Farrell: Love of lobster rolls apparent, from Lowcountry to ... McDonald's? (+ video)

Julia Child described her recipe for potato and leek soup as "simplicity itself."

To make it you need potatoes, leeks, salt and water. That is it.

The dish is considered iconic, one that has been much adapted since, sometimes with variations like butter and lemon or herbs and cream.

No matter what is done to it, though, the spirit of the meal remains pure.

This is often how the best food is made, with an adherence to the fundamentals.

Todd Rackliff, owner of and chef at The Sugaree in Bluffton, has this philosophy when it comes to one of the items on his lunch menu: lobster rolls.

"In Maine, we let the lobster speak for itself."

Lobster, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

And the buttered and grilled New England-split top bun, of course.

That's what goes into the Uncle Mark, a version of the lobster rolls Rackliff grew up eating downeast -- a dish that he named after his uncle who is a lobsterman -- and began serving during Lent in 2014.

"It's the Uncle Mahk," Rackliff's wife Jo corrected us, laughing. "Uncle Mahk."

Along with fried clams and frozen lemonades, lobster rolls have long been a staple of Northeastern summers. What is considered a "lobster roll," though, varies from person to person as you make your way down the coast from Maine.

And when you get really far down the coast, buyer beware.

I once had a lobster roll in Florida that I swear was made with mayonnaise, lobster and a blender.

Then they put that concoction on a bun.

And charged me $18 for it.

My excuse for paying that is lobster rolls weren't always easy to get south of New Jersey. My craving for a really good one -- one that was simple and tastes like the North Atlantic Ocean with a hint of celery and nearly invisible amount of mayonnaise -- overtook me in that moment, but nowadays, I can be more choosy.

In recent years, lobster rolls have appeared on more menus. A March 2014 report in The Wall Street Journal noted that "soaring supply and falling prices for whole live lobster, along with new food trends, are changing how people eat the crustacean--perhaps for the long term."

Lobster, they said, is everywhere.

In fact, McDonald's added a lobster roll to its menus this summer at various locations in New England and Canada. If that doesn't say "lobster roll ubiquity" then I don't know what does.

A good lobster roll requires fresh and few ingredients.

McDonald's wouldn't even know how.

At this year's Bluffton Village Festival in May, the lobster roll might have been one of the main food groups represented. In addition to Todd and Jo Rackliff's rolls, festivalgoers could get different variations at Lowcountry Rocks Lobster, a new food truck to the area, or at Joe Loves Lobster Rolls, the O.G. of lobster roll businesses in Bluffton.

An "O.G.," meaning "original gangster," is the guy who was there back in the day. The day, in the case of lobster rolls in Bluffton, was 2013.

When Joe Loves Lobster Rolls first appeared on the scene as a food cart at farmers markets, it was like a mirage in the desert. A mirage with a long line of pale people, some of whom couldn't pronounce their R's if they tried, waiting for their turn to trade $15 for a fat, heap of fresh lobster doused in Plugra butter, made to order on a grilled split-top.

No one could believe it was true. Real lobster rolls with clearly defined knuckles and claws. Here. In Bluffton. I once stood upward of 30 minutes in the punishing heat for a Joe Loves lobster roll.

The longest anyone has waited, though, might be an hour and 45 minutes.

I asked. I had to know the levels of our desperation.

"As far as I know," said Tony Herndon, the man behind the cart that is also now a full-fledged restaurant, with locations in Ridgeland and Seacrest, Fla. "That's what I've heard, anyway."

Herndon named his business after his cousin, Joe Love, who was a lobsterman in Maine and who died in 1972 of pancreatic cancer, he said.

Between his cart, truck and restaurants, Herndon said he sells 500 pounds of lobster a week. For many customers, his was the first lobster roll they had ever tasted. I would occasionally meet one of those newcomers in line. They were usually the ones wondering what all the fuss was about and mumbling "How long does this take anyway?"

They knew not of what they spoke.

"I've sold 40,000 rolls here alone," Herndon said. "It's the purest roll. I don't bastardize it with sauces or vegetables."

When it comes to the trend of lobster rolls and the increasing presence of them in the Lowcountry, Herndon has this to say: I was here first. Get your own idea.

"I'm a little aggressive when it comes to that," he laughed Thursday. "My biggest issue is, I don't like copying. The town is too small for that."

Todd Rackliff and Lori Holland, who is one of the four people behind Lowcountry Rocks Lobster, are among those selling lobster rolls who have heard from Herndon.

Both say they're not copying anything.

"I asked him 'Oh yeah, what part of Maine are you from?'" Rackliff recalled about the phone conversation he had with Herndon earlier this year. "You can have 100 different styles of lobster rolls. Let the people decide what style they prefer."

Lowcountry Rocks Lobster sees itself as something altogether different from Joe Loves Lobster Rolls. It offers classic lobster rolls, but also experiments with mayonnaise flavorings. They also do lobster mac and cheese and lobster tacos and nachos.

Holland said, "That's like saying Papa John's can't sell pizza because Dominos does. (Competition) is a good thing. It only makes us all better. Everyone here can be successful."

I agree. The more good lobster rolls there are in the world, the happier I am.

Except for McDonald's. When it comes to them and lobster rolls, I draw the line.

"I'd be curious actually," Rackliff said. "You know how their Big Macs look in the commercials and then you get it and it looks like someone had it in their pocket? What would their lobster look like?"

Follow columnist and senior editor Liz Farrell at twitter.com/elizfarrell and facebook.com/elizfarrell.

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This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Farrell: Love of lobster rolls apparent, from Lowcountry to ... McDonald's? (+ video)."