Ed McFarland is the executive chef of Ed’s Lobster Bar, located in Soho and Sag Harbor. The chef spoke to James Lane Post about his restaurant concept, favorite menu items, and what brought him to Sag Harbor.
Tell us about Ed’s Lobster Bar and the concept behind the restaurant.
Ed’s Lobster Bar has been open for over 14 years in New York City, and it was a dream come true to open up a seafood restaurant, as that was the cuisine I loved to cook. Ed’s Lobster Bar is an upscale fish shack that specializes in lobster. There are lots of seafood restaurants but none that really focus on lobster. To this day, there are no restaurants who focus on making lobster the star of the show.
Talk a little about Sag Harbor and what brought you to the area. What is your perfect day like in Sag Harbor?
I decided to expand to Sag Harbor for an additional location after a lot of requests because it was a great fit for my customer base. It also has a lot of parking. Ed’s Lobster Bar is a little outside of town, but out East most people drive to get around anyway.
My perfect day in Sag Harbor is seeing a restaurant full of happy customers and families enjoying themselves. I want to give the community the right experience that they are looking for.
Favorite menu items that you would recommend to diners.
The Lobster Nachos are absolutely my favorite menu item right now. They are new this year and they have all of the flavors that I could enjoy — tortilla chips, pico de gallo, lobster cheese sauce, chopped lobster, and cilantro. It is definitely my number one menu item.
What inspired you to become a chef?
I was inspired to become a chef because I grew up eating great food and home cooked meals. I worked in restaurants from a young age in all aspects of the business. I really enjoyed cooking and knew that I wanted to make a career out of it.
Tell us a little about your background and what brought you to this point:
I come from a traditional American/Italian background on mom’s side where Sunday dinners were very important, and I loved to help make the red sauce. I started working at restaurants from a very young age and when I decided to take this passion to the next level I attended the French Culinary Institute. After I finished that program, I began working towards my passion by working in different New York City restaurants until I was finally able to open Ed’s Lobster Bar.
How have you had to pivot business due to COVID-19? How is business now?
Before the pandemic, less than five percent of my business was from takeout. I made the decision to keep Ed’s Lobster Bar open and pivot to 100 percent of my business being takeout. When I made that transition I really had to shift my focus to takeout and the kinds of dishes I was making. I reworked the menu, decided what menu items should stay and go, and did a deep dive on how I can better serve my customers, that way when we did reopen their experience would be even better. I also looked into different outlets and how we could generate different revenue.
Business now is on the rise, as we gradually went back to mostly in-house dining. We do not have as many takeout orders as we did at the height of the pandemic. Even though we are back to 100 percent capacity, we are still not back to how business used to be. Until tourism is back, we will never be back to how we were pre-pandemic.
Our numbers have certainly improved from those of 2020, but we are still not on par to what 2019 or previous years looked like.
