Going All Out

It had been a long time since John and I ate a lobster roll together.

John and I and our lobster roll

So after a few weeks of going back and forth and trying to plan a lobster roll night, we finally picked a date and went with it. And we decided to go all out. Neptune Oysters.

Amanda joined us for our “first lobster roll of the season” (it was actually my second) on a warm Friday night in the North End. We wanted to go right after work, like 6/6:30 to avoid the crowds. I got there early, put my name in and wandered around. Side note, Neptune’s has the best and most efficient waiting-for-a-table system. You give the waiter or waitress your number and they will call you when the table is ready. It makes it easy to wander around and also not stand over people like a hawk as they eat.

I hadn’t been to the North End in a bit, since typically I (and most people) go their for either a) a friend’s birthday b) guests/family in town or c) a date. Most of those hadn’t happened in a bit, so it’d been a while. But besides those said events, when I walked around Salem Street I noticed that since I lived there (2003-2004) a lot has changed. Sure, it’s still touristy but also there are a lot more boutique shops and random cutesy things. But that’s a whole other story.

Since Neptune’s was at the top of our list, we decided to go for gold. Laura was our waitress’ name. Actually, I could be making that up. We started with a glass of perseco and six (three different kinds) oysters. Hmmm, so salty, so good. Then John picked out a bottle of white wine for the table. I forget the kind, but it was German and was sort of like a Riesling but not as sweet. It wasn’t too bad. Next up … the lobster rolls. But what do we go for? The hot buttery one or the cold mayo-y one? EEKKKK! I can’t make a decision! If you know John, you know that he takes these kind of decisions very seriously, so we talked it over for a while, weighing the pros and cons of each of them.

As always, John came up with an easy solution, we order one of each and then a randomly delicious-looking dish that the guy with the iPad who was sitting next to us was eating. Laura told us it was the Neptune Blue Crab Salad. Since Amanda prefers more butter and I’m more into mayo, it was the perfect solution. Of course we were all supposedly going to share it all, but I was secretly hoping to eat the majority of the cold mayo-y one.

Oh god, I hate to compare how I felt to Meg Ryan’s “orgasm” in When Harry Met Sally when she’s eating a sandwich in Katz’s Delicatessen with Billy Crystal, because that’s corny. But I am corny and cheesy so who cares. Let’s get serious though; it really was the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted. Huge chunks of lobster meat — the majority of it was claws too. Very little mayo, the right seasoning, and a toasted roll. So so so good. As John kept saying, it was the roll that really made the whole lobster roll perfect. Totally true.

We all passed around each dish — all really tasty and beautiful. I was syked that my secret came true; I got to eat the rest of the lobster roll with mayo, while Amanda finished the hot butter one and John ate the Blue Crab Salad.

I won’t even share with you what we did afterward since it’s a bit embarrassing. But basically I’ll just tell you we went to a really cheesy bar — a place I had only been to once when I was 20 — and listened (and danced) to 90s cover songs played by a 90s-looking band called Chunky Monkey (or something like that). Ahhh, a hilarious and fun way to end an evening.