In South Thomaston, Maine, Waterman’s Beach Lobster is all it’s cracked up to be
Fifth in a series on James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Eateries in New England.
SOUTH THOMASTON — The setting looks like “lobster in the rough’’ with picnic tables and those disposable plastic lobster bibs that are useless in the shore breeze, but Waterman’s Beach Lobster is also a full-service kind of place. You order at what looks like a takeout window, but when the food is ready, one of the servers brings it to your table. And when two women of somewhat advanced years had trouble cracking their hard-shell lobsters, co-owner Sandy Mana-han came out with a hammer and a towel to smash those claws against one of the granite boulders around the parking lot.
Manahan’s mother (whose maiden name was Waterman) started the operation 26 years ago. “Dad was a gym teacher,’’ she says. “He retired and went lobstering. Now my brother’s the fisherman. He brings in the lobster.’’ Manahan runs the beachfront shack with her brother’s wife, Lorri Cousens. The establishment was comparatively young when it got the America’s Classic nod from the James Beard Foundation in 2001.
But whoever nominated Waterman’s clearly understood the requisites for a classic summer lobster shack on Maine’s Penobscot Bay. For starters, it sits in a location so obscure that you have to know it’s there to find it. Waterman’s Beach Road is off Route 73 south of Rockland. The lobster shack sits right at a pier next to a stony beach where the Weskeag River meets the Muscle Ridge Channel, just a little north of Spruce Head. It’s almost easier to find by boat.
Drivers persevere in seeking out Waterman’s for the steamed lobster and clams, though hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches will keep family members averse to seafood from starving. The lobster dinners are barebones: lobster in the size of your choice from diminutive 1-pound chicken lobsters to hulking 1¾-pounders, plus a roll, drawn butter, and a bag of chips. It’s really all you need.
Nonetheless, steamed clams are available in 1- and 2-pound servings, and can be combined with the various sizes of lobster for a shore dinner, often rounded out with a side order of steamed corn. Figuring out all the permutations is enough to make your head spin, and that’s not even accounting for the generous lobster roll served on a big round bun.
Manahan’s mother used to bake the pies, and when she retired, the family decided to enlist the aid of a baker up the road. “I can’t tell you her name,’’ Manahan says. The woman was given the original recipes and had to bake each one for Manahan’s mother’s approval. “Mother said, ‘My customers are used to a certain standard.’’’ Indeed they are. The blueberry pie tastes like what pie was meant to be, from the sweet and slightly crisp lard-based crust to the fruity, not-too-sweet berry filling.
As the America’s Classics designation suggests, little changes at Waterman’s because it’s already close to perfect. The only thing that regulars grumble about is the brevity of the season. “We have customers who have come for 26 years,’’ Manahan says. “We have people who open us and people who close us.’’
When the order window slams down after Labor Day, it’s a long wait until June for another taste of perfect lobster and heavenly pie.
343 Waterman’s Beach Road, 207-596-7819, 207-594-7518, www.water mansbeachlobster.com. Wed-Sun 11 a.m.-7 p.m., through Labor Day, $2.95-$28.95. Cash only. BYOB.
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