May 15, 2013 — Gourmet lunch trucks have become big business in the nation's capital in the past three years – so big that traditional restaurants are pressuring the city to restrict where and how long they can park.
And if the lines are any indication, dishing out Maine lobster on the streets of D.C. is good business. The Red Hook truck consistently had one of the longest lines Friday. It ran out of its Maine-style rolls in less than two hours, although customers who craved lobster still could order the hot and buttery Connecticut-style roll.
The food truck's success wasn't guaranteed when it started in the summer of 2010.
"We kind of rolled the dice," said Leland Morris, president of Red Hook Lobster Pound DC. "We didn't know what the reaction would be to, one, a seafood sandwich sold from a truck and, two, a $15 seafood sandwich from a truck."
In fact, Morris and his partner, Doug Povich, had to convince city officials that nothing in Washington's health code precluded the sale of seafood from a food truck. But a year after launching the first truck, Red Hook added one in Manhattan and another in Washington.
The company actually started in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, N.Y. – hence the name – when Ralph Gorham and his wife, Susan Povich, decided there was an untapped market for live lobsters in the trendy neighborhood.
Gorham began making twice-weekly trips to Maine — where Povich's family has a home — to buy the lobsters that would be sold in their small storefront.
The business took off when Povich — a trained chef whose father is talk show celebrity Maury Povich — began selling Maine lobster rolls at the lobster pound and at a big flea market in Brooklyn.
Doug Povich, who is Susan Povich's cousin, eventually convinced the skeptical couple to let him try a food truck to sell lobster rolls in Washington.
Lobster Pound DC now has more than 25,000 followers on Twitter (@LobstertruckDC) and was named the Best Food Truck in 2012 by readers of the Washington City Paper.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald