Seafood in the desert?! Don’t knock it ‘til you try it, and we recommend giving it a go at Angie’s Lobster, a new drive-through concept from the folks who founded local healthy fast-food chain Salad and Go.
Tony and Roushan Christofellis sold the salad biz this summer to focus on their new endeavor, a fast and efficient seafood restaurant boasting lobster meals with fries and a drink for under $10. The first location opened in Tempe in November and five more Valley locations are slated to open soon.
Angie’s serves solely wild-caught Maine and Canadian lobster, so you won’t find langoustine or warm-water crustaceans here. Customers can choose from two meals: fried lobster fingers or a lobster roll with fries, a toasted bun and Angie’s secret sauce, so crave-worthy, you’ll want to order a crateful. The fresh-squeezed lemonade and sweet tea are also sublime. And all of that for just $9.99.
Combo No. 1 comes with four fried lobster fingers – finely chopped and marinated meat formed, breaded and fried to gilded perfection, served with a toasted and buttered bun, fries and your choice of lemonade or iced tea with a hint of lemon. Option No. 2 features chilled lobster on a warm, buttered bun, fries and choice of a drink. Both come with a side of Angie’s sauce, that tangy, light ochre-hued condiment that we fully endorse drenching the whole meal in.
How can the Christofellises take the ultimate luxury meal and price it the same as a combo from Raising Cane’s? It’s all about efficiency. First, the customer puts in half of the work by processing their own payment using a QR code, and only debit/credit cards and EBT are accepted. They also don’t invest in superfluous packaging – you’ll receive your meal on a paper tray, one napkin, a straw-less lid in a Styrofoam cup and a paper bag. The couple buys large volumes of lobster from Maine and Canada and transports them sans distributors. Lastly, they don’t pay for marketing, so the money goes directly into the quality of the food and compensating their employees. Plus, the concept is so revolutionary, word of mouth provides ample advertising.
Angie’s is an homage to Tony’s late mother, a Greek immigrant who moved to the states and worked at seafood restaurants her entire life. The hardworking single mom ultimately opened her own – Angela’s Seafood in Boston.
“Angie’s Lobster was created to honor our mother and make sure that the love we feel every day gets passed on to the next generation and to future generations,” Tony says. “A company that will live every day like she lived her life — with love, courage, compassion, servant leadership, energy, fight and fun.”
And that’s all there is to it. Delicious, affordable seafood with a sentimental backstory. What’s not to love?
835 W. Baseline Rd., Tempe, angieslobster.com
