Lobsterfest returns with curbside delivery only
Oct. 17—Lobsterfest was a drive-thru affair this year, but the annual fundraiser still pre-sold 800 tickets to those who could pick up lobster meals at Grace Episcopal Church on a bright and breezy Saturday afternoon.
What church officials called their 24th annual event was really the 23rd as the previous year's Lobsterfest had been canceled due to pandemic precautions. This year, motorists crept through the Anniston church's alley to have their pre-ordered delicious packages handed to them.
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Mike Phillips has cooked the lobsters for the church for 12 years. He and the Rev. Wally LaLonde stood idly by waiting for the next batch of lobsters to cook.
"All the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity," LaLonde said. "A lot of our volunteers are from Habitat, and we have at least one recipient of a Habitat home helping."
Represented in Calhoun County for 29 years — it was October 1992 when a well-attended community meeting revealed wide interest in the charity — Habitat for Humanity is an international nonprofit that partners with families in need to help them acquire affordable housing.
Lobsters that aren't claimed by a ticket-holder are resold, LaLonde said, and Phillips said he'd make a bisque with what didn't sell.
But those who did use their tickets got lobster and a little more.
"They'll get a lobster dinner, and it'll have slaw, baked potato, and a lobster," Phillips said. "And I think some kind of cookie for dessert."
LaLonde said the women of the church typically have a bake sale, but with this year being drive-through only, they opted to add the dessert for free with the lobster meals, including in the package a small note thanking the community for its support.
"You know, normally they've got hamburgers and hotdogs cooking, and bouncy houses, a live band playing all those famous lobster hits from the '50s and '60s," LaLonde said. "And people eat inside, but we just weren't comfortable yet. We didn't know what would happen."
Four giant pots bubbled to the side of the church filled with 48 bright red lobsters every 10 to 12 minutes. From there, the boiled crustaceans were transferred to smaller pots that were dumped onto two tables where the church's volunteers trimmed off the rubber bands, and precut the lobsters for easy access to the meat. At the next work station volunteers quickly wrapped them in parchment liners and placed them inside foam insulated containers to preserve heat for the next customer.
Early European settlers on this continent considered the lobster, available in limitless quantities along the northern coast, to be a poor man's meat — the opposite of a delicacy. In the year 2021, they're sold by the hundreds for $30 a plate.
