Been Caught Stealing: Route 6’s Lobster Picks

On Wednesday night, I made it into Route 6, Stephen Starr’s new seafood eatery on North Broad Street. As one of the Bookbinders dined nearby and Mr. Starr sat next to me, telling me some of his plans for the future (and that Robert DeNiro had recently been in), all I could think about was getting out with a couple of these stainless steel lobster picks. And so, after my meal–which was highlighted by the killer raw bar–I slipped two of the six-and-a-half inch utensils into my jacket pocket.

To be clear, I’m not exactly sure it was stealing, since I told my waiter in advance that I was planning on stealing them. “Yeah, it’s okay,” he laughed. “Everybody’s been taking them.” Yesterday, I called the restaurant to get some more information on the forks and the general manager told me, “We bought so many of them, because we knew that quite a few would walk out the door.”

I don’t know what I’m going to do with mine, since I don’t eat much lobster–or any other crustacean for that matter–at home. Perhaps I’ll repurpose them as bloody Mary spoons, using the two prongs to skewer hard-to-reach submerged garnishes. Maybe one will wind up as a stake next to a potted cactus. All I know is that I’d better take them home from the office soon, since one of my colleagues has already been eying them enviously, and she notes that she’s stolen steak knives “from pretty much every good restaurant in the city.”

If you’d like to go the honest route, you can purchase a pack of 24 for $24.41 plus $12 for UPS Ground shipping via KaTom Restaurant Supply. Act now before Marcie and Val at Open House snatch all of them up from the distributor and sell them for $6 each.