Wareham’s Iconic Lobster Bowl Building to Be Demolished

An iconic Wareham restaurant will soon be gone, as the former Lobster Bowl building is being demolished to make way for a new car wash.

The building has sat vacant for years, ever since its last occupant, the 99 Restaurant, opened its new location on the other side of town in April of 2016.

That restaurant had moved into the former Lobster Bowl back in 2001, not long removed from the building’s original days as one of the Cranberry Highway’s signature spots.

For decades, Lobster Bowl was the place in town where people went for special occasions, reunions, weddings, or just a nice night out. This writer was part of Wareham High’s undefeated 1996 Honor Bowl team, and the team’s championship banquet was held at Lobster Bowl in front of this very fireplace.

Lobster Bowl first opened in 1954 when brothers Andrew, George and Michael Caradimos opened it as their third restaurant together. It remained open for 46 years, closing in 2000.

Jameson Devereaux is the grandson of Andrew Caradimos, and he said the Caradimos brothers got to live their American dream after coming to the U.S. from Greece.

“My grandfather came to this country in 1936 when he was 17 years old, and was so poor that a family had to pay for the passage and he paid the money back, if I remember correctly,” he said. “He and his brothers made their American dream come to life to emigrate to America and build a life and raise a family.”

Devereaux shared a photo that he said he believes is the last time the iconic Lobster Bowl neon sign was fully lit.

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Devereaux pointed out that the restaurant burned six to eight cords of wood per year in the restaurant’s signature fireplaces, wood which it stored in this building:

“The average cord of firewood is 600-800 pieces, so the restaurants burned approximately 5,600 pieces of wood a year,” Devereaux said. “Over the entire span of Lobster Bowl’s 46 years, the restaurant burned 257,600 pieces of wood, if my math is correct.”

The restaurant made headlines in February 1998 when it became the first major restaurant in Wareham to ban smoking, over six years before the Commonwealth banned smoking in all restaurants and almost three years before Wareham instituted its own indoor smoking ban in October 2001.

The site is scheduled to become a Reign Car Wash sometime in the future.

Check out video and photos of the Lobster Bowl restaurant being demolished: