Thursday, July 24, 2008

Lobster Roll Diaries: PJ's Family Restaurant

If you are a restaurateur who wants to serve good seafood, the best place to start might be to name your restaurant PJ's. One of my favorite places to go out for oysters and fish in San Francisco was PJ's Oyster Bed, and one of the best places I've gone for lobster rolls on Cape Cod is PJ's Family Restaurant in Wellfleet. (I am also quite fond of the happy dancing foodstuffs pictured on the back of their official t-shirt, pictured above.)

Unlike a lot of other places, PJ's has both an indoor eat-in area as well as a sheltered picnic table patio outside by the take-out window. While its roadside ambiance doesn't boast any particular charms (I think Cobie's in Brewster is still the best place on the Cape in that category), the lobster roll itself is everything I look for in the genre: buttered and toasted hot dog bun, generous chunks of flavorful lobster, and just the right amount of mayonnaise. My friend and I also ordered a side of fried clams, which were very good, as well.

PJ's also offers ice cream and frappes, which are always nice to have available when one is gorging on fried and mayonnaised summer seafood, even if in reality you end up being too stuffed and ill-feeling when the meal is done to actually be able to contemplate dessert. I think the solution must be to order a frappe along with the meal, before that reality has a chance to sink in.