Digital Social Hour - Top Chef REVEALS the Truth About Live Lobster Shipping! | Mark Murrell DSH #555

Starting point is 00:00:00 They're super creative. They flew into Maine and the kitchen that we produce the sauces out of, they come, the QA is huge. There was no way that we were going to launch unless their team came down and worked with our chef to make sure that everything was perfect. I did not know it was that intense, to be honest, with restaurants. Of that quality, it makes sense. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. All right, guys, we're talking lobsters today. We got Mark Morell. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, absolutely. It's great to be here. Yeah. I'm excited. I know you're bringing us Maine lobsters. Is that where you're based?

Starting point is 00:00:49 Yeah, Portland, Maine, right on Union Wharf. So we're literally on the water. If you were to go there, you'd see tons of lobster boats and salty fishermen and trucks and smelly bait and all that stuff. Can't get much fresher than that. No, no. It's literally dock to doorstep. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:06 When you sent me those lobsters, man, holy crap. Yeah. That was the best I've ever had. Yeah, it is. They were still alive. Yeah, yeah. And it's wild, right? A lot of people don't even know, right, that you can do that.

Starting point is 00:01:18 You can have live lobsters shipped to you. I didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. Most people don't. I think you sent, you might have sent crabs, too. You sent something. Yeah, I'm not sure. It was a minute ago. Yeah. It was a while. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that, man. Absolutely. Lobster rolls are a top five dish for me. Yeah. Like overall. Yeah. I like them that much. And that's the best way anybody that wants to get into

Starting point is 00:01:40 lobster and they're afraid, you know, like live lobsters is intimidating it is home i was a little nervous i'm not gonna lie yeah but roll kits easy right super duper easy what's up lobster roll kit oh roll kit yeah yeah yeah so it's a no-brainer a fifth grader can do it yeah so which city in the world has the best lobster rolls port Portland, Maine. Not Boston? No, not Boston. I think, you know, there's a couple lobster rolls I really love. I've never had one outside of the state besides Austin, Texas, where it's my lobster. Okay. And funny, I just found out this morning, but somebody in Montana, she won a food truck of the year, and she won with our lobster roll. No way.

Starting point is 00:02:33 Yeah. Wow. So I was like, that's pretty cool. I've seen a couple lobster roll trucks, but they don't compare to your stuff, man. Yeah. For real. Because I've had cousins, and I've had a couple others. I appreciate that. Yeah. Vegas is pretty far out, I've had cousins and I've had a couple others, but.

Starting point is 00:02:45 I appreciate that. Yeah. Vegas is pretty far out, so I don't know if their supply chain is in order. Yeah. So, we can ship anywhere.

Starting point is 00:02:53 It would be difficult for, you know, Vegas has distribution on the dock. Yeah. You know, those are.

Starting point is 00:03:00 With the hotels. Yeah. Long-term relationships. And that's not really our game. We're direct-to-consumer and then we also support some food trucks, smaller restaurants, stuff like that. I feel that.

Starting point is 00:03:11 So you go directly to consumer. You don't go to restaurants at all? Just smaller restaurants and a couple food trucks. Okay. But you took the e-commerce route? Yeah. Yeah. And that was by design?

Starting point is 00:03:22 That was by design. Yeah. Yeah. And that was by design? That was by design. Yeah. So the origin story is I actually was living in Chicago when I started the business and I grew up in Maine and I was visiting and I went to my buddy's fish shack because he has great crab cakes. And he's like, hey, I want to sell lobster on the internet. these people you know call me up and say hey ship me lobsters and i was a marketing consultant at the time so he asked me to do a little bit of research for him i did it and i said you should do it there's some competition but not a ton and if you do it the right way you could actually have a pretty good business but i told him that customer service was essential and that

Starting point is 00:04:07 if you didn't have the desire to be available to customers, then he shouldn't do it because it would fail. And so he's like, ah, I don't want to do that. And I said, I'll do it. And he fulfilled my orders and we grew out of him like eight months. Wow. Yeah. I was quick. He couldn't keep up. He couldn't keep up. So I had to fly into Maine, find a new supplier and. And now you live there. And now, yeah, I moved back. I think I ran it for five, six years out of Chicago. Yeah. And then I moved back. I was like, all right, I, you know, I'm going to take this serious. Nice. I love that. Yeah. And there was a recent Momofuku collaboration, right? Yeah. That's big time. Yeah. We actually started, it literally just launched like a month ago. Nice. And we started talking in November and we did, first we launched a, they're amazing,

Starting point is 00:05:08 chili butter, Szechuan chili butter lobster tails, and then a wasabi uzu lobster roll oh my gosh yeah it's my mouth is watering it's really good i'll send you i'll send you four of each and uh so you can so you can have them i'm literally in heaven yeah i love momofuku too yeah yeah so it's super i'm so impressed with what david chang has done all these years and continues to do. It seems like he just keeps getting up and up and up. Yeah. And so to work with them was a huge honor. I do restaurant reviews on the side. I don't know if you've seen my videos. And Momofuku, I think, was the number one spot in Vegas I've had so far.

Starting point is 00:05:36 I've done about 15 episodes. Wow. Yeah, the duck was just phenomenal. Yeah. Holy crap. They're super creative. They flew into Maine. One of his top guys flew in and the kitchen that we produce the sauces out of, the QA is huge, right? So there was no way

Starting point is 00:05:57 that we were going to launch unless their team came down and worked with our chef to make sure that everything was perfect. I did not know it was that intense, to be honest, with restaurants. Of that quality, it makes sense. Yeah. Well, and that brand, you know, they're not going to. They got a big reputation up there. Yeah, they're not going to mess around. They got to make sure I'm not just like whipping it up, you know, at my house.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Yeah. You sometimes question what goes on in restaurant kitchens. Yeah. Yeah. And they're upper tier. Yeah. You know, top tier with QA. So that was really nice.

Starting point is 00:06:30 Awesome, dude. And scary, too, because I'm like, oh, no. What if they don't like how we are processed? Yeah. Well. But everything went flying colors, and it's going really well. And it got written up in the New York Times. Nice.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And that's been a goal of mine since day one. That's big time. It finally happened. BuzzFeed and a bunch of others.'s been a goal of mine since day one. That's big time. It finally happened. BuzzFeed and a bunch of others. BuzzFeed's a tough one to get. That's big time, dude. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:50 So we're pretty stoked on it. We'll be selling these two products for the next six months. And is it online? Yep. Yeah. Right on our website, Get Maine Lobster. They'll see I put a little chili pepper next to the Momofuku experience. And so people can buy just the tails or just the rolls,

Starting point is 00:07:08 or they can buy a combo. Got it. And can they get it at the restaurant too or just online? They can't get it at the restaurant, but who knows what could happen down the road. You never know. Also, you did a collab with Vee Friends. Gary Vee.

Starting point is 00:07:20 Yeah. So we just, it actually hasn't been, I think it's getting announced on the 28th. This will come out after. All right. Yeah. So we just, it actually hasn't been, I think it's getting announced on the 28th. Okay. This will come out after. So. All right. Yeah. And so really stoked on that because VFriends is an amazing community. It's one of the ones that kind of survived. Yeah. Not many did.

Starting point is 00:07:38 Yeah. And so what we're doing is VFriends with the, I forget which one it is. Which lobster is it? Oh, is it the blue one? So Hattie is what I want to promote. And so I want them promoting that and GetMaineLobster. And then their token holders with the lobster, 50 of them are going to get one of our subscription subscription boxes wow that's awesome dude yeah i think one of his v friends is a lobster too right exactly and i can't remember

Starting point is 00:08:12 which name it is yeah i know what you're talking about escaping me i don't know if it's like the lonely lobster i've seen it yeah yeah so uh it'll be announced on the 28th. And then we're going to be doing a couple of things together, you know, and we'll be down at VCon talking about it as well. In LA? Yep. Yeah, that'll be a fun one. Yeah. We'll try to make it out there.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Yeah. But Hattie, the cotton candy colored lobster, they got 4 billion impressions back in November of 2021. That's how I found you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm still, I'm designing a sneaker inspired by just her color and her beauty. Is she still alive? She's still alive. Wow. She's in Rye, New Hampshire at the Seacoast Science Center. She's still alive. They send me pictures and I check in and. That's cool, man cool man yeah how long do lobsters typically live so they have pretty long lives as long as they have to shed their shell every year so they survive that

Starting point is 00:09:11 then they're pretty good she's in a protected environment but you know it's not the most natural environment for her but the science center is making sure the senility is good the temperature is good and she gets three squares a day. Damn. I didn't know lobsters change shells every year. So they're like- Sometimes multiple times a year. Holy crap.

Starting point is 00:09:32 That's how they grow. That's interesting. Right? So a lot of people use it in business as a metaphor, right? You have to shed some things in order to grow. Right. So there's just empty lobster shells at the bottom of the ocean floor right now.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Yep. And then they're totally susceptible. So they go to safe areas in the ocean to be protected from prey and also just from the ocean waves. Right. So how long does it take to regrow the shell then? It starts growing before it comes off,

Starting point is 00:10:04 but it's super, super soft. So like in Maine, we don't ship these, but in Maine there's a soft shell lobster. Really? Yeah. You can't eat the shell, but the shell is so soft that the salt water kind of permeates and tenderizes the meat. Really, really sweet. So summertime, if you're in Maine, that's the best time to get lobsters. Yum. That's good to know. Yeah. We try to ship them.

Starting point is 00:10:29 We ship hard shells. But in the summertime, they get graded and it's a new shell. And it's like, this is a new shell, soft shell, that will survive the trip in a box to Las Vegas. Wow. Yeah. That is good to know, man. Because I've heard of soft shell crab and I've eaten that,

Starting point is 00:10:44 but I've never heard of soft. Wow. Yeah. That is good to know, man. Cause I've heard a soft shell crab and I've eaten that, but I've never heard a soft shell lobster. Yeah. Well you can eat the shell, but it is a much sweeter product. Yeah. That's cool. It's pretty. Sometimes you see crazy videos of huge lobsters and people eating them. And then the comments are all hateful saying it's not as good or whatever. It's well, think of veal and then think of like an old cow, you know? So you have to cook a large lobster a certain way. And funny, in Vegas, I go to Del Frisco's every year before the Super Bowl because I spend the Super Bowl here. And they let us fly in our own lobsters.

Starting point is 00:11:22 Really? And I always send one big one. And they know how to cook it so it comes out great. Wow. How do you cook a bigger one? It's a slower cook and he uses lots of cream for the tail. He steams the claws. He just steams them for a longer period of time because obviously it's bigger meat.

Starting point is 00:11:44 Steaming is the most precious way to cook lobster. But the lobster tail, I don't know how he does it, but it comes out pretty tender. He says it's a slower, low-cook with cream. Good to know. Yeah, I like my lobster steamed, actually. Yeah, that's the best way. I agree.

Starting point is 00:12:03 Yeah, because steam or boil, I give steam the edge yeah absolutely and then the summer grilling lobster tails um shell down the there's some flavor in the shell that kind of permeates up really and it's a fast cook but not uh direct so it's not super aggressive okay so do shell down because usually people yeah shell down i do shell down wow if you want a grill mark- Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life.

Starting point is 00:12:37 Click the application link below and here's the episode, guys. Right? Because you want to take a picture. Then sure, do that at the last minute yeah chill down is the way to go good to know are you a tail or claw guy i'm a claw guy yeah yeah i'm not a big tail guy because it gets stuck in my teeth and there's shit in there right yes there is there is you got to take that out that long little yeah vein there i just found that out recently and i i got really upset actually my mom never told me that i used to eat that shit.

Starting point is 00:13:06 Everybody eats it. Same with crawfish. Those are so small it's annoying. Yeah, well your shrimp too, you always want to get it de-veined. Because it's not a vein. It's the poop chute. Yeah, they just call it that.

Starting point is 00:13:21 You also have an auction. Yeah, so August 29th, we're auctioning seven sneakers. The one inspired by Hattie. I partnered with SCAD, which is Savannah College of Art and Design. It's in Atlanta at the SCAD campus. And 100% of the proceeds are going to marine conservation uh and also scat future scad student scholarship so 50 50 half of it's going to marine conservation half of it's going to the to the kids nice so i worked with scad students on this you know i saw that they had a master's program in sneaker design and that was the first thing when i met hattie i was like man i can see some sneakers popped into my head so i reached out

Starting point is 00:14:12 and they said they have a program for that and i said well let's go so um we're right at the finish line and prototype is uh i think arriving in the next week or so. Nice. And so we'll have full production of the seven sneakers by August 29th. And we're going to auction them off. Those are going to look cool. Yeah, super cool. I love it. I'll text you a couple of concepts. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:38 It's going to be really neat. Yeah, please. Because I'm super into blue, as you know, with the show. Yeah. It's a really cool blue. And with some pink hues and stuff like that, because she had some pink in there. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:51 So how rare are blue lobsters? I've never seen one. So she's a cotton candy, which is one in 100 million. Holy crap. Yeah. So if you think about it, when a lobster drops its eggs, only 0.04% make it to one pound damn hattie was 1.25 pounds that's her name and so only 0.04 percent actually make it to one pound

Starting point is 00:15:17 and she is one in 100 million of those oh my god so it's like one in trillion yeah so it's it's nearly impossible for a lobster to make it to a pound wow and then to look like her is just unbelievable so she's literally one of a kind then yeah that's incredible yeah it's pretty amazing you don't realize see we do see some oranges there's a lot of weird colors out there yeah calicos which are interesting calicos what's that calico is like a calico cat right so it's got like some yellows and some blacks and some oranges oh interesting yeah and it's all has to do with there's some elements missing in their dna that gives the expression of color on their shell and that that's what happened with Hattie. Got it. So Mother Nature was like, hey, I'm just going to pull those two things out.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Yeah. Make you look like that. Now, she knew that she looked like that. She knew? She lived. In order to live that long, she had to be hiding most of her life. How come? In the muck because she would be susceptible to prey one of

Starting point is 00:16:26 the big things why lobsters don't live is because they're too light so they float oh when they're really really small so they get picked up by everything birds you know fish you know everything so she somehow survived that and when she got to enough weight to where she sank she knew that she was just too bright so she spent time in the muck. Interesting. And a big storm happened. So everything was cloudy. So she came out to eat and she went and had dinner at my lobsterman's trap. So then he pulled her up. How do lobster traps work? So there's two components. They come in through one side, and because lobsters actually travel backwards, their claws stretch out and they can't get out. Oh, wow.

Starting point is 00:17:10 So they come in for the food and then they get stuck in. That's called the parlor. And then they get stuck in. And so a lobster man will drop a trap, say, on a Monday, give it two, three days, pick it up, and then drop another one in its place got it and that's kind of so it's just one at a time they catch them well so a lot of them will have a string yeah no they catch more than one it all depends upon where they lay them if yeah the lobsters are

Starting point is 00:17:36 migrating near there but um they'll often have a string of like 20 traps. So they'll have their buoy and they pull up the buoy and then boom, 20 are coming. Damn. So it's a really neat process. Yeah, that is unique. I didn't know they swam backwards too. I wonder why they do that. Yeah, they move backwards. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:17:57 They're thin. Their tail is their big sort of mover, right? So if they want to move fast and the tail is going this way and they got to like flap flap flap so that means they would move backwards got it right because fish go like this and then a lobster goes like this right so is it true they used to feed prisoners lobster they did way back in the day there was uh so much lobster um you. They would sometimes climb up onto the beach, and they did feed the prisoners. And then visitors came, and they said, oh, my God, this stuff is amazing. And so then suddenly, boom, it was a huge industry.

Starting point is 00:18:39 Wow. Still is today. All over the world made lobster goods. Yeah, it's like a delicacy in some countries. Yeah, absolutely. Most countries are either loving Maine or Canada or even Caribbean on the West Coast. But yeah, lobsters, I think it has a lot to do with the process of getting at the meat. It's not easy.

Starting point is 00:19:05 You know, you got to get at it. And it tastes amazing. Fire. You know? I'd pick it over most dishes, to be honest. Nice. It is a bit pricey at restaurants, but sometimes you got to just go hard. Yeah, I know.

Starting point is 00:19:19 One time I was at, I think it was at Eddie V's in Austin. And I bought a seven to eight ounce tail. Right. It's about that big. I think it cost me like $70. Holy crap. For a single lobster tail. But that's Austin, Texas.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Yeah. Seven to eight's pretty big. Right. That's an expensive tail. $70 for a tail. That's nuts. It's wild. And someone like you who knows the margins,

Starting point is 00:19:43 that must have been like, what the hell is going on here? Man, I got to get these guys. Yeah. As a tail. That's nuts. And someone like you who knows the margins, that must've been like, what the hell is going on here? I gotta get these guys as a customer. That's how I feel now that I buy directly from the source of my meat. Whenever I see it at a restaurant, I'm like, damn, they marked this up like three times. Yeah. Yeah, they do. But you know, restaurants, they have, they have rent. They got, you know, in labor is a lot more expensive and you know food cost is tough with lobster and i heard their margins are yeah i heard their margins are low even with all that being said yeah so it's pretty crazy i mean our margins are low really you know direct to consumer absolutely oh wow it's tough well we got to ship it oh right so you got to have the right materials the right coolant the right people and then you got to have the right materials, the right coolant, the right people,

Starting point is 00:20:26 and then you got to ship it. And your ad costs, right? You're running a lot of paid ads. Yeah, ad costs. And those are going up every year. Yeah. They go up and they're less effective. Yeah. As you reach more people, it's less effective.

Starting point is 00:20:36 Yeah. So we're actually diversifying our traffic sources and trying to do more owned, you know, and do some SEO and things like that so that we can not be so reliant upon. But we have a huge customer base. We've served over 500,000 people. Damn. So we rely a lot on them.

Starting point is 00:20:55 And we just focus on doing a really good job of serving them and only give them the best quality. And they come back for more. Yeah, your repeat order rate's probably insane. Yeah, it's really strong. And we've had some customers for over 10 years. Holy crap. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:13 That's impressive, man. Yeah. Where do you want to take this thing? It's been 10 years already? Yeah. So, no, it's actually been 14, I think. Jeez. We had some really big growth in 2020 with COVID.

Starting point is 00:21:27 And we've retained that revenue level. And we're ready to grow some more. So we've been building our foundation so that we can increase our ability to output and also sourcing. And so we're gearing up for another growth spurt. So we're diversifying. That's what we got with Momofuku to do that. We just signed a licensing agreement with Jeffrey Zakarian, who's a celebrity chef.

Starting point is 00:21:57 We're going to be doing some products with him. And his people just literally emailed me this morning saying, hey, let's start getting ready for Q4. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really excited for it. So we got to get you Gordon Ramsay next.

Starting point is 00:22:13 That's right. Make it happen. That's the goat right there. Him and Guy Fieri. Yeah. Yeah. There's some like people you've never heard of on TikTok getting millions of views on food content. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:22:23 It's actually insane. Yeah. It's kind of cool. Yeah. No, it's cool. It's millions of views on food content. Yeah. It's actually insane. Yeah. It's kind of cool. Yeah. No, it's cool. It's just them cooking at their house. Yeah. And they're blowing up.

Starting point is 00:22:30 Yeah. I've been looking at those because that's part of owned. It's like, all right, what can I do with my content? Right. To be as engaging. I want to be educational and inspiring. Yeah. I think you should send some to them and have them make a lobster roll video or something.

Starting point is 00:22:43 Yeah. That would crush. You guys would blow up from that. Let that let's do it yeah I'll set some intros up for you man yeah that would be amazing yeah you wouldn't believe the views these guys are getting it's insane yeah it's like celebrities have been taken over because of social media yeah it really is incredible and it's kind of cool too right so it's like uh us consumers are taking over the messaging to ourselves as opposed to relying on um brands and celebrities to do that 100 which is really neat i saw this one guy he was making butter that was his thing he's doing butter at his house i've seen that guy and he's suddenly he's like oh my god this is a product and he at his house. I've seen that guy. And he's suddenly, he's like, oh my God, this is a product.

Starting point is 00:23:25 And he like blew up insanely fast. I've seen that guy. I've seen the salt guy. Yeah. And I'm like, that's just awesome. Yeah. You know, I love stories like that. Well, the product speaks for itself.

Starting point is 00:23:37 And social media has just been able to amplify that message, right? Totally. Because before it would take longer to scale a company. Like if you started this now with social media, it wouldn't have taken 14 years. Oh yeah, totally. Probably three to five. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it's pretty crazy.

Starting point is 00:23:50 Timing is very important in business. Yeah, it sure is. What's next for you, man? And where can people find you? So what's next? We're really focused on amplifying Momofuku and Jeffrey Zakarian and looking at doing a couple of more large partnerships like that and diversifying how

Starting point is 00:24:14 people find us, you know, and speaking of which on socials at get main lobster. Good handle. Yeah. So nice and easy to remember, you know, and like us and try to have fun. And we're going to be elevating what we do on social and try to educate people more and still have fun. Awesome. We'll link it below, guys. If you want the best lobster, the freshest you've ever had, definitely check out Get Maine Lobster. My gosh. My mouth is still

Starting point is 00:24:45 watering, dude. For real, great product. Thanks for watching, guys, as always, and I'll see you tomorrow.

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Digital Social Hour - Top Chef REVEALS the Truth About Live Lobster Shipping! | Mark Murrell DSH #555

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