Shawn donnan financial times bio

Bar the occasional interregnum, I have been coming to Pemaquid Fishermen’s Co-operative for lobster since the 1970s. And, since my son Aidan was born eight summers ago, and my wife and I decided to make Maine our regular holiday destination, a journey to the seafood eatery on the state’s midcoast has become an almost annual pilgrimage.

I have difficulty eating lobster anywhere else.

Shawn donnan financial times bio and wife

Even in Maine. When, eventually, Aidan and his little sister Lucy choose to crack their first lobster (they both currently prefer hot dogs as summer fare), I will do everything in my power to make sure it will be from the Pemaquid Co-op.

The Co-op lays claim to being the oldest continually operating one of its kind in the US.

It has, naturally, grown over the years but essentially remains what it has been since 1947: a shack staffed by gangly teenagers working summer shifts. You bring your own beer, wine and salad and, if you are smart, mosquito spray and a tablecloth for your