The first recipe for a cold lobster roll shows up in an 1829 cookbook - a full 100 years before the first hot lobster roll is credited to be served. Is it true what everybody says, that most serial killers choose cold lobster rolls for their last meal? It makes sense but that doesn’t make it true. Similarly, just because all of the cherubs in heaven prefer hot, buttery lobster rolls, that doesn’t make those the better of the two. Luckily for all of us, you cannot only get either at the Cape Cod Clam, you can do some customizing. (Within reason, of course - we’re not animals, amirite?)
It was a post on the Cape Cod Restaurant Groups’ FB page in June that really lit the fire. It wasn’t some marketing ploy or somebody trying to butter Eric up (which would take three spins on the wheel, at least), it was just some standard ol “Stopped into the Cape Cod Clam and had the best lobster roll I’ve had in a long time. Can’t wait to go back” type of thing you could scroll past mid-yawn. That’s it, innocuous. A few thousand likes, shares, reposts, and substantiated visits later, the word is out and we’re all just living in the wake.
But coming for the crown, the ‘Best Lobster Roll on the Cape’ belt, wasn’t the objective. Or it didn’t start out as the objective. Back in the low tide days of poke bowls and perfectly sized slices of tuna steaks, the Clam was a top shelf fish market that sold some sundries - not a vehicle for moving 300 pounds of lobster, daily.
It’s a Hand Sport, Baby.
Eric Moore, former Stan Van Gundy college basketball recruit with a masters in Antarctic Glacial Geomorphologist with 91 days doing field work on Antarctica, moved to Brewster when he was about 6 months old and now manages the Cape Cod Clam. When the flood gates opened in June, it was Eric who had been firmly stationed at the far end of the counter spending 8 hours making lobster rolls for the masses. Back in May & June, if you ordered a lobster roll at the Clam, Eric made it and you probably took part in the process. Cracked and shucked and handripped on the spot, Eric believes lobster rolls are best with lemon zest and muddled performance art - thusly, The Show.
In February, Eric found the owners of the Clam with a fully scoped out plan that had nothing to do with making a run at the Lobster Roll belt or deciding the exact right amount of time is right for a 1.5-, 6- or 8-pound lobsters. Lugging around burlap sacks of years making some places you probably know go go go (Laurino’s Tavern, Hog Island in Wellfleet, Brewster Inn & Chowder House), Eric was a good horse to lay some paper on. So these owners looked at the timeline, checked the clock, and likely saw it was too late to change the play BUT they did see something they liked … Eric, himself. His skillset is transferrable, if he was confident enough to pull off something new stretched from whole cloth then he could certainly handle an established establishment. Sign him up and watch him run.
This is, coincidence or not, the way Eric handles things. He doesn’t think twice of taking a dishwasher with a hint of tenacity and throwing them on the line. He’s a scout and when he sees talent, he places it accordingly.
Are you the guy?
Stephen Neal was a 2x NCAA Wrestling Champion and a Freestyle Wrestling Champion from Cal State Bakersfield. He was a D1 athlete who had 4 All-American years in his sport - his record was 156-10. His PAC-10 conference record was 34-0. In 2012 he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. But Stephen Neal isn’t known for wrestling - Neal was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2001 by the New England Patriots and proceeded to win 3 Super Bowls playing on the offensive line. He retired as a Patriot in 2010. Bill Belichick saw that Neal innately had the skillset to excel at the position - he just taught him how to put on the pads.
This exact thing emanates from Eric. So, if you aspire to own a year-round seafood spot with lobster rolls aplenty in the months ending in R (those which are truly lobsters in-season months), and Paulie Pitch Deck here just auditioned - inadvertently or not - for the job, then let’s see it unfold.
Once the 4th of July was in the past, Eric invited us into the shop to sneak a peak-a-loo and what he has going on in there is a lot of fun. There’s a great, young, energetic, put-faith-back-in-the-new-generation staff behind the counter - someone call Abigail Schrier, get Jonathan Haidt on the phone, we have contact. He’s got his daughters and a bunch of young people their ages learning how to work in a high demand vacation market which allows him to impart Nietzsche-esque bite-sized wisdom like “your tips will be in direct correlation to how pleasant you are while you’re at work.” This has led to new hires leaving their bartending jobs to work behind the counter at the Clam. He spots talent and teaches them how to put on the pads.
He’s got a real “change drivers mid-straightaway” style you’ve seen in action flicks: The Show navigates a Hummer over the rough terrain high up in the Rockies then tells the character in the passenger seat to grab the wheel while he climbs out of the sunroof. The Passenger is nervous and they don’t think they can handle it but after a second they figure it out and it’s not so tough to be the getaway driver. Ving Rhames in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Now some kid who was bartending Wednesday nights in Brewster is Ving Rhames - an important character who’s gonna have a lot of lines and be in the last scene.
So he’s not only stringing together a summer for the Lobster Roll books but he’s doing the good Lord’s work by bringing along a generation of people who are convinced they’re on a slow-motion plane ride into the side of a mountain. “You’re welcome,” he returns as he lands ’er gently in a field down in the valley. He’s bringing along not only next season's lobster rollologists but the next movement in the philosophy of lobster rollology.
Chapter 3: The Perfect Bite.
Chapter 7: The Gateway Citrus.
Chapter 32: Why Knives Ruin It.
Watch this video at the top for these secrets and more!
Can The Year Be Brought Round?
Remains to be seen but he wants the challenge. Could be the athlete in him - wants the competition, knows it’s hard to do and wants to do it for that reason. Or it could be the dormant musician. What drummer do you know who doesn’t love to play whenever there are people around to play with? The Show is no different - he loves being back there, making you happy with something he’s improvised, like a throwaway fill he rattles off that makes the bass player look over and smile.
What Eric’s strengths are as an employee to his shop’s owners are the same as his strengths as a leader to his staff - and also the same as a vessel to his customers: his ability to build a relationship with them by conjuring something truly singular in the synapse between both sides. You’re less interacting together as you are with this third .. magical thing everyone is free to interact with. That kind of thing isn’t common and it doesn’t fade away just because the nights get longer. Maybe it’ll even get brighter, it may glow in the dark. That's another Show worth seeing.
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