Put down the cracker and bib—in the past few decades, the as Maine’s big prize for traveling gourmands. Half the appeal is the sweet simplicity of a griddled bunall buttered up and filled with fresh lobster. The other half is the setting: the best rolls are usually consumed someplace where you can smell the sea and have to . Our south-to-north guide to the Maine coast’s best lobster rolls includes suggested outdoor-rec pairings, because you may want to preemptively burn some of those calories.
Kennebunk
The roll: Five and a half ounces of fresh, boiled-in-seawater Cape Porpoise lobster mixed with a little mayo, a little melted butter, or both. The Clam Shack’s roll is a delicious iconoclast,eschewing the classic split-top bun for a round, locally baked yeast roll. It’s soft as a cloud and totally works.
The scene: A tiny white shanty on a bridge over the tidal Kennebunk River, the Clam Shack issmack in the middle of the town’strafficked tourism quarter. You can eat atthe adjacent fish market or outside at picnic tablesor lobster traps topped with plexiglass. The bad news: during the peak of summer,expect to wait in line as long as an hour.
The side dish: Fried full-belly clams. Sweet and plump and cooked in a crunchy crumb coating, they rival the roll for regulars’ affections.
Explore: Surfers find consistent swells at a few minutes away: Fortunes Rocks,in Kennebunkport,and Gooch’s,in Kennebunk. , a quarter-mile west of the Clam Shack, can point visitors to the breaks and offers rentals and lessons. At the height of the season, water temperaturescaneven reach the low sixties!
Cape Elizabeth
The roll: You can go classic—Maine style, with mayo and chives, or Connecticut style, with drizzled butter—or go avant-garde, choosingto dressyour roll in wasabi, coleslaw, smoky chipotle, or yellow-curry mayo.
The scene: The Bite into Maine food truck is right next to , one of the world’s most photographed lighthouses. Lay a blanket on the grassy lawn, and watch the waves crash into the rocky shoreline.
The side dish: Nothing pairs with lobster like more lobster.The creamy bisque has generous chunks of claw and tail and a sprinkling of chives.
Explore: The food truck is stationedin the middle of 90-acre , where a mile-long loop trail skirts ocean-side cliffs and a fewabandoned military batteries. Six miles south, the trails at access 41 acres ofheadlands, full of tide poolsidealfor clambering.
Portland
The roll: Lobster meat dressed in brown butter, lemon, and chives, served in a split-top, Asian-style steamed bun. Purists may scoff, but Eventide’s fancy-pantsroll is to die for.
The scene: The heart of district, where cobblestone streets are lined with 19th-century brick buildings housing restaurants and boutiques. Thisrestaurantisa hip spin on a seafood shack, with indoor picnic tables and a 1,500-pound granite basin filled with ice and oysters.
The side dish: Any of a dozen varieties of fresh served on the half shell.
Explore: On East End Beach, a dozen blocks northeast, rents kayaks and leads trips to Fort Gorges, a19th-century garrison on Hog Island in Casco Bay. The two-milepaddle out crosses boat channels with heavy commercial and recreational traffic, so it’s bestto go with a guide.
Georgetown
The roll: The correct order is “the Big Boy,” a roughly ten-ounce roll with lobster that’slightly dressed in mayo and overflowing fromits split-toppotato bun.
The scene: The setup looks straight out of a movie—picnic tables on a working wharf, menu on a chalkboard, traps stacked up nearby,lobster boats bobbing in the bay, anda cluster of spruce-studded islands behind them.
The side dish: Fried things, particularly the giant onion rings, which are battered in-house.BYOB.
Explore: The tiny , immediately adjacent to the lobster shack, is a popular spot for an after-dinner stroll through mossy woods, while the , a quarter-mile south, has a trail to a little-visited, boulder-strewn beach.
Wiscasset
The roll: Arguably Maine’s most famous lobster roll, Red’shas an ultra-generous portion of meat—whole claws and tails—dropped naked on a grilled split-top bun. That’s it. Extra-heavy mayonnaise or drawn butter on the sideare optional.
The scene: In the pretty, historic village of , thiseatery, whichlooks like a little red caboose, isparked on the bank of the Sheepscot River. Seating is on a shady deck behind the stand or along the grassy riverfront. The line to order can getlong—waits of over an hour aren’t uncommon.
The side dish: Fried zucchini crisped in a golden, puffy batter.
Explore: Mountain bikers head across the river and down a couple miles of back roads to the , in the town of Edgecomb, where more than tenmiles of crisscross a 270-foot hill called (appropriately, for our purposes) Mount Hunger.
South Thomaston
The roll: The standardroll, brushed with mayo orbutter and filled with super-fresh meat. Lobsters are held in floating crates right next to the dining patio, then plucked from the seawater and tossed straight into a pot.
The scene: Far from the Route 1 tourist traffic—on bridge-accessed Spruce Head Island, off the St. George Peninsula—this little shack overlooks Seal Harbor, which isdotted with islands and lobster boats coming and going from the McLoons wharf.
The side dish: The grill-roasted littleneck clams served with homemade garlic-herb butter aresmoky, briny, and delicious.
Explore: At the tip of the peninsula, 14 miles south down ME-73 and ME-131, offers rentals and tours, including a morning paddleboard excursion around , an iconic beacon and .
Corea
The roll: Lobster for it is purchased each morning from the fisherman’s co-op across the harbor, cooked in salt water, and mixed with Hellman’s mayonnaise and a little pepper.
The scene: The deck overlooks lobster boats and wharves piledhigh with traps. Former lobsterman Joe Young runs both the restaurant and an art gallery, an old fish house full of photos of mid-20th-century Corea.
The side dish: Theblueberry pie—three-inch-deep wedges filled withwild Maine blueberries and set in a perfectly flaky crust.
Explore: Corea is just down the road from the , which seesfar fewer visitors than neighboring Mount Desert Island. Someeightmiles of hard gravel perfectfor bikerswindthrough woods and along the rocky shore, and hiking trails reach the summits of Buck Cove Mountain and Schoodic Head, offering knockout views of the Atlantic and the rounded peaks of Mount Desert Island.
Beals
The roll: Shredded lobster dressed generously with mayo and topped with a whole claw.
The scene: Connected by a bridge to the mainland town of Jonesport, Beals Island is well off the tourist track. Diners sit at picnic tables overlooking a harbor filled with fishing boats.
The side dish: Locals eschew the roll in favor of the ginormousfried-haddock burger, which comes stacked with multiple fillets. But you can eat both, right?
Explore: A mile south, the Nature Conservancy’s is a peaceful place to spot seals, dolphins, eagles, and ospreys. A 4.5-mileloop trail cutsthrough a jack pine forest and over the island’s vast, exposed granite headlands.
Eastport
The roll: Mix your lobster with mayo, Miracle Whip, drawn butter, or any combination of the three. Feeling snackish? The junior roll has just twoounces of meat. (The regular has four, and the jumbo piles eightinto an eight-inch bun.)
The scene: Quoddy Bay’s picnic tables offer front-row seats to Friar Roads, the watery passage between Eastport and Canada’s , where minke, finback, and humpback whales regularly surface in July and August.
The side dish: The yummy, comforting fish chowder—a creation ofofhaddock, potatoes, and onions in a creamy stock.
Explore: organizeswhale-watching and deep-sea fishing excursions into Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays. If you want to work for your supper, offers daily trips on a lobster boat thatpassesbythe Old Sow whirlpool and East Quoddy Lighthouse, while the crew stopsto pull traps along the way.
This story was produced in partnership with magazine.