Bullwinkle’s Steak House will show its support for local lobstermen during a tough year for the industry with an all-you-can-eat lobster cookout Sun., Aug. 19.
The menu for the outdoor event will feature cole slaw, corn on the cob, potato salad and, of course, lobster – hundreds of pounds of it.
The cookout is a collaborative effort between the Waldoboro restaurant’s proprietor, Todd Mank, and former owners Paul and Jo-Anne Blomquist.
Bullwinkle’s has a long-standing, symbiotic relationship with the local fishing community, not just in Waldoboro, but in Bremen, Cushing, Friendship – all the nearby fishing villages. It depends on the fishermen for their business, especially in the winter.
When there’s a tough shrimp season or when tax time comes around, the restaurant feels it, as many of those customers stay home, Paul Blomquist said.
“I don’t think people often stop and realize just how much fishing affects us immediately, economically,” Blomquist said.
Mank, a former sternman who came to Bullwinkle’s as a bartender in 1997 and bought the business in 2006, still confers with Blomquist regularly. He bounces ideas off his former employer and they talk about the triumphs and woes of the restaurant business.
During one recent phone call, “We were talking about the fact that the fishermen were kind of singing the blues,” Blomquist said.
A combination of factors have led to historically low boat prices – below $1.50 per pound at some docks – for lobster this year.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, local lobstermen were in a similar situation. Tight security all but paralyzed East Coast shipping routes.
“All of a sudden, you couldn’t move lobster,” Blomquist said.
“Jo-Anne and I decided to do an all-you-can-eat lobster dinner,” he said, an effort to help balance, in a small way, the supply-and-demand equation and to bring the community together for a good cause and good times.
They hope to accomplish the same Sunday. The Blomquists will pitch in and look forward to seeing many of their old regulars from their 14 years at Bullwinkle’s. “We’re coming out of retirement for this operation,” Paul Blomquist said.
Mank has an order in to Lash’s Lobster Wharf, in Friendship – his home base during his fishing career – for 540 pounds of lobster and he expects to place another. During the 9-11 event in 2001, some customers ate as many as 7-8 lobsters, Blomquist said.
The cookout will take place from noon to 4 p.m. under a large tent in the field next to the restaurant; $15 buys a plate with a lobster and all sides – and as many more plates as each diner can eat. Draft beer and other cold beverages will be available.
“We’re not doing it to make money,” Blomquist said. If every restaurant in the Midcoast followed their lead, the impact on the state-wide lobster market would still be minimal, he said.
“It’s trying to do something local to support local,” he said.
The organizers don’t know if they’ll make a profit, but if they do, they plan to donate it to the Maine Lobstermen’s Association Relief Fund.
“We want to keep our lobsters here,” Mank said.
The steak house will also be open for diners who prefer the regular menu. For more information, call Bullwinkle’s Steak House at 832-6272.
