By J.W. Oliver
Howie Shaw serves a customer at Joe Lane’s takeout stand in Damariscotta. A lifelong businessman and restaurateur, Shaw is managing the stand this summer. (Photo courtesy Sherrie Tucker/www.sherrietucker.com) |
The namesake of Shaw’s Fish and Lobster Wharf is back in the lobster business. Howie Shaw is managing Joe Lane’s lobster eatery in downtown Damariscotta.
Shaw, 75, of Nobleboro, is a veteran of the seafood industry and the small-business world. “I’ve been in business on my own since 1969 and started managing stores in 1962,” he said.
He managed supermarkets in Boston and West Hollywood, Calif. in his 20s and opened his own store, Howie’s Market, in the Cape Cod village of Pocasset, Mass., in 1969.
“In the early 1970s we were famous,” Shaw said. “People would drive from all over for lettuce at 25 cents a head and a gallon of milk for 99 cents.”
His first restaurant was Grandma’s in nearby Buzzards Bay, and “in 1988, I came up and bought Small Brothers from David McLain and opened it up as Shaw’s Fish and Lobster Wharf,” Shaw said.
He ran the New Harbor restaurant for just two seasons – 1988 and 1989 – before selling it in 1990 and returning to Buzzards Bay because Grandma’s new owner was going out of business. The popular New Harbor restaurant still bears his name, however.
Howie Shaw stands next to the lobster takeout stand on Elm Street in Damariscotta. In addition to lobster rolls, the eatery offers lobster BLTs and lobster tacos and plans to add a foot-long lobster roll soon. (Photo courtesy Sherrie Tucker/www.sherrietucker.com) |
Shaw brought his ideas for the New Harbor restaurant back to Massachusetts and remodeled his old restaurant. “I took down the Shaw’s Fish and Lobster concept and did Shaw’s Fish and Lobster in Buzzards Bay,” Shaw said.
He sold the Buzzards Bay version of Shaw’s in 2004 and moved to Maine in 2005, where he has lived ever since. His daughter owns Stonewall Stables in Nobleboro.
Since his move to Maine, Shaw has helped out at the stables, manned Clark’s Farm Stand in Damariscotta, and worked in the produce department at Hannaford Supermarket in Damariscotta.
“This year I said, ‘Man, I got to do something and make a little extra cash, so I looked in the paper, saw Joe’s ad, and here I am – 75 years old, still rockin’,” Shaw said.
Lobsterman Joe Lane opened the business last summer. Lane, 31, of Damariscotta, catches the lobster aboard his boat, the Spirit of ’76 , out of Pemaquid Harbor.
The stand offers a classic lobster roll and variations with cilantro lime or tomato basil mayonnaise, as well as a lobster BLT, a lobster grilled cheese, and a lobster taco. Lane and Shaw plan to add a foot-long lobster roll to the menu soon.
Customers can also buy whole lobsters live or cooked. The stand is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. Hours will expand to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. around the time the school year ends.
For more information or to place an order, call 563-LOBS (5627) or stop in at 93 Elm St. in Damariscotta, between the rear entrance to Skidompha Library and the Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop.
Lane and Shaw plan to move the business into a vacant Main Street space later this season.
