Tag Archives: Luke’s Lobster
These young black men catch more than lobsters. They also catch a break
At 15, Cristiano Silva thought he might spend the summer working at a McDonald’s near his home on the outskirts of Portland, Maine, and help with household expenses. Instead, he found himself on a lobster boat called the Sea Smoke, out among Casco Bay’s rocky islands. One breezy day on the boat last month, Cris scrunched his nose and placed a fist-size mesh bait bag full of smelly herring inside a wire lobster trap. This spring he and three other Black teens were recruited from area high schools to learn how to lobster in a new program called “Lift All Boats.” >click to read< 11:06
As Luke’s Lobster grows, its owner keeps an eye on sustainability
“It all starts with the fishermen,” he said. “Without them, we don’t have the great product to sell in our restaurants or through our retail partners. We’re a certified B Corporation, so it’s in our DNA to look for the win-win as we grow the business.”The co-op partnership model began in 2016, shortly after Tenants Harbor fishermen and Holden founded the Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-op on Miller’s Wharf, according to a company news release. At that time, Holden started a restaurant on Miller’s Wharf and began returning 50% of the profits from the restaurant back to the co-op. >click to read<14:28
How a 25-year-old turned his ‘passion project’ into a global business with $30 million in sales
When recent college grads Luke Holden and Ben Conniff opened a hole-in-the-wall, 200-square-foot lobster shack in New York City’s East Village in the fall of 2009, they were wholly unprepared. The two had recently met through Craigslist and gave themselves a two-month time-frame to open their shack, which they dubbed “Luke’s Lobster.”,,, Holden did have an idea he was excited about: a lobster shack.,,, Holden saw a hole in the market. He called his dad, who had 50 years of experience as a Maine lobsterman, dealer and processor, and asked him to be a 50-50 investor in the first Luke’s Lobster shack. >click to read<13:43