Thurston's Lobster Pound

You're in for a treat

Maine is well-known for lobsters, and Mount Desert Island just off the coast of Maine is home to many lobstermen. Wherever you drive on the island you'll see piles of metal or wooden lobster traps, sporting cords and floats in different colors depending on the owners. Lobster boats chug around the harbors, and the colorful floats bob around in the waters. After drinking in these sights and sounds, it's time to taste their catch.
There are many places to do this, ranging from fancy restaurants to roadside stands, but local friends insist that eating at a lobster pound is the best experience.

Why the name "pound?" These pounds are so called because the lobsters are sold by the pound, but also because they are trapped in large numbers and kept together, like an animal pound.

Head south west on the island for Thurston's Lobster Pound, on the water in the small town of Bernard, facing Bass Harbor. The advertisement reads, "our own lobsters, in the rough", and it's great lobster served in the perfect environment.

This is a real pound, rustic, but with charm and character. Next to the parking area many lobster cages are stacked up, with colorful floats and nets. The all-wooden building is constructed on piles right out over the water, so on the covered deck you can see, hear, and smell, the bay's water moving below through the cracks in the wooden floor boards. A small rocky "beach" is below the pilings, where kids search for sea glass. Collecting polished colored sea glass is a new summer activity for many kids.

At the entrance ramp to the pound, with its large menu board at elbow level, is an outside deck with a huge, rectangular metal kettle tank, steaming and offering tempting lobster smells. Waitresses rush in and out, throwing whole lobsters into the boiling water, or retrieving them. Go in to the counter, order and pay, then find a table downstairs on the deck over the water. The waitress will bring down your order when it's ready. The deck has plain tables, and a wonderful view, especially as it gets dark and lights begin to twinkle out over the bay.

(captions) Thurston Pound (top) has a steaming kettle used to cook the lobsters; A tasty lobster and mussel dinner has the author and her party anxious to begin the feast (center); Lobster cages (below) are stacked up around the Pound. The deck, with colorful yellow roof, juts out over the water. (end captions)

Thurston Lobster Pound
Steamboat Wharf Road, Bernard, Maine 207/244-7600
Open daily during the summer for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
The Maine Lobster Festival will be in Rockland, August 4-8, 2004.
www.mainelobsterfestival.com