Lobster Rolls, Chatham Cape Cod

Chatham Fish & Lobster – The Winter Lobster Roll Fix

Being mid-January, most of our favorite seasonal spots for lobster rolls are closed. We needed our fix though. The answer came in Chatham Fish & Lobster, the combo fish market and small restaurant located in the Cornfield Plaza on Rt 28 in Chatham.
Upon entering the clean space you are met by a big display case of prepared entrees and sides. That was not what we were after. We wanted fresh seafood. Three booths are to the side surrounded by displays of food items for sale, a small but pleasing casual atmosphere. Their menu is on a blackboard as well as a special board.

We honed right into the Lobster roll which they describe as fresh, steamed daily, lightly tossed in mayo for $17.99. It was hard to choose another item because there were several different interesting grilled sandwiches such as Blackened Tuna Caesar wrap or grilled salmon or swordfish sandwich. They also had the usual suspects under fried seafood along with now ubiquitous fish tacos, the west coast invention that every place on the east coast now have on their menus. We finally chose the Fried Scallop Caesar $8.99 from the special board and for good measure a cup of their lobster corn chowder $5.99.

The lobster corn chowder was creamy and great depth of flavor. Our only complaint is that we would have liked bigger lobster chunks in the chowder rather than the more shredded pieces that were in it.

The lobster roll did not disappoint. It came on the traditional New England style grilled roll overflowing with big sweet chunks of lobster meat only lightly dressed with mayo. Absolutely delicious. We give it 4 ½ starfish. We would order the potato chips next time as the side of cole slaw was not up to the caliber of lobster roll. The fried scallop Caesar was gigantic. They served 11 big fat fresh sea scallops nicely fried on a large Caesar salad. We admit that we were really only after the scallops but tricked ourselves into thinking we were being healthy by having the salad with it.

Overall this place works because you have the restaurant side getting the freshest seafood due to market adjoining it. Because Chatham Fish and Lobster is open year round and 7 days a week we can get our Lobster roll fix anytime. Winter hours are 9:30am – 5:00pm.

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn
Your Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast

First Night Celebration Cape Cod

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn


2009 has come and gone. To set the stage for a wonderful new year, Chatham put on its 19th annual First Night event. This is the only First Night on the whole Cape. Chatham and all the volunteers put on a jolly good show. The day starts out with the annual Chatham Town picture where citizens from Chatham pose at the Lighthouse for a big group picture. I wouldn’t want to be the one getting hoisted up in the crane to shoot the photo. The afternoon is filled with fun events for young and old alike. You could see opera, rock, bluegrass at many venues located in local churches and the new community center.

Fortunately the drizzly weather did not deter the throngs of people to attend this year. Going up and down Main Street you see as many people strolling the sidewalks as you would in the peak of summer. You could view an ice sculpture of a shark, food vendors at various locations, horse & carriage rides. A quick peek into the Squire and you saw folks still in their outlandish costumes from the Carnival Caper Road race, a run that took place earlier from the Squire to the Lighthouse and back. One of the most intriguing was the gloombox, a box that people could stuff with symbols of their woes and problems from 2009 such as broken promises, bad report cards, bounced checks etc. The box was then paraded down in the noise parade with people tooting horns and banging pots down to the bonfire at Oyster Pond. The box was set ablaze sending all past problems up in a wisp of smoke!

Music and festivities continued until the fireworks at midnight and the dropping of the illuminated “Countdown Cod” with the traditional countdown to the stroke of midnight and the New Year. Our cod is much more interesting than a plain old ball in NYC.