July 26, 2012 — Truly fresh seafood can be difficult to find in Southern Nevada, but Monstah Lobstah bridges the 2,780 miles between Henderson and Massachusetts Bay with regular supplies of live seafood from New England waters.
“That is a challenge,” said Rick Grande, the restaurant’s general manager. “We have to pick (the lobsters) up right away. If they die—total loss for us. It doesn’t happen that much.
“Today we picked up 40 lobsters. Two died. That’s about average, two or three.”
According to Grande, large casinos order seafood in such large quantities that they have to receive it frozen.
All Monstah Lobstah seafood comes from East Coast waters, said Grande. The lobsters are shipped from Maine and kept in a large restaurant tank custom built by Grande and his uncle, who specializes in pool maintenance and construction. The clams come from Ipswich, Mass.
Everything arrives alive, and Grande personally collects the shipments from Delta Cargo twice a week. Even the hot dog buns are brought from New England.
Monstah Lobstah, located at 9310 S. Eastern Ave., near the the I-215 beltway, is a family-owned restaurant that has been open for 18 months.
“From the ground up, we’ve been doing it pretty much ourselves,” said Grande. “It’s been real challenging. We had to work out the kinks when we first started, but now we’redoing real well.”
The Grande family is originally from the Boston area, and they take care to offer an authentic New England dining experience.
“We know what real New England food tastes like,” said Grande. “And that’s what we want to bring out here.”
He said the restaurant gets regular business from East Coast natives living throughout the Valley.
“We have pretty much any lobster dish you can think of,” said Grande.
Traditional dishes are offered alongside experimental variations on the regional cuisine, which includes lobster tacos, lobster enchiladas and pizza with lobster meat.
“We want to add that, because we wanted to add a little West Coast flavor to it. We’re on the West Coast, but we still have traditional New England-style food,” he said.
Many of the recipes in the Monstah Lobstah kitchen belong to Grande’s grandmother, Alice McDonough, who used to come in and show the staff how to properly cook the
larger lobsters.
“She would instruct them on how to boil the bigger lobsters, so they’re not chewy,” said Grande. “Some people say big lobsters are chewy, but not here. They’re just as tender as the small lobsters. She’s real serious about that.”
Many of the entrées are served in large silver tins.
“It’s just like you’re eating out in Cape Cod,” said Grande. “We bring (the food) out in the tins. It brings people back to when they were kids. They can eat what they like and feel like they’re at home again.”
The family is considering expansion to Summerlin and possibly Newport Beach, Calif., but want to move slowly to preserve the family character of their establishment.
Because this is a family-owned and operated restaurant, proper service is as important as food quality. Normal business hours are usually from 11:30 in the morning until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Not wanting anyone to feel neglected, the restaurant has stayed open as late as 11 p.m. to accommodate customers.
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