Fall lobsters are the year's best! They' ve shed their shells and have begun to grow new sweet meat. By October, the shells are just firm enough to transport but soft enough to allow a bit of ocean flavor to seep into and surround the new meat. The result is an extraordinary taste unmatched any other time of the year..

Downeast, we don't even use butter in the fall. We do use bibs, however, so we can sip every drop of the salty sweet liquid ( "lobsta necta") found in the claws of fall lobster. You should, too, 'cause the lobsta necta is what solidifies into the rest of the meat that's found in the jam-packed but flatter tasting spring lobster claws.. If we had to choose just time of the year to indulge our craving for lobster Downeast, it would definitely be the fall- we'll trade the extra spring meat for fall's sweetness every time !

Please stop drooling. Thanks. Now, time to plan your party . Then you'll be ready to order.

At Finestkind's 27th Annual Fall Lobster Day, you're going to get lobster that's been swimming in the cold, clean waters of the gulf of Maine less than twenty-four hours before they end up in your cooler!

Not lobster that's come from the wholesale network where they can be weeks' old before being shipped down here where they'll flounder around the bottom of murky tanks. Believe it or not, they can live for up to three months in those tanks but they can't be fed. Each day they get tougher and tougher. That's why lobsters down here taste so dry and flavorless.Ugh!

No suh, Finestkind's lobsters come to you overnight, still kickin" and drippin' the cold, clean waters of the Gulf of Maine.

Does this freshness really make a difference? If you know the difference between a store- bought and home-grown tomato, you know what I'm talking about. 'Course you could look it up in the many articles written by food critics and others in the Post, the Times and the Journal. Better yet, check out Our Guarantee.

But like we say down-east, "the proof's in the puddin'". So find your cooler and prepare to come the easily accessible pick up site inFairfax County to pick up your goodies:

• Regular Size - 1 ¼ pound Lobsters:
  • Gourmands agree that pound and a quarter lobsters are the sweetest size. The minimum order will be five pounds - each five pound order will consist of four beautiful live Gulf of Maine lobsters. You can, of course, order any number of Regular size lobsters beyond the minimum (a 12 1/2 pound order would consist of ten live Gulf of Maine lobsters- perfect for a party of six with a a couple left over for a "mouth waterin" lobster salad (go to our ordering guide).
• Large Size - 1 ¾ - 2 ¼ pound Lobsters:
  • For those of you who think that bigger is better, good news, we've got some big ones: However, LARGE LOBSTERS WILL RANGE IN WEIGHT FROM 1 ¾ to 2 ¼ POUNDS. That's Finestkind's trade-off; absolute unmatched freshness for uniformity in size. There simply aren't enough large lobsters caught on any given day to pull out a sufficient quantity of lobsters weighing exactly two-pounds. The minimum order will be two large lobsters, weighing a total of four ponds. You'll be getting the absolutely freshest highest quality live lobster available in this area (go to our ordering guide) .

Whichever SiZe lobsters you prefer, be sure to oil up your nutcrackers! Our hard-shelled spring lobsters are jam-packed with succulent meat!