Before every season at Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough, a countdown clock on its website ticks away the weeks, days, hours and minutes to the first Friday in May. When that opening day rolls around, the first customers at the window have often camped out overnight in the parking lot.
For decades, they’ve come to this waterfront destination hidden away in Noank, a quaint village of Groton, to enjoy sizable lobsters, clam chowder and bowls of steamers while gazing out at the Mystic River. The restaurant’s classic New England charm has caught the attention of national publications, U.S. presidents and celebrities alike.
Abbott’s began as a lobster pound and cannery in 1947, and then-owner Ernie Abbott opened the seasonal restaurant space in 1960. Almost 20 years later, locals Jerry and Ruth Mears became enamored with the eatery while visiting their daughter, Deirdre, who held a job there as a high school student. In 1981, they offered to buy it.
The couple didn’t have restaurant experience — Jerry was a Pfizer biochemist and Ruth worked in cable television — and they learned the business as they went.
“They thought this would be a lot of fun,” says Deirdre Mears. “They knew it would be a lot of work, but they jumped in with both feet.”
Day-to-day management of the increasingly popular restaurant proved so demanding that they eventually both left their full-time careers.
Deirdre Mears says she didn’t anticipate her parents’ career shift, but 35 years later, she, as longtime operator, is passing the torch to the next Mears generation. Her daughter Chelsea, 28, is preparing to move into a leadership role at the restaurant, after completing college and graduate school and working in public affairs in Washington, D.C.
“I just can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Chelsea Mears says. “Coming here every day, working with my family, it’s just an amazing feeling. I’m really glad that I made the transition back.”
Abbott’s has earned widespread praise for its Connecticut-style hot lobster rolls, with a quarter-pound of butter-bathed meat on a toasted hamburger bun, and its whole steamed lobster dinners, featuring a wide selection of sizes from 1 1/4 up to 10 pounds. The lobsters come from the cold waters of northern Maine and Canada, where larger sizes are more readily available.
In late May, the biggest guy in the tank weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds, but Chelsea Mears says Abbott’s has seen bigger — as of mid-June, there was a 22-pounder on site. A regular customer, whom the staff affectionately refers to as “Jersey Joe,” drives up often from the Garden State to request the largest lobster on hand.
While their lobsters cook in a low-pressure steam cooker, guests often start their meals with soups (clam chowder in broth-based “Noank” style and classic, creamy New England; a shrimp and corn chowder and lobster bisque) or steamed mussels, shrimp cocktail and raw oysters and clams on the half shell. The restaurant is BYOB, and guests often arrive with tablecloths and wine glasses to dress up the picnic tables by the water.
Lobster rolls have proven so popular that Abbott’s has added two larger-size sandwiches to the menu in recent years. There’s the “OMG” roll, with 7 ounces of buttered meat on a hot dog bun; and a new behemoth, the “LOL” (Lots of Lobster) with a full pound of meat on a freshly baked roll.
All of the lobster rolls are market-priced; in late May they ranged from $17.95 for the original to $43.95 for the LOL. There are also crab rolls ($8.95 to $12.95) available hot with butter or cold salad-style with mayonnaise.
Abbott’s accommodates non-seafood eaters with salads, herb-roasted half chicken and chicken salad sandwiches ($3.95 to $11.95) and a kids’ menu features hot dogs, grilled cheese and peanut butter and jelly. Guests craving fried clams and shrimp are invited to visit Abbott’s “little brother” restaurant, Costello’s Clam Shack, which opened just 100 yards down the road in 1996.
Chelsea Mears believes the restaurant’s national profile began to build when Abbott’s was first featured in an early edition of Jane and Michael Stern’s “Roadfood” guide.
“I think that really put Abbott’s and Noank on the map,” she said. (Jane Stern was among the first visitors through the door on 2016’s opening day.)
Since then, Abbott’s has been featured in publications like the New York Times and USA Today, and its lobster dinner once graced the cover of Gourmet magazine. Bobby Flay visited for an episode of “Food Nation” on the Food Network. And in a collage of memorabilia posted at the front of the building, there’s a photo of the Mears family with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Visitors even arrive from overseas. A couple from France stopped by the restaurant on a Thursday in May, before Abbott’s switched to its post-Memorial Day, seven-day-a-week summer schedule. Even though the eatery was closed, “I couldn’t say no,” Chelsea Mears said, and they made lobster rolls for the international tourists.
For those who can’t easily make the trip to Noank, Abbott’s will also soon offer do-it-yourself lobster roll kits for shipping, a package containing a pound of lobster packed in ice, butter, buns, bibs, potato chips and a lobster-shaped candy treat (and cooking instructions). The kits will be priced at $58, plus shipping costs, and will be available for order through Abbott’s website.
Deirdre Mears said it’s rewarding to see generations of customers returning to Abbott’s every season.
“We have grandparents now, who can’t wait to have the grandchildren come and do the same things that they did,” she says. “That’s just very rewarding, to know that you’re really part of someone’s life. It’s more than just, ‘I’m going to go have a meal.’ It’s a true destination. That’s probably the best part.”
Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough, 117 Pearl St., Noank, is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Labor Day. After that, it’s open Friday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Columbus Day, when it closes for the season. 860-536-7719, abbottslobster.com.
This summer we’re telling the stories behind Connecticut’s beloved seasonal restaurants — the destinations that open for an all-too-brief time period in fair weather. These are the small lobster shacks with the buttery rolls you crave in January when you’re shoveling snow, the ice cream stands that throw open their windows with the first warm breeze, the beach-town eateries where the salt of fried whole belly clams and onion rings is enhanced by ocean air. We’ll publish features in Thursday’s Flavor and CTNow sections throughout the summer. Find the series at ctnow.com/summersweetspots.
