How it all began...

In the fall of 1974, Roderick and Joan MacGregor decided that they wanted to bring the purity and sensibility of all things “Downeast” to Manhattan’s specialty food industry. Drawing upon a lifetime of summers spent in Maine, the couple opened a tiny store on Manhattan’s Upper West side and began driving a rusted old Datsun pickup to Portland, ME to pick up loads of lobster 1000 lbs at a time. The store was spartan, with only a small plywood lobster tank, a steamer, and a cash register, but they built a loyal wholesale and retail clientele by remaining true to the simple, raw, rugged, freshness that’s emblematic of the Maine coast.

Twenty-Five years later in 1997, Rod and Joan moved The Lobster Place downtown to the one-of-a-kind Chelsea Market, joining great specialty food purveyors Amy’s Bread and Manhattan Fruit Exchange and more recently, the Food Network. By this time, they were selling over a million pounds of live lobster, fish, shrimp, shellfish, and squid to restaurants and hotels throughout the metro area each year. In moving to the Chelsea Market, they realized their vision of opening a seafood market where the retail consumer can select the very same premium quality seafood that’s being shipped out to the most discriminating professional chefs.

As all things seem to come full circle, Rod and Joan retired in 2002 and moved to Maine for good. Perhaps fittingly, their son Ian, fresh from duty as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, stepped forward to take the business into its second generation of ownership. Ian and the entire staff at The Lobster Place remain committed to bringing a taste of the Maine sea shore to the Big Apple. They guarantee your satisfaction with every purchase and look forward to cultivating a personal relationship with you.