Cousins Maine Lobster, which made a splash on ABC's Shark Tank in 2012, launched in West Sacramento on Thursday.
The franchise business, owned by husband-and-wife team Paul and Vickie Sharkey, had its kickoff at Yolo Brewing Company in West Sacramento. By 5 p.m., a line had wrapped around Yolo Brewing's parking lot, with people waiting to get their hands on the truck's famous $14 lobster rolls (made with, yes, actual Maine lobster).
"I love lobster rolls. You can't find them anywhere in the Valley," customer Dan Dias said. "So I saw [this], following News10 on Facebook, so I said, 'hey, I'm going to go over there, wait a while and get a lobster roll or two.'"
Dias drove to Yolo Brewing from Folsom for his lobster roll fix before heading home to Stockton.
The launch event had been a long time coming for Paul Sharkey, who said fans of Cousins Maine Lobster had been emailing him over the past few months, asking when the truck would be rolling into the Sacramento area. For Sharkey, it was confirmation that the food truck business was going to be a smart investment.
"We needed to get out of corporate and out of Los Angeles and the best way for us to do it was to get to Northern California, and I explained to Vickie what a good venture this was to get into the food truck business and coming from Boston, the Maine lobster roll is the best way to go," Sharkey explained.
If you can't make it to West Sacramento Thursday night, no fear: Cousins Maine Lobster is now here to stay in Sacramento. The schedule is available online, and the truck will be back at Yolo Brewing on Saturday, July 4.
