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MADISON

Madison's Main Street home to new seafood business

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

MADISON -- Oyster River Lobster opens its doors today, offering an assortment of seafood, including lobsters, shrimp, crab, oysters and haddock.

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ON A ROLL: Jeff Brow holds a tray of live lobsters at the Oyster River Lobster Inc. on Main Street in Madison.

Staff photo by David Leaming

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While several restaurants serve seafood dishes, Oyster River Lobster, located at 30 Main St., is the only business in Madison geared specifically toward wholesale and retail seafood products.

Co-owner Jeffrey Brow, 55, is well-acquainted with the area. For the last year, he has sold seafood out of his truck in the parking lot at Taylor's Drug Store, on Main Street. He was also at the same spot about a decade ago.

"We just want everyone to come to Madison to buy seafood," said the town's economic development director, Joy Hikel, who helped the owners for six months to find a suitable location. "I think he'll be a draw for the town ... I'm excited. It will be nice. Just having it down the street is good for me."

Brow, with his wife Sharon and son Josh, own another store by the same name on Camden Road in Warren. He said he enjoys Madison.

"I just liked the town a lot, and the people are good to work with," he said of opening the new store.

Despite additional trucking costs to central Maine, the Madison store's prices will be the same as those in Warren. "We're bringing the coastal prices to the area," Josh Brow said.

The seafood is trucked the two-hour drive from wharfs in Port Clyde and Rockport and then stored in ocean water. No chemicals are used, and only the best hard-bottom, deep-water lobsters are sold in the store, Jeffrey Brow said. He said he ships any lower-quality lobsters to processing plants in Canada.

The store also offers to-go items, such as lobster and crab rolls, as well as chowder. They plan to introduce local food products, and hope to hire a couple employees if business goes well, Josh Brow said.

Jeffrey Brow said he grew up in the seafood business. He started lobstering with his father when he was 12 years old. "Hauling, clamming, shrimping, scalloping, I've done every bit of it," he said. He said he opened Oyster River Lobster in Warren in 1986.

Maine's lobstermen lost about $50 million in revenues in 2008, according to a report produced by the Moseley Group in June 2009 to determine Maine's economic stability in the lobster industry.

People can reach the store by calling Josh Brow at 542-6806.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com