Dirt cheap is a concept of the past now. With the rise in inflation, a middle-class person is facing a new budget constraint each day. Similar is the case with foods in a restaurant, especially lobsters. Lobsters were discovered in the USA during World War Two as an alternative since people were facing a food constraint. It was considered a dirt-cheap and economical source of protein that people loved to devour.
A food that was considered an economical delicacy for the masses back in the day has now turned into a gourmet dish that only the elites and upper-middle class can afford. One of the reasons for this spike in prices is that lobsters are incredibly hard to catch.

A Decline in the Fishermen's Catch

Many fishermen use traps to catch lobsters which have to be dropped to the bed of the ocean. Even when fishermen end up catching a fairly good number of lobsters, many of them have to be sent back to the sea due to several regulations. In addition to it, the lobsters that make it to the list shave to be kept very carefully and cautiously under many precautions and have to be kept in a moist and cold container where they have sufficient oxygen to breathe.

All these protocols end up increasing the total cost of catching lobsters which eventually inflates the selling price. Another factor that comes into play is that lobsters relatively take longer to get mature and grow. It takes a minimum of seven years for a lobster to become mature.

Unprecedented Increase in Demand

After the regulations related to the pandemic have eased up, prices of dishes containing lobsters have seen a new high. A reason for this sudden increase in prices has been attributed to increased demand and shortened supply. This is because people have held themselves for more than a year. Now, after the restaurants started to serve food again, there has been a surge of people visiting restaurants and ordering lobsters.

Another aspect contributing to the spike in prices is that the lobster catch for this year has been delayed a little due to labor shortages and the two weeks delayed the start of the Canadian season. Having said that, many market experts believe that the lobster prices fill drop once the Canada season begins and the markets are once again flooded with lobsters and also when the sea temperature begins to rise which makes the ocean water warmer than usual making lobsters relatively more active.

Impact on the Restaurant Business

However, till the time the price hike persists, many well-known and customer favorite restaurants such as the Salt Line, an upscale seafood restaurant in Washington DC, have stopped serving their lobster rolls which have been loved by all their customers since the time they were introduced. A reason for this halt is that lobster rolls should ideally not be this expensive.

However, the increase in the overall cost of catching lobster leaves the restaurant with no choice but to pass apportion of it to their customers. Thus, instead of selling lobster rolls at a ridiculously high price, the restaurant chose to not serve them altogether until the prices fall back to normal. Instead of serving lobsters, the restaurant has come up with an alternative of adding shrimps to their menu as a replacement for lobsters.

You Need to Shell out Extra

During all this fiasco, there have been certain restaurants that have absorbed the costs in their profit and focused on nothing but providing their customers with value. One such restaurant is the Leeds that had no other option but to incur the increasing costs which were often thirty to fifty percent higher than the usual. However, some restaurants have had no choice but to pass the cost down to their customers. The famous Hank’s Oyster Bar has had to increase the price of their lobster rolls by a whopping $29.

Every restaurant is dealing with a price hike in its way. For instance, the restaurant in Georgetown known as Tony and Joe’s owned by Greg Casten has decided to remove their Monday night deals on lobsters and serve lobster-based dishes at premium prices. However, some restaurants are charging their customers as mind-bogglingly a high as $100 for serving lobsters. However, many restauranters have lost hope that the lobsters will return to pre-pandemic prices.