The Lobster Pot, Cape Cod Restaurant That Gave Anthony Bourdain His 1st Job, Is For Sale

PROVINCETOWN, MA — The Lobster Pot on Commercial Street in Provincetown is many things. A culinary institution, a tourist hub for those getting off of boats at the MacMillan Pier, and even the place where a world-famous chef decided he wanted to become a cook at all.

Now, the owners of that culinary institution, the McNulty family, have placed the business up for sale.

First reported by the Cape Cod Times, the McNulty family has decided to move the restaurant to an ownership group out of the family for the first time since 1979. According to a listing, they've tabbed Premier Commercial to sell the land, buildings, business, equipment, improvements and brand.

All of that will cost the future buyer $14 million if the sale is executed at the listing price. The restaurant sits on a .07 acre lot and includes an 8,293 sq. ft. building that features multiple dining rooms and numerous bars on two levels of waterfront dining. And then, of course, there's that famous neon sign.

The McNulty family won't sell all of the Lobster Pot properties, as they plan to keep both the Lobster Pot Express and Wellfleet's Lobster and Chowder House in the family, according to the Cape Cod Times.

According to the family and the listing, what the restaurant grosses annually puts it in the top .5 percent worldwide. Culturally, a future buyer can take credit for owning that restaurant that gave a start to a world-famous chef: Anthony Bourdain.

Bourdain reinvented food travel and travel food shows and, according to him, working as a dishwasher at the Lobster Pot sparked his fascination with the industry.

He featured the Lobster Pot on at least two of his television shows, both in A Cooks Tour and CNN's Parts Unkown.