From COVID to soaring lobster prices Challenging year for Hall's Harbour Lobster Pound
The website for Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound encourages you to “experience lobster in the rough.”
It’s been a rough pandemic ride for the iconic seafood restaurant located in Hall’s Harbour, a small fishing village on the Bay of Fundy. Owner Sharla Cameron is grateful for the support from the local community and those around the province.
Cameron and her husband, Rodger, have owned Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound for the past 25 years. The restaurant is known for fresh, pickout-your-own lobster, great views of the Bay of Fundy, and the dramatic rise and fall of the tides. At low tide, fishing boats can be seen sitting on the harbour bottom beside the restaurant, and customers can watch the tide rise as much as an inch a minute up to the 40-foot high tide mark on the wharf.
The restaurant business last year was anything but normal and this year is off to a slow start.
“Our business is based on a local clientele but also a large tourist base from all over Canada, the US and Europe. We serve a number of bus tours and groups in normal times," said Cameron.
Things are starting to pick up now that they can have some patio seating and the weather is cooperating, she said.
"We are grateful to our patrons who supported us during the take-out phase, even during the miserable weather," she added.
SLOW START TO SEASON
It was a much slower than usual start to the season with key weekends like Mother’s Day, the long weekend in May and Apple Blossom weekend turning into "just trying to break even scenarios," she said.
"We have reduced our days and hours we are open and are just now starting to add on open times,” Cameron added.
The Lobster Pound made subtle adjustments to the menu to appeal to local clientele, rather than tourists, who choose lobster most often.
“Last season was great on weekends. There were no tourists on vacation to fill in the weekdays, so they were definitely slower," she says. "We took the opportunity to advertise heavily in Halifax and were very happy with all of the new locals who discovered us and came out."
The restaurant took advantage of some of the downtime to complete a planned renovation during the pandemic.
“You can imagine that doing a large renovation heading into a season that was drastically minimized was not ideal. We just had to stay focused on the future," she said.
The renovation created a new, second-level dining area that offers views of the harbour.
CHALLENGES AND HOPES
"It is finished now, and we couldn’t be more pleased with it. We will be able to accommodate our guests and bus tours in a beautiful atmosphere. We are excited looking ahead when business will return to normal."
Rising lobster prices, driven by increased international demand as countries around the world begin to reopen restaurants, have presented an additional challenge for the Lobster Pound.
“The price of lobster is the highest sustained price it’s been in the spring ever. The price of lobster meat, which is in many of our dishes, has soared," she says.
"Export lobster sales are very strong as is the demand from Canadian processing companies to try and catch up to the increased overall international demand for lobster products as other countries pull out of their lockdown restrictions and restaurants open fully. This is the major contributing factor to the high lobster prices right now,” Cameron explained.
Even with lobster prices and staffing challenges, Cameron is optimistic about the summer.
“This summer promises to be better as vaccination rates rise and things start opening up. The tricky part is not knowing what to plan for in terms of hiring and training," she said.
"You can’t just flip the switch and have a fullyoperating team. You can’t tell people you are going to bring them in if things get busy and expect them to wait for that. Usually, we follow a regular pattern and know when more staff will be required and when to start to train them.”
Cameron is grateful for her staff and for local patrons in this difficult year.
“We have survived the pandemic thanks to loyal and dependable staff that understood that we had to adapt to the ever-changing situation,” said Cameron. “We are very grateful to the Atlantic bubble for supporting us through all of this.”