 15, 2009 4:26 PM

hahha
ENY
Geminis have to stick together - when's your Bday?

PS - I have a car so driving out to fairway is nice. However, if I didn;t have a car I really wouldn't be climbing that 30 minute bus out there to then have to haul groceries back to Park Slope either - eeks

Posted by: gemini10 at April 15, 2009 4:35 PM

June 2

Posted by: East New York at April 15, 2009 4:58 PM

I have to agree with ENY- lobsters are cockroaches of the sea. GROSS.

Posted by: ennuiater at April 15, 2009 5:09 PM

Lobsters are delicious cockroaches of the sea.

Posted by: SnarkSlope at April 15, 2009 5:56 PM

Okay, diss lobsters all you like but to me they are most delicious. PS: Love that overrated chocolate as well.

Posted by: Carol Gardens at April 15, 2009 8:14 PM

Taste-wise I would probably choose blue crabs over lobster, but growing up spending summers in New England made me very lazy when it comes to shellfish. Pounding away for an hour with a hammer to get two ounces of crab meat was just never that appealing, when one snip of the scissors gets you a whole lobster tail.

And yes, if I didn't have a car, I would certainly not slog the B61 from Williamsburg to Red Hook just to shop at Fairway. But given the pathetic range of choices up here, I would take the train to TJ's and Whole Foods at Union Square. I'm much happier being able to go to Fairway.

Posted by: WBer at April 15, 2009 9:28 PM

We can't wait. Ralph and Susan are the best, and these lobsters will be fresher than anything you can find without going to Maine yourself !!!

Posted by: jbaum at April 15, 2009 10:00 PM

How can garbage taste so good?

Fresh Maine lobster is one of the best things on this earth.

Posted by: Nomi at April 16, 2009 2:41 AM

I like my lobsters waterboarded first, then killed

Posted by: harrythehat at April 20, 2009 12:25 PM

I think a lot of these post are made by friends of Susan and Ralph. If/when i want lobster i'll be taking it to fairway were im sure it's cheaper, unless I just want to grab only a lobster to go (very, very, very....... unlikely)

Posted by: grip100692 at April 21, 2009 1:48 PM

Posted by: grip100692 at April 21, 2009 1:55 PM

Ralph drives to Maine to pick up his fresh lobsters each week, and they are alive when you buy them. He now offers boiled crabs, also. I prefer to suppoert my local small business than Fairway, altho a great place, doesn't know me and love me and need my business.

Ralph's Lobster store is open Fri., Sat. and Sunday. Most of the lobsters are 1.5 lbs., which is what you want for a tender one!

Posted by: redhookredhead at June 10, 2009 5:35 PM

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April 15, 2009

Streetlevel: Lobster Pound Coming to Red Hook

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