Salty’s Lobster Shack: Launch party
Salty’s Lobster Shack runs a series of food truck and pop-up locations across Canada. Their lobster rolls are made with 100% Canadian Nova Scotian lobster.
Last Friday night, Salty’s invited me to attend their pop-up launch party in partnership with Portside Pub. Portside is a trendy pub in the Gastown district. It also happened to be their 7th year anniversary.
Food sampling
To celebrate their launch, Salty’s invited a bunch of Vancouver foodies to try some samples of their new menu.
Lobster bites
There was an abundance of mini lobster bites. They served them on giant platters and placed them on each table on the first floor.
The lobster bites are about the length of my palm and there is quite a lot of lobster meat on top of the bread. Along with the lobster meat, they use a mixture of celery, dill, lemon and Old Bay aioli.
Their regular lobster rolls also use this. Instead of having it on a little piece of bread, they use a brioche bun toasted with garlic butter. Unfortunately, they didn’t give any lobster rolls as samples.
Side story:
I visited Salty’s Lobster Shack at the Richmond Night Market this summer and I was pretty salty that my lobster roll was served in a hot dog bun instead of a brioche bun, as advertised. When I posted the picture on Instagram, Salty’s apologized and told me they didn’t run out of buns. The hot dog bun is actually their alternative bun (ummm I think that means you ran out of buns if you had to use the alternative…). They also sent me a Google definition of what a lobster roll is, which is not helpful. If you’re going to cite Google, maybe you should always serve them in a hot dog.
Needless to say, I was surprised I was invited to their launch party after this Instagram thread. A part of me wondered if maybe they remember me and invited me so they could give me their lobster roll in a hot dog bun again (LOL would have been funny though so I would have been a good sport about it), but I am pretty sure they have no idea who I am and I was just one of the 300 Instagram foodies they invited.
Lobster bisque
Aside from lobster bites, they also give out lobster bisque samples. The lobster bisque is flavourful and hearty and there are actually quite a bit of lobster meat inside so I enjoyed it.
Champagne
There were also a lot of free champagne! As with all the other food samples, you can just take one (or more) at your own discretion.
Demo food table
To support all the food photographers at the event, Salty’s had set up a demo table of some of their menu selections. We are told not to eat the food and to only take pictures.
I didn’t want to eat any of this of course, because it’s a demo table and a bunch of people are hovering around it, picking it up and putting it back down. Also I have no idea how long it’s been since they placed it down, but everything did look delicious.
They actually did provide some lobster grilled cheese samples, but everyone became vultures and all the grilled cheese are gone in 0.02 seconds of them placing it down on a table. I wish I could have tried some, but all I can provide is a picture of the demo grilled cheese.
Buck a shuck
There were oysters available for buck a shuck (you get an oyster for $1). My boyfriend had $6 worth in coins and so we spent it all on oysters because the free samples stopped coming lol.
Beer sampling
The beer sampling was happening on the second floor and I think it was separate from Salty’s launch party, which was downstairs. I believe the beer sampling was part of Portside’s own 7th year anniversary celebration.
How it works: we got a picture with this boat steering wheel. On each leg there are brands of different beers. You take your empty cup and go to one of the vendors and try a cup of their beer for free! There were 7 you could try.
There were a lot of interesting beer vendors. The most interesting beer I taste and enjoy is actually a keto beer with zero calories.
Final thoughts
I had a good time at Salty’s launch party. Some of the things I really liked about their event is that they weren’t spoon feeding us promotional information. We didn’t have any requirements to take a certain number of photos or stories, none of the staff even really talked about their menu or the history of their company. It really was just a party with free samples and free time for you to enjoy yourself.
In terms of networking with other foodies, I did bump into quite a few people I knew. I recognized a lot of other foodies and was surprised at how many of them are female asians (lol). I’m not sure if this is just Vancouver demographics or if it was the result of specific targeting.
If you follow me on Instagram or read any of my food reviews on this blog, you’ll know that all of my food adventures are for my own enjoyment. In regards to the demo table of food, yes, I went to check it out but I was not down to be pushing and elbowing people in order to get a good shot of food I wasn’t even allowed to eat.
I know some people come with their professional DSLRs and care a lot about getting a good photo. Portside doesn’t have the best lighting because hello, it’s a pub, but I wish everyone just chilled out more and wasn’t so aggressive when it came to photo taking.
I thought Salty’s partnership with Portside was fun and smart. Having it merge with their 7th year anniversary also allowed me to enjoy live music and free beer samples. The beer sampling was actually an amazing deal because the cups are not small and all the beers were different and interesting.
I recommend you to check out both Salty’s and Portside. Salty’s is now located in Portside Pub and is open for regular business.