It’s possible to get good food from just about anywhere on the planet in New York City, but until recently, it was difficult to find a decent lobster roll.
But thanks to a father-and-son team from Cape Elizabeth and some introspection brought on by the recent recession, fresh lobster and crab is now making its way from Maine’s harbors to New York’s East Village.
Luke and Jeff Holden opened Luke’s Lobster on Oct. 1. Like many places in New York, it occupies a small corner of the city at 7th Street and 1st Avenue. With only seven seats, it’s doing mostly take-out business. Despite that, it’s getting more than its share of press, with write-ups in the New York Times, Time Out New York, New York Magazine, the Village Voice and more than a few of the local food blogs.
Luke Holden graduated from Georgetown in 2007 and came to New York to work in finance. It was a difficult adjustment after growing up in Cape Elizabeth, and as it turned out, his timing was less than impeccable.
The world of finance imploded about a year later. While Holden was lucky enough to hang onto his job, it got him thinking: If things were to slow down or he was to lose his job, what would he do with his time?
Like so may people in this recession that we’ve been told is over, Holden decided to return to what he knew best. For a boy from Maine, that was fishing and seafood.
His father, Jeff Holden, is a former lobsterman who runs Portland Shellfish, a company that sells lobster, crab and shrimp to distributors and wholesalers in 20 countries, in addition to the United States. In high school, Luke not only worked as a stern man, but he built his own boat and worked as a lobsterman for a summer.
Because of these roots, Luke knew it wasn’t just those in New York’s world of finance who were suffering. His friends who had become lobstermen weren’t doing as well as they once had, and not, according to his father, because people weren’t eating lobster anymore.
They were; they were just eating it cheaply. The high-end market – luxury cruises, expensive restaurants – had dropped off.
Meanwhile, his son was finding he was “bitterly unimpressed” with the overpriced lobster rolls he found in New York and started thinking there might be some untapped market potential for high-quality seafood at an affordable price (In case anyone’s wondering what that translates to in New York, it’s $14).
It is, to be sure, a risky time to be starting a business – something that wasn’t lost on the Holdens. It’s also a challenging time of year to be starting a seafood restaurant, with the fresh catch getting a little scarce in the winter months, which is why they are planning to diversify the menu a bit in the coming months, adding some seafood chowders. Not to mention the difficulty of surviving in the New York food scene, where rents are high and competition is plentiful.
Despite the obstacles, the elder Holden suggested his son draw up a business plan. After talking it over, they decided to go in on it together 50-50.
Jeff admits there are some benefits for him that have nothing to do with making money. He now has a good reason to call his 25-year-old son every day. There are only so many times, he says, you can call up your son and ask him what he’s been doing lately before it gets old.
And, luckily, so far it seems his son also has some business savvy. If anything, that business plan might have been on the conservative side in its initial estimates, particularly considering all the press they’ve been getting. Luke Holden said he expected they might be selling less than 100 lobster rolls a day, and some days it’s been more like 400 or 500.
Early success aside, this was about something more for Luke, who says his father might be the person he looks up to the most.
“This was an opportunity to work with my father on something we’re both really passionate about,” he said.
Luke Holden hasn’t given up his day – and night – job working for a finance firm in real estate investment trusts, but he has found it’s possible to bring a little taste of Maine to the city.
Brendan Moran is the former executive editor at Current Publishing.
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