It’s the best seafood deal in town, and it’s all thanks to the snowpocalypse!
Jordan’s Lobster Dock in Sheepshead Bay has slashed prices by almost 40 percent for the entire month of January, selling one-and-a-quarter-pound live or steamed lobsters for $12 each and charging $6.99 per pound for larger lobsters. The 45-year-old market is offering the crustaceans at what it claims to be a low cost because it had about 800 lobsters left over after New Year’s Day, as the Dec. 26 blizzard prevented many loyal customers from getting their hands on the clawed shellfish, according to manager John Olson.
“We run a seafood lobster market, not an aquarium,” said Olson, who usually charges $10.95 per pound of lobster during the winter. “Now we’re pricing the lobsters so that we don’t make a profit, but can still cover the cost of shipping and not lose any money.”
Most of the signature creatures at Jordan’s Lobster Dock, on Harkness Avenue near Knapp Street, are actually about two-and-a-half pounds, which will run customers a tad more than $17 with the January discount. It’s a seafood steal compared to the nearby Nick’s Lobster on Flatbush Avenue in Mill Basin, which would charge almost $40 for a lobster that size, plus an extra buck for steaming.
“I haven’t tried Jordan’s lobsters yet, but I came because I heard about the sale,” said Theresa Shi, a New Jersey resident who was visiting friends in Brooklyn when she heard about the deal. “These prices are great.”
The family-owned market has been a neighborhood staple since the late Bill Jordan opened it in 1966. The store was the inspiration for the 1995 movie “Brooklyn Lobster,” which was written and directed by Jordan’s son, Kevin, and produced by Martin Scorsese.
Other Brooklyn lobster mongers are bewildered by their legendary competitor’s bargain, especially because lobsters are harder to come by in the winter months.
“There are less lobsters alive in the winter and our fisherman have to go farther off the coast of Maine to get them,” sad Susan Povich, co-owner of Red Hook Lobster Pound on Van Brunt Street, which charges $10.75 per pound of lobster plus and extra $1 for steaming. “There’s definitely no lobster surplus, otherwise we’d be paying half of what we pay wholesale.”
Unfortunately for seafood lovers who are in the mood to dine out, the $6.99 per pound deal doesn’t apply to Jordan’s sit-down restaurant. But the eatery is still less expensive than its competitors, as its $21.99 lobster dinner is about $10 less than the crustaceans at Nick’s.
