Red’s Eats

Red’s is a shack about the size of a small house trailer with a single window where you both place your order and then get it when it’s ready. Opened in Boothbay in 1938, it moved to the north end of Wiscasset in 1954, and it has since become a summertime legend. Many people believe that here is the best lobster roll anywhere: Heaps of meat from a whole one-pound lobster is extracted in great hunks and piled into a toasted split-top bun that is accompanied by a cup of drawn butter or, if you wish, mayonnaise. It is lobster-eater’s nirvana.

“Look how beautiful!” says the waitress when she presents ours through the window on its picnic tray. Her enthusiasm is that of someone who has never seen one of these amazing sandwiches ever before. In fact, she is dishing out dozens, probably hundreds on this pleasant summer day. Crowds of people line up for lobster rolls at Red’s so that the wait just to get to the window can be up to an hour.

Once you receive your food – the large menu also contains fried seafood of all kinds, burgers, onion rings, French fries, and Round Top ice cream – you carry it to one of the plastic tables in back of the restaurant and dine in the sun alongside Route One. (As of late Spring, 2020, pandemic precautions make Red’s strictly take-out.)

Lobster roll prices vary according to the market.