By Lindsay Walker
Mail | Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

Phoenix-based Angie’s Lobster, a drive-thru lobster roll concept, has purchased a lobster wharf in Maine to supply their own seafood. 

The restaurant’s official Twitter announced the news on July 10. 

“We're officially buying right off the lobster boats from the hard working lobstermen of Maine from our own lobster wharf on Bailey Island,” the tweet read. 

The statement continued, saying that the wharf was purchased to ensure the restaurant had “end-to-end” control of its product from the ocean to the desert without a middleman. Being so vertically integrated will allow Angie’s Lobster to charge customers less for their food. A lobster roll meal currently costs $9.99. 

Angie’s Lobster said the purchase will be a help to the lobstermen they employ as well, paying them well and  providing “a system to give them security on the downside and buy everything they catch throughout the year in any economy, pandemic or not.” 

Angie’s Lobster is set to open a restaurant in south Tempe this September at 835 W. Baseline Road. The restaurant previously operated on the site as a food truck until the heat became too much, owner Tony Cristofellis previously told the Independent. 

The same went for the Glendale location at Thunderbird Road and 43rd Avenue, which is set to host another drive-thru location. The food truck closed due to damage to the truck’s shade structure and the Valley’s increasing summer heat. Until that location opens in October, Cristofellis said all hourly and salaried team members will be paid in full. 

In addition to Glendale and south Tempe, Angie’s Lobster will open several additional locations this year. A Mesa location is set to open to customers in July at Signal Butte and Guadalupe Roads, and a second location at 83rd Avenue and Glendale Avenue will open in November. Cristofellis said he also hopes to “sneak in” a drive-thru at Litchfield and Waddell Roads in Surprise this December.