Eastham Lobster Pool

[Life in the kitchen]

Way before I met my wife (23 years ago) she would Pop in the car with her two sisters and Mom and Dad and spend a couple weeks a summer on the Cape.Always Eastham,once in Wellfleet.

When my wife and I started dating she told me about her family summer vacations on the cape.Fried clams at Arnolds and the Lobster in the rough at The Eastham Lobster pool.

As time passed in our relationship and we became "best buds" we went to the Cape together.

We stayed on route 6A in P town in one of the flower cabins "rose"I fell in love with the cape and have been going every year since 1984.

The Cape offers so many "New England" restaurants it's hard not to find one you like. For my wife and I,and now our children,the Eastham Lobster Pool has become our favorite. I must admit it's not as good as it once was,but the lobsters are perfect,the butter taste good dripping down your cheek,and the cheap wine seems happy to co-exist with your meal.

[Brooke Dojny]

Dear Life in the Kitchen--

Love your moniker. That's where I spend my life, too, and I'm very happy there. Except I'm also very happy when I'm licking my fingers after a great meat at a New England clam shack, lobster pound, or (good) chowder house.

Some very good friends of mine lived in Brewster for years and they still talk about the Eastham Lobster Pool and have fond stories of a couple of old Yankees who ran it. Those "pools" or "pounds" have so much to do with happy summer memories that it seems whichever place you associate with sweet summer moments is your favorite.

I heard about Arnold's when I was doing my Cape research. Some people said it was still good - others that it had slipped and had become shockingly overprices. Do you have an opinion?

Thank you for writing in - and I apologize for not responding much sooner!

[Pat Goldberg]

Twenty or more years ago, this was perhaps our favorite place on the outer Cape, but no more.

The old couple that ran the Eastham Lobster Pool are long gone, even though their portraits remain. It has been taken over by their daughter and her husband who, from a food perspective, have completely mismanaged it.

There are still one or two OK things you can get there, but most things are terrible these days. I stopped eating fried clams there years ago, when they began to taste suspiciously like canned clams. The very last time I was in, I ordered a scallop roll. Believe it or not, the scallops had obviously been frozen, because those golden nuggets were raw and still ice cold in the middle.

Shortly thereafter, our son stopped in with his family. He complained bitterly about how bad it was and about our failure to warn him of this.

In my opinion, the Eastham Lobster Pool has slipped to a "must avoid" restaurant.

[Brooke Dojny]

Pat--

Such a sad story...but an example of the kind of refeshingly honest reporting that thrives on the internet but is somewhat lacking in the print media.

Thanks from all of us for the advice.