Top Chef REVEALS the Truth About Live Lobster Shipping! | Mark Murrell DSH #555

They're super creative.

They flew into Maine and the kitchen that we produce the sauces out of,

the QA is huge.

There was no way that we were going to launch unless their team came down and worked with our chef to make sure that everything was perfect.

I did not know it was that intense, to be honest, with restaurants of that quality.

It makes sense.

Yeah.

Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe.

It helps a lot with the algorithm.

It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team.

Truly means a lot.

Thank you guys for supporting.

And here's the episode.

All right, guys, we're talking lobsters today.

We got Mark Morrell.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's great to be here.

Yeah.

Excited.

I know you're bringing us Maine lobsters.

Is that where you're based?

Yeah, Portland, Maine, right on Union Wharf.

So we're literally...

On the water, if you were to go there, you'd see tons of lobster boats and salty fishermen and trucks and smelly bait and all that stuff can't get much fresher than that no no it's literally dock to doorstep

when you sent me those lobsters man holy crap yeah that was the best i've ever had yeah it is they were still alive yeah yeah and

it's wild right a lot of people don't even know right that you can do that you can have live lobsters shipped here i didn't know yeah yeah most people don't

so i think you sent you might have sent crabs too you sent something i'm not sure it was a minute ago yeah it was a while yeah yeah thanks for that man absolutely lobster rolls are a top five dish for me yeah like overall yeah i like them that much and that's the best way anybody that wants to get into lobster and they're afraid you know like live lobsters is intimidating it is at home um i was a little nervous i'm not gonna lie yeah but roll kits easy right super duper easy to do at home what's that the lobster roll kit oh roll kit yeah yeah yeah so it's uh no-brainer a fifth grader can do it yeah so which city in the world has the best lobster rolls?

Portland, Maine.

Not Boston.

No, not Boston.

I think, you know, there's a couple lobster rolls I really love.

I've never had one outside of the state besides Austin, Texas, where it's my lobster.

Okay.

And funny, I just found out this morning, but somebody in Montana, she won a food truck of the year and she won with our lobster roll.

No way.

Yeah.

Wow.

So I was like, that's pretty cool.

I've seen a couple lobster roll trucks, but they don't compare to your stuff, man.

Yeah.

For real.

Because I've had cousins and I've had a couple others, but I appreciate that.

Yeah, Vegas is pretty far out, so I don't know if their supply chain is in order.

Yeah, so

we can ship anywhere.

It would be difficult for, you know, Vegas has

distribution on lock.

Yeah.

You know, those those like the hotels yeah long-term relationships and that's not really our game yeah um we're direct to consumer and then we also support some food trucks smaller restaurants stuff like that i feel uh so you go directly to consumer you don't go to restaurants at all uh just a smaller restaurants and a couple food trucks okay but you took the e-commerce route yeah yeah and that was by design That was by design.

Yeah.

So

the origin story is I actually was living in Chicago when I started started the business.

And I grew up in Maine and I was visiting.

I went to my buddy's fish shack because he has great crab cakes.

And he's like, hey, I want to sell lobster on the internet.

All these people, you know, call me up and say, hey, ship me lobsters.

And I was a marketing consultant at the time.

So he asked me to do a little bit of research for him.

I did it.

And I said, you should do it.

There's some competition, but not a ton.

And if you do it the right way, you could actually have a pretty good business.

But I told him that customer service was essential.

And that if you didn't have the desire to be available to customers, then you shouldn't do it.

Yeah.

Because it would fail.

And so he's like, I don't want to do that.

And I said, I'll do it.

And he fulfilled my orders.

And we grew out of him like eight months.

Wow.

Yeah.

That was quick.

He couldn't keep up.

He couldn't keep up.

So I had to fly into Maine, find a new supplier.

And now you live there.

And now, yeah, I moved back.

I think I ran it for five, six years out of Chicago.

Yeah.

And then I moved back.

I was like, all right,

you know, I got to take this seriously.

Nice.

I love that.

Yeah.

And there was a recent Momofuku collaboration, right?

Yeah.

That's big time.

Yeah.

We actually started, it literally just launched like a month ago.

Nice.

And we started talking in November.

And we did, first we launched a,

they're amazing, but chili butter, Sechuan chili chili butter lobster tails,

and then a wasabi uzu lobster roll.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

It's my mouth water.

It's really good.

I'll send you, I'll send you four of each and uh so you can, so you can have them.

I'm literally in heaven.

Yeah.

I love Momofuku too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's super, I'm so impressed with what David Chang has done all these years and continues to do.

It seems like he just keeps getting up and up and up.

Yeah.

And so to work with him was a huge honor.

I do restaurant reviews on the side.

I don't know if you've seen my videos.

And Momufuku, I think was the number one spot in Vegas I've had so far.

I've done about 15 episodes.

Wow.

Yeah.

The duck was just phenomenal.

Yeah.

Holy crap.

They're super creative.

They flew into Maine.

One of his top guys flew in and the kitchen that we produce the sauces out of,

the QA is huge, right?

So there was no way that we were going to launch unless their team came down and worked with our chef to make sure that everything was perfect.

I did not know it was that intense, to be honest, with restaurants of that quality.

It makes sense.

Yeah.

Well, and that brand, you know, they're not going to.

They got a big reputation up hold.

Yeah, they're not going to mess around.

They're going to make sure I'm not just like whipping it up,

you know, at my house.

Yeah.

So you sometimes question what goes on in restaurant kitchens.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they're, they're

upper tier.

Yeah.

You know, top tier with with QA.

So that was really nice.

And awesome, dude.

And scary too, because I'm like, oh no, what if they don't like how we are processed?

Yeah.

Well, but everything went flying colors and it's going really well.

And it got written up in the New York Times.

Nice.

And that's been a goal of mine since day one.

And that's big time.

Finally happened.

And BuzzFeed and a bunch of others.

BuzzFeed's a tough one to get.

That's big time, dude.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're pretty, we're pretty stoked on it.

We'll be selling these two products for the next six months.

And is it online?

Yep.

Yeah.

Right on our website, get main lobster.

They'll see, I put a little chili pepper next to the Momofuku experience.

And so people can buy just the tails or just the rolls or they can buy a combo.

Got it.

And can they get it at the restaurant too or just online?

They can't get it at the restaurant, but who knows what could happen

down the road.

You never know.

So also you did a collab with VFriends, Jerry V.

Yeah.

So we just, it actually hasn't been, I think it's getting announced on the 28th.

Okay.

This will come out after.

So.

All right.

Yeah.

And so really stoked on that because VFriends is an amazing community.

It's one of the ones that kind of survived.

Yeah.

Not many did.

Yeah.

And

so what we're doing is

VFriends with the, I forget which one it is.

Which lobster is it?

Oh, is it the blue one?

So Hattie is what I want to promote.

And so I want them promoting that and get main lobster.

And then their

token holders with the lobster,

50 of them are going to get one of our subscription boxes.

Wow.

That's awesome, dude.

Yeah.

I think one of his V friends is a lobster, too, right?

Exactly.

And I can't remember which name it is.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Escaping me.

I don't know if it's like the lonely lobster.

I've seen it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it'll be announced on the 28th.

And then we're going to be doing a couple of things together, you know, and

we'll be down at VCon

talking about it as well.

In LA?

Yep.

Yeah, that'll be a fun one.

Yeah.

We'll try to make it out there.

Yeah.

And,

but Hattie, the cotton candy colored lobster, they got 4 billion impressions back in November of 2021.

That's how I found you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm, so I'm designing a sneaker inspired by just her color and

her beauty.

Is she still alive?

She's still alive.

Wow.

She's in Rye, New Hampshire at the Seacoast Science Center.

She's still alive.

They send me pictures and i check in and that's cool man yeah how long do lobsters typically live so they have pretty long lives as long as they have to shed their shell every year so if they survive that then they're pretty good she's in a protected environment but you know it's not the most natural environment for her but the science center is making sure the senility is good the temperature is good and she gets three squares a day damn so i didn't know lobsters change shells every year so they're like uh sometimes multiple times a year.

Holy crap.

That's how they grow.

That's interesting.

Right.

So it's a lot of people use it as in business as a metaphor, right?

You have to shed some things in order to grow.

Right.

So there's just empty lobster shells at the bottom of the ocean floor and all.

Yep.

And

then they're...

totally susceptible.

So they go to safe areas in the ocean to be protected from prey and also just from the ocean waves.

Right.

So how long does it take to regrow the shell then?

It starts growing, you know, before it comes off, but it's super, super soft.

So like in Maine, we don't ship these, but in Maine, there's a soft shell lobster.

Really?

Yeah.

You can't eat the shell, but

the shell is so soft that the salt water kind of permeates and tenderizes the meat.

Really, really sweet.

So summertime, if you're in Maine, that's the best time to get lobsters.

Yum.

That's good to know.

Yeah, we try to ship them.

We ship hard shells, but in the summertime,

they get graded and it's a new shell.

And it's like, this is a new shell, soft shell that will survive the trip in a box to Las Vegas.

Wow.

Yeah.

That is good to know, man.

Because I've heard of soft shell crab and I've eaten that, but I've never heard of soft shell lobster.

Yeah.

Well, you can't eat the shell, but it is a much sweeter product.

Yeah.

That's cool.

It's pretty nice.

Sometimes you see crazy videos of huge lobsters and people eating them.

And then the comments are all hateful saying it's not as good or whatever.

It's well, think of

veal and then think of like an old cow.

Yeah.

You know, so you have to cook a large lobster a certain way.

And funny, in Vegas, I go to Del Frisco's every year before the Super Bowl because I spend the Super Bowl here.

And they let us fly in our own lobsters.

Really?

And I always send one big one and they know how to cook it.

So it comes out great.

Wow.

So how do you, how do you cook a bigger bigger one?

So, it's a slower cook, and he uses lots of cream for the tail, and

he steams the claws,

and he just steams them for a longer period of time, because obviously it's bigger meat.

But steaming is the most precious way to cook lobster.

But the lobster tail, I don't know how he does it, but it comes out pretty tender.

And it's just, he says it's a slower, low cook with cream.

Yeah.

Damn.

Good to know.

Yeah, I like my lobster steamed, actually.

Yeah, that's the best way.

That's how I do.

I agree.

Yeah, because steam or boil, I give steam the edge.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then the summer, grilling lobster tails,

shell down,

there's some flavor in the shell that kind of permeates up.

Really?

And it's a fast cook, but not direct, so it's not super aggressive on the

so do shell down because usually people yeah shell down i do shell down well if you want to grill mark are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest Well, click the application link below in the description of this video.

We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life.

Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys.

Right?

Because you want to take a picture, then sure, do that at the last minute.

Yeah.

Shell down is the way to go.

Good to know.

Are you a tail or claw guy?

I'm a claw guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not a big tail guy because it gets stuck in my teeth.

And there's shit in there, right?

Yes, there is.

There is.

You got to take that out.

That long little vein there.

I just found that out recently, and I got really upset.

Actually, my mom never told me that.

I used to eat that shit.

Everybody eats.

Yeah, everybody eats.

Same with clawfish, crawfish, but those are so small it's annoying to take.

Yeah, well, your shrimp, too, you always want to get it de-veined.

Yeah.

Right?

Because it's not a vein.

Right?

It's a shit.

It's a poop shoot.

Yeah, they just call it that.

Um, you also have an auction.

Yeah, so August 29th, we're auctioning

seven sneakers, the one inspired by Hattie.

I partnered with SCAD, which is Savannah College of Art and Design.

It's in Atlanta at the SCAD campus.

And 100% of the proceeds are going to marine conservation and also

future SCAD student scholarship.

So 50-50.

Half of it's going to marine conservation, half of it's going to the kids.

Nice.

So

I worked with SCAD students on this.

You know, I saw that they had a master's program in sneaker design.

And that was the first thing when I met Hattie, I was like, man, I can see some sneakers.

It just popped into my head.

So I reached out and they said they have a program for that.

And I said, well, let's go.

So

we're right at the finish line and prototype is, I think, arriving in the next week or so.

Nice.

And so we'll have full production of the seven sneakers by August 29th.

And we're going to auction them off.

Those are going to look cool.

Yeah, super cool.

I'll text you a couple of concepts, but

it's going to be really cool.

Yeah, please, because I'm super into blue, as you know, with the show.

Yeah, it's a really cool blue and with some hue, pink hues, and stuff like that, because she had some pink in there.

Yeah.

So, how rare are blue lobsters?

I've never seen one.

So, she's a cotton candy, which is one in 100 million.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

So, if you you think about it, when a lobster drops its eggs, only 0.04% make it to one pound.

Damn.

Hattie was 1.25 pounds.

That's her name.

And

so only 0.04% actually make it to one pound.

And she is one in 100 million of those.

Oh my God.

So it's like one in trillion.

Yeah.

So it's nearly impossible for a lobster to make it to a pound.

Wow.

And then to look like her is just unbelievable.

So she's literally one of a kind then.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

It's pretty amazing.

I didn't realize.

We do see some oranges.

There's a lot of weird colors out there.

It's some calicos, which are interesting.

Calicos, what's that?

Calico is like a calico cat, right?

So it's got like some yellows and some blacks and some oranges.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

And it all has to do with there's some elements missing in their DNA that gives the expression of color on their shell.

And that's what happened with Hattie.

Got it.

You know, so Mother Nature was like, hey, I'm just going to pull those two things out.

Yeah.

Make you look like that.

Now she knew that she looked like that.

She knew?

She lived, in order to live that long, she had to be hiding most of her life

in the muck because...

she would be susceptible to prey.

One of the big things why lobsters don't live is because they're too light, so they float when they're really, really small.

So they get picked up by everything-birds, you know, fish, you know, everything.

So she somehow survived that.

And then when she got to enough weight to where she sank, she knew that she was just too bright.

So she just spent time in the muck.

Interesting.

And a big storm happened.

So everything was cloudy.

So she came out to eat and she went and had dinner at my lobsterman's trap.

So then he pulled her up.

How do lobster traps work?

So there's two components.

They come in through one side and because lobsters actually travel backwards, their claws stretch out and they can't get out.

Oh, wow.

So they come in for the food and they get stuck in.

That parts, that's called the parlor.

And then they get stuck in.

And so a lobsterman will drop a trap, say, on a Monday.

Give it two, three days, pick it up, and then drop another one in its place.

Got it.

And that's kind of...

So it's just one at a time they cock them?

Well, so a lot of them will have a string.

Yeah.

No, they catch more than one.

It all depends upon where they lay them.

If the lobsters are migrating near there.

But

they'll often have a string of like 20 traps.

So they'll have a their buoy and they pull up the buoy and then boom, 20 are coming.

Damn.

So it's a really neat process.

Yeah, that is unique.

I didn't know they swam backwards, too.

I wonder why they do that.

Yeah, they move backwards.

I don't know.

Their fin,

their tail is their big sort of mover, right?

So if they want to move fast and the tail is going this way and they got to like flap, flap, flap.

So that means they would move backwards.

Got it.

Right.

Because fish go like this and then a lobster goes like this.

Right.

So.

Is it true they used to feed prisoners lobster?

They did way back in the day.

There was

so much lobster.

you know, they would sometimes climb up, you know, onto the beach and they did feed the prisoners.

And then visitors came and they said, Oh my God, this stuff is amazing.

And so then suddenly, boom, it was a huge industry.

Wow.

Still is today.

All over the world, made lobster goes.

Yeah, it's like a delicacy in some countries.

Yeah, absolutely.

Most countries are

either loving

Maine or Canada or

even the Caribbean on the west coast.

But yeah, lobsters, I think it has a lot to do with the process of getting at the meat.

It's not easy.

You got to get at it.

And it tastes amazing.

Fire.

I'd pick it over most dishes, to be honest.

Nice.

It is a bit pricey at restaurants, but sometimes you got to just go hard.

Yeah, I know.

One time I was at, I think it was at Eddie V's in Austin, and I bought a seven to eight ounce tail, right?

It's about

that big.

And I think it cost me like $70

for a single lobster tail.

But that's Austin, Texas.

Yeah.

Seven to eight is pretty big, right?

That's an expensive tail.

But $70 for a tail.

That's nuts.

It's wild.

And someone like you who knows the margins, that must have been like, what the hell is going on here?

Man, I got to get these guys as a customer.

That's how I feel now that I buy directly from the source for my meat.

Yeah.

Whenever I see it at a restaurant, I'm like, damn, they marked this up like three times.

Yeah.

Yeah, they do.

But, you know, restaurants, they have they have rent they got you know and labor is a lot more expensive and you know food cost is tough with lobster and I heard their margins are yeah I heard their margins are low even with all that being said yeah so it's pretty crazy I mean our margins are low really you know direct to consumer absolutely oh wow it's tough well we got to ship it right oh right so you got to have the right materials the right coolant the right people

And then you got to ship it.

And your ad costs, right?

You're running a lot of paid ads.

Yeah.

Ad costs.

And those are going up every year.

Every, yeah.

They go up and they're less effective.

Yeah.

You know, as you reach more people, it's less effective.

Yeah.

So we're actually diversifying our traffic sources and trying to do more owned,

you know, and do some SEO and things like that so that we can not be so reliant upon.

But we have a huge customer base.

We've served over 500,000 people.

Damn.

So we rely a lot on them.

And we just focus on doing a really good job of serving them and

only give them the best quality.

And they come back for more.

Yeah.

Your repeat order rate is probably insane.

Yeah, it's really strong.

And we've had some customers for over 10 years.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

That's impressive, man.

Yeah.

Where do you want to take this thing?

It's been 10 years already.

Yeah.

So, no, it's actually been 14, I think.

Jeez.

We had some really big growth in 2020, COVID, and we've retained that

revenue level, and we're ready to grow some more.

So we've been building our foundation so that we can increase our ability to output

and also sourcing.

And so we're gearing up for another growth spurt.

So we're diversifying.

That's what we got with MoMAFuku to do that.

We just signed in a licensing agreement with Jeffrey Zakarian, who's a celebrity chef.

We're going to be doing some products with him.

And his people just literally emailed me this morning, you know, saying, hey, let's start getting ready for Q4 or something.

Oh, yeah.

That's good, man.

Yeah.

Really excited for it.

So we got to get you with Gordon Ramsey next.

That's right.

Make it happen.

That's the goat right there.

Him and Guy Fieri.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's some like people you've never heard of on TikTok getting millions of views on food content.

Yeah.

It's actually insane.

Yeah.

It's kind of cool.

Yeah.

No, it's cool.

It's just them cooking at their house.

Yeah.

And they're blowing up.

Yeah, I've been looking at those because that's part of owned.

It's like, all right, what can I do with my content?

Right.

To be as engaging.

And I want to be educational and inspiring.

Yeah, I think you should send some to them and have them make a lobster roll video or something.

And that would crush.

You guys would blow up from that.

Let's do it.

Yeah, I'll set some intros up for you, man.

Yeah, that would be amazing.

Yeah, you wouldn't believe the views these guys are getting.

It's insane.

Yeah.

It's like.

Celebrities have been taken over because of social media.

Yeah.

It really is incredible.

And it's kind of cool too, right?

So it's like

us consumers are taking over the messaging to ourselves as opposed to relying on

brands and celebrities to do that for us, which is really neat.

I saw this one guy.

was making butter.

That was his thing.

He's doing butter at his house.

I've seen that guy.

And he suddenly is like, oh my God, this is a product.

And he like blew up insanely fast.

I've seen that guy.

I've seen the salt guy, yeah, and I'm like, that's just awesome.

Yeah, you know, I love stories like that.

Well, the product speaks for itself, and social media has just been able to amplify that message, right?

Totally.

Because before, it would take longer to scale a company.

Like, if you started this now with social media, it wouldn't have taken 14 years.

Oh, yeah, totally.

Probably three to five.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so it's pretty crazy.

Timing is very important in business.

Yeah, it sure is.

What's next for you, man, and where can people find you?

So,

what's next?

we're really focused on um amplifying momofuku

and uh jeffree zakarian and looking at doing a couple of more large partnerships like that

and diversifying how people find us you know and um

speaking of which on socials at get main lobster good handle yeah So

nice and easy to remember.

Yeah.

You know, and like us and try to have fun.

And

uh we're gonna be uh elevating uh what we do on social and try to educate people more and uh and still have fun awesome we'll link it below guys if you want the best lobster the freshest you've ever had definitely check out get me lobster my gosh my mouth is still watering dude real great product thanks for watching guys as always and i'll see you tomorrow