Avery Belton craved lobster. Today, he’s the Lobstah King, turning 150 pounds of Maine and Canadian lobster into quintessential lobster rolls three days a week at his food trailer at Dean and Don’s Farm Market in Newport News.
By Marisa Marsey
When Avery Belton was a preschooler in Leominster, Massachusetts, his mom, Rochelle, asked what he wanted to eat, expecting McDonald’s or something similar. Not Avery. He craved lobster. Today, he’s Lobstah King, turning 150 pounds of Maine and Canadian lobster into quintessential lobster rolls three days a week at his food trailer at Dean and Don’s Farm Market in Newport News.
Sporting a hoodie in cooked-crustacean red (“I try to stay on point with my marketing,” the former professional recruiter says), Belton burnishes toasted brioche with a boatload of butter, piling on sweet, succulent knuckle and claw meat to bulging. He offers two traditional styles, Connecticut (warm with butter) and Maine (chilled with mayo) in a range of sizes, finishing with Old Bay, parsley, and a smile of a lemon wedge. Devotees double down with a side of lobstah mac, oozing creamy white cheddar.
Belton ditched corporate America when, returning from yet another work trip, one of his kids (he and his wife Mellisa have six) asked, “What are you doing here?” He decided to enter seminary school and build a family business, beginning in August 2024 with a hot dog cart hawking Nathan’s all-beef franks and lobster rolls. By fall, he traded up to a trailer, and the menu grew: jumbo butterfly garlic shrimp, crab cake, crabby patty (crabmeat-topped smashburger) and more.
“At a point now, we’ll need to go brick and mortar,” he says, r’s enunciated. Despite his operation’s name, he bears no vestigial New England accent (he and his mom moved to Virginia when he was 14). “But my mother, I’ll tell you, hers is thick.” On cue, Rochelle pops in for a bestselling rusty-dog. “A hot dog with pepperoni and provolone,” she explains. “It’s a Leominstah thing.”
Lobstah King’s
12601 Warwick Blvd.
Newport News
Thursday-Saturday
lobstahkings.square.site
Marisa Marsey
Marisa Marsey is a food, beverage and travel writer whose awards include 1st place Food Writing from the Virginia Press Association. A Johnson & Wales University representative, she has sipped Château d'Yquem '75 with Jean-Louis Palladin, sherpa-ed for Edna Lewis and savored interviews with Wolfgang Puck and Patrick O’Connell.
