Red Hook Lobster Pound was born at a kitchen table in Red Hook, Brooklyn in the midst of the recession by Ralph Gorham and Susan Povich in 2008. The two were devouring the fresh lobsters they’d just brought back from a friend in Portland, Maine. As they basked in the lobsterphoria, Ralph proposed a crazy idea to his wife, Susan: “Let’s open up a Lobster Pound!”

Red Hook was a natural location for a fish business—and the couple just happened to own a then-empty storefront right on Van Brunt Street. This section of Brooklyn is reminiscent of the lobstering communities of Maine for a variety of reasons. Aside from being on the waterfront, it’s inhabited by fiercely independent do-it-yourselfers who’ve developed a supportive community being cut off from the rest of Brooklyn by the BQE.