A sail on the North River Lobster is something I’ve been doing each summer since 2014, when they began to cruise up the Hudson River and served the best lobster rolls.

The cruise was free then. A couple of years ago, they began charging $10 for each sail. This year, they limit you to one of the hour sailings before asking you to leave or pay an additional fee to cruise again up the Hudson River. We discovered the final sailing was free as the vessel was not full.

When a BLT is pricier than a  lobster roll, it’s obvious which one to select. That and when sailing on the North River Lobster boat, it’s de rigueur to order it with cocktails, of course.  Two of us decided on a sonic — one with gin, the other with vodka, where club soda replaces half the tonic ($14), and the other had a Stella ($9).

One friend who can’t have gluten skipped the roll and ordered half a chilled lobster ($24), which looked so sad when it came on ice with a piece of lemon, cocktail sauce and the crustacean. They even forgot the metal tool to crack open the shell!

The lobster roll isn’t as full of lobster as it was when they first started sailing, but it’s fine. It still comes on a potato roll with cole slaw and a bag of Cape Cod chips ($21.95). With that, we ordered their pricey but yummy truffle fries ($12.95).

I do recommend a summer sail.

North River Lobster, Co
Hell’s Kitchen
Pier 81 at the Hudson River W 41st St
New York, NY 10036
212-630-8831
pier81info@nycl.com
northriverlobsterco.com