Valarie and I just returned from a two week trip to our favorite part of Maine, Mount Desert Island (MDI). MDI includes, Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Bass Harbor, and Acadia National Park among other villages. We have been spending summers and falls in Maine for the last 18 seasons. Some of our favorite lobster rolls on MDI are Archie’s Lobster, MDI Lobster and BBQ, Charolette’s Legendary Lobster Pound, Thurston’s and The Travelin Lobster to name a few.
We are based out of the same Maine cottage in Southwest Harbor for the last 16 seasons. Our favorite thing to do in Maine is eat the lobster. Steamed lobster, lobster rolls, lobster grilled cheese, lobster bisque, lobster Mac n cheese, and lobster poutine to name a few ways we enjoy it. One of the easiest ways to eat lobster is when it is piled high in the compact and portable lobster roll. Aside from Yankee, Maine and Downiest Magazines we read regularly, we love the Lobster Shack book by Mike Urban.
Lobster Shacks, A Road-Trip Guide to New England’s Best Lobster Joints is a great resource to find your next favorite lobster roll. The current edition is a second edition published in 2016 by The Countryman Press. The book’s Chapter’s are divided into Connecticut & Rhode Island, Cape Cod, North Shore and Hew Hampshire Shacks, Southern Maine, Midcoast Maine, and Acadia and Downest. 
It is a great source, because most people drive into Maine and depending where you are coming from, you will drive through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and then up the coast of Maine.
Since we are only talking about Maine lobster roll in this post, he reviews 35 different lobster shacks. Since there are probably 35 different places you can find a lobster roll on MDI alone, we used the book as a starting point and good reference to starting one’s lobster roll quest. Maine lobster is so sweet, succulent and fresh coming right off the lobster boats of the cold Maine ocean waters.
We love this book and enjoy the information it contains. Mike packed the book full of recipes, definitions, pictures and stories about the areas, the families and the community around each shack.
Although many of us search out lobster rolls from our smart phones, there is nothing like holding a book in your hand, especially when you are heading down one of Maine’s costal roads and peninsula’s with not much of a cell phone signal. We also use the book as a checklist to check the ones we visited and add new lobster shacks to the inside covered that never made the book yet.
This book is available in your favorite book stores, like our’s in Maine – Sherman’s. You can also pick a copy of Mike Urban’s Lobster Shack from the link below.
We hope you enjoy and use this book as much as we have on our foodie adventures and lobster quest throughout Maine and New England. Open up this book and pick a new place you have never tried, there is always adventure waiting at the other end! One filled with a stuffed lobster roll with butter mayo or both.
Check out Lobster Shacks today!