SEABROOK — Summertime calls tourists to the sands, but along the way, two signature seafood spots stand across the street from one another. With a hankering for clam strips, fried shrimp or lobster rolls, the question is — take a left turn or a right?
It’s an unusual arrangement to have a largest competitor sitting directly across the street, but the pair of seacoast eateries border either side of Route 286 in Seabrook, both serving many of the same seasonal visitors for generations.
One is Brown’s Lobster Pound, and across a stretch of pavement, is Markey’s Lobster Pool.
Both sell lobsters — live and boiled, fried clams, scallops, haddock, shrimp and every other seafood essential that families are hungry for. Either side has outdoor seating overlooking the marsh and water, and they both see an incomparable surge in business when beachgoers leave the shoreline in these hotter months.
But through the doors, behind the counters and along the dinner tables, each restaurant has developed their own identity, traditions and loyal customers.
Brown’s Lobster Pound
The establishment dates back to 1950, when the business was less a family eatery and more a lobster-hauling operation. Founders Hollis Brown and Louis Violette, who were each out of work, began shipping the crustaceans out of Maine and selling them to markets throughout the Merrimack Valley.
In 1948, they opened a lobster pound along the Taylor River in Hampton, which two years later, sprouted into the current Seabrook spot.
With time, a lunch bar was added, and customers were provided a place to sit down and enjoy their salty, battered platters. Fried fish, sandwiches and steamed clams were soon flying out of the kitchen, and the business slowly transformed into a must-stop destination near the coast.
Brown would buy out Violette and become the sole owner, and since then, the restaurant has developed into a family business that is nearing the fourth generation of ownership. The operation is currently run by Brown’s grandchildren, Robert and Bruce, with their kids serving in management and other positions.
It is no secret that June, July and August bring the biggest crowds to Brown’s, with customers pouring in to order their fried delights or pick lobster from a tank.
A large white sign with red lettering greets the guests as they pull in the parking lot: “LOBSTERS, ALIVE OR BOILED, IN THE WATER, STEAMED CLAMS.”
The cash-only establishment operates with a casual, cafeteria-like layout, with long aisles of wooden tables stocked with platter-wielding families. Outside, decks lay over the waterfront and marsh. Customers can bring their own beer, and their dogs, too.
Doors open at 11 a.m., but staff clock in near the crack of dawn to receive deliveries of all their lobster, clams and fish for the day. By the afternoon, the pace certainly changes.
Employee Joe Sidky said the lunch and dinner rush starts to take form around 4 p.m., when beachgoers are headed home. While the winter months are slower; summer can be relentless — like everyone on Earth wants a plate of fried clams, the staff said.
Yvette Bradley has seen that cycle for about 50 years, and said the restaurant can sell anywhere from 100 to 150 lobsters on a busy day. She added that Father’s Day is typically when they see their highest volume of foot traffic all year.
Brown’s is a multi-step operation, with several lines and stations stemming from either takeout windows, indoor orders or customers calling over the phone.
“You just snap into it,” Bradley said, describing how workers go into fifth gear when the crowds show up. “Especially when you’ve worked here for long enough.”
Even the tartar sauce is measured in buckets, with Bradley stating that the restaurant goes through at least 14 of the sauce jugs in a weekend.
“That goes with everything,” Bradley said. “People love it!”
Behind the scenes, there is a strong crew of younger employees that come through a J-1 visa summer work travel program, flying overseas to spend the season in Seabrook and helping them handle the surge. Sidky migrates from Egypt and picks up shifts at Brown’s every summer.
“Anything to help out,” Sidky said. “In a few hours, you’ll see lines all the way to the dining room and to the parking lot.”
It is, in his words, all hands on deck, as folks flock in and find a seat for lunch or dinner.
Patrick Brophy and Susannah Cowden pulled in with their two daughters after a beach day. The family has visited Brown’s several times and makes the stop part of an annual tradition.
Cowden praised the clams, shrimp and lobster rolls, while Brophy singled out the scallops.
Their daughters wore colorful “Happy Hampton” shirts, part of an annual family reunion in which relatives gather in Hampton and the children design their own apparel. From Vermont, the family traditionally stops at Brown’s before hitting the road back up north.
“I look forward to it,” Cowden said. “It’s my one lobster roll a year and it’s here.”
Tanya Apar grabbed a table with her family, Tina Gamache, Brenden Gamache and Matt Daniels, on Saturday. The group drives from Methuen and Haverhill, travelling to the coast and satisfying their appetites at Brown’s almost every summer.
“Always been a Brown’s family,” Apar said. “It’s kind of what we grew up with as kids.”
“We’re an old-fashioned fish-and-chips family,” she said, as they filed in to place their orders.
Markey’s Lobster Pool
First setting up shop in 1971, the restaurant opened as a smaller family operation. But with five decades under its belt, Markey’s has flourished into another essential stop for thousands of vacationers.
“The Markey name has been synonymous with excellence in food service from the Merrimack Valley to the seacoast for over a half century,” according to the restaurant’s website.
On the opposite side of Route 286, a white and blue building with a large illustration of a lobster on its sign chefs up and ships out their own spin on seafood. The restaurant similarly has an outdoor deck and a long seating area that gives it a familiar lobster-pound, casual feel.
Families convene around tables with bowls of chowder and fried goodies. Lines form at the counter and stretch out to the parking lot. Customers are trucking back and forth with trays in hand, eager to dive into their shellfish.
The menu hits all the marks: lobster rolls, whole lobsters, fried clams, scallops, haddock and more. Markey’s also plates cheeseburgers, chicken fingers and other non-seafood options, making it a destination for folks whose appetites do not all point toward the water.
A special attraction for some patrons; Markey’s has a small bar inside, where customers can be poured a cold one to go with their seafood.
For some folks, that alone can settle the debate. Jessica Stier of Hudson arrived with her husband, cousins and friends.
When asked why they chose Markey’s over Brown’s, some members of the group answered shortly while laughing and said, “the alcohol.”
But the group’s connection to the eatery runs deeper than its bar as Stier added that she’d been stopping in Markey’s her whole life.
The family added that the lobster and clams are a must-get at the establishment.
“The clams are cheaper than on the strip, and they’re better, and the atmosphere is peaceful,” Stier said.
Celia Schoenfeld of Haverhill has clocked in at Markey’s for seven years as a year-round employee. While the restaurant can become a bit chaotic when the summer crowds haul in, the pace is part of what keeps her strapping on the apron.
“It can be very chaotic here when we have a line out to the street,” Schoenfeld said. “But I like it, and I don’t think I’d want to work anywhere else.”
Schoenfeld added that Mother’s Day is usually their most active day of the year.
On a busy Saturday, she said that just under 20 employees will be behind the counters at the restaurant. Her time there started at the cash register, announcing order numbers over the PA system, but today, Schoenfeld works as a line cook.
She mentioned that the restaurant’s signature lobster special is among its top sellers, and to no surprise, the clams and lobster rolls remain particularly popular.
The lobster-filled sandwich itself is something of a dividing line between New Englanders, with some preferring the meal cold with mayonnaise, rather than warm with melted butter. Markey’s specifically prepares lobster rolls on the cooler side.
Thomas Markey III, the latest owner of the founding family, sold the business in 2022. Despite the ownership shift, the restaurant has retained the casual, family-style atmosphere that it has held for generations.
Customers continue to stream in for plates and platters of seafood at both restaurants, with the summer rush in full swing right.