Five Islands Lobster Company

A ten-minute stroll from Coveside is the Five Islands Lobster Company, always on the published lists of the best lobster shacks in Maine. It appeared in a Lexus commercial a couple of years back, featuring a guy who left New York in his Lexus, happily drove across New England, arrived a lobster wharf – Five Islands, of course – and told the guy cooking his lobster that he wasn’t staying in the area, he just drove up for lunch! (Don’t try this lunch gambit at home, kids: the drive from New York to Georgetown is at least six hours, even in a Lexus). This iconic eatery has been celebrated in Down East, Travel and Leisure, the Boston Globe, MSNBC, and probably a lot of other publications and programs we don’t know about. Suffice it to say, the setting is incomparable, overlooking rocky islands, rustic cottages, and the fishing fleet. And the lobster, steamer clams, fry baskets (clams, Maine shrimp, local scallops, or fish and chips), grilled haddock sandwiches, and lobster rolls can’t get any fresher: you sit at your table and watch the fishermen bring in the day’s catch. For those sorry souls who don’t like seafood, the wharf (as it’s called locally) has burgers, hot dogs, even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There’s no liquor license, but folks are welcome to bring beer or wine with them. No visitor to Maine should miss a lobster-wharf meal, and Five Islands is – as their website promises – “Maine’s legendary ‘eat-on-the-dock-with-the-fishermen-but-best-avoid-the-table-by-the-bait-shack-door’ summer dining and boats/islands/light-house-watching experience.”