Luke’s Lobster to Open Aug. 23

Luke’s Lobster, which specializes in authentic Maine seafood rolls, is set to open a Georgetown location at 1211 Potomac Street, NW, Aug. 23.

The young company which runs eateries in Penn Quarter and Bethesda, along with its five Manhattan spots, was founded by Luke Holden, who is a Georgetown University business school alumnus. His family owns a lobster-processing company in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Holden opened his first spot in Greenwich Village in 2009.

As for the new Potomac Street, spot, Ben Conniff of Luke’s said, “We can’t wait to open in the neighborhood. Aug. 23 is around when we think we will be fully decorated, staffed and ready to go. We hope to get a few days under our belt and introduce ourselves to the neighbors before the students return to campus.”

Luke’s is planning a grand opening party around the Aug. 23 date, Conniff said. “For customers, we’ll be giving away some Luke’s Lobster Georgetown swag to our first hundred or two customers.”

“Luke’s Georgetown years were as formative as his lobster-boat summers,” a company press release recalls. “Dishing fresh, sustainable Maine lobster to his old neighborhood and fellow Hoyas has been Luke’s dream since he served his first sandwich. In particular, he has been pining for the building where he burned his mouth so many times on melted cheese and tomato sauce before the pizza joint closed in 2010. He couldn’t have found a better location. The whitewashed clapboard house at 1211 looks as though it was transplanted directly from a Maine lobster dock. Luke’s first two-story location will have room to satisfy neighbors and students alike amid lobster gear from his old boat. And the neighborhood’s love of good food, from cheesesteak to cupcakes, makes it the ideal community to share the world’s greatest lobster, in the form of D.C.’s favorite lobster roll.”

The menu is already posted outside the door of the Potomac Street eatery: Lobster roll, $15; crab roll, $12; shrimp roll, $8. For $20, there’s Taste of Maine, a sample of the three rolls in one meal; double that amount for $38 with Noah’s Ark. There is a blueberry ice cream sandwich — and, of course, clam chowder.

The Potomac Street building once housed Philly Pizza & Co. (closed due to community protests about neighborhood noise), which then became Go Fresh. It last occupant, a sandwich joint called The Crave, was shuttered a few months ago because of a rent dispute.

And what about Luke’s staffers’ favorite eating establishments around town? Conniff noted that there are “lots of good choices but I think we have to give a shout out to Luke’s classmates behind Sweetgreen. What great food and a great company. Beyond that, Scott won’t shut up about the Southwest Chicken Salad at the Tombs, and Wisey’s Chicken Madness is a team favorite. ”