Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty: Popular with many
After a year of reviewing almost three dozen restaurants frequented by barrier island residents, we are about to begin a new round of reviews – which will kick off in our Labor Day issue. But first, we will get in two final reviews of mainland restaurants which have their own cadres of loyal followers: Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty, in this issue, and Saigon Sushi in our August 13th issue.
The first time we tried a Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty, it was more than three decades ago in the seaside town of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. That was the first of the Lobster Shantys, and a great place to stop en route back to New York after a day at the Jersey shore. It was our understanding at the time that most of what you were eating had been caught not too many hours before by Jack and his father.
Fast forward to 2009 and the restaurant at the tip of Royal Palm Pointe, one of several Lobster Shantys the family subsequently opened in Florida. The Lobster Shanty has been here in Vero about as long as we have – and it even managed to outlive an ahead-of-itstime Chart House restaurant, which for a brief period was located next door where million-dollar condos now stand.
While the 2004 hurricanes came close to doing in the Lobster Shanty, the restaurant was rebuilt and reopened many months later looking less like a shanty and more like a very large restaurant with two walls of windows overlooking the dolphins at play in the Indian River Lagoon.
But though it has been significantly spiffed up, there is a bit of a time-warp feel to the décor. And while you can get a good meal here, the seafood does not strike us as being as fresh as we remember it from back in New Jersey.
The start of the meal provides another throw back to an earlier time, where as part of your dinner, you get the option of a visit to an all-you-can-eat salad bar. These days, salad bars strike us as very seventies. For reasons you can probably guess, we almost never hit them. But the lengthy salad bar at the Lobster Shanty obviously remains popular with the restaurant’s overwhelmingly elderly clientele.
On this most recent visit, however, I opted for a cup of the Manhattan clam chowder, which was quite tasty. My husband, the ex-New Englander – who readers of previous columns may recall rates New England clam chowders on a one-to-10 scale – gave the Lobster Shanty’s version a 7 (pretty good).
During the slow summer months, the Lobster Shanty also is offering a special that lets you add an appetizer normally priced $6.99 to $8.99 to your entrée for only $1.
This is a great deal, particularly if (as I do) you love their fresh clams served with drawn butter. But on this Sunday evening, to our shock and horror, we were told they were out of clams! Good grief!
My husband settled instead for a half dozen oysters on the half shell (normally $7.99, but this night just $1), and I had the mushroom caps baked with crab meat stuffing (also normally $7.99). While the stuffed mushrooms were not bad, my husband thought he had far the better second-choice with the fresh shucked oysters.
For entrees, my husband had the Mediterranean herb grilled swordfish ($20.99) – something he has ordered here several times previously which generally has been quite dependable. This time, it was a bit overcooked, and, I fear it had been a bit long out of water.
I had the grilled sea scallops ($19.99) served with a roasted red pepper sauce. The seared scallops were fresh and perfectly prepared, and the sauce was tasty.
On previous visits, entrees we have tried have included the sesame crusted tuna steak ($22.99), pan seared in sesame seeds with soy, wasabi and ginger; the pesto snapper ($23.99), broiled yellowtail snapper with a creamy pesto sauce; and the lump crab cakes ($18.99), lightly sautéed Maryland style crab cakes.
One of the things we always have wondered is how many people keep bestcoming back to the Lobster Shanty largely for the basket of fried fritters — dusted with confectioner’s sugar — that is placed on every table along with garlic bread sticks?
My guess is the addictive fritters are a key to the Lobster Shanty’s repeat business. When I asked my husband on this last visit how many fritters he had put away, he denied everything. The traces of sugar on his dark blue shirt, however, belied his protestations. Also worth coming back for is the Key Lime pie ($3.99), as tart and smooth as you are likely to find anywhere.
With the summer specials and a nice bottle of wine, dinner for two came to $80 before tip. You can easily shave $20 off that by choosing a more modestly priced wine and coming before 6 pm for the early bird dinners, which are big here.
This is not the best seafood to be had in Vero, but the Lobster Shanty (with its salad bar) remains a popular restaurant with many.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
Daily, 11:30 am to 9 pm
Bar
Full Bar
Address (MAP)
1 Royal Palm Blvd., Vero Beach, Telephone: (772) 562-1941
Online
www.jackbakerslobstershanty.com
