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Rare Yellow Lobster Turns Up at Flatiron Restaurant and Gets 'Pardoned'

By Noah Hurowitz | August 16, 2016 6:13pm
 Ruby, a rare yellow lobster, was pardoned after turning up in a shipment to Burger & Lobster in the Flatiron.
Ruby, a rare yellow lobster, was pardoned after turning up in a shipment to Burger & Lobster in the Flatiron.
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Burger & Lobster

FLATIRON — Guess who’s not coming to dinner?

A yellow lobster got a lucky break last week when she turned up in a shipment to Burger & Lobster from Nova Scotia and the restaurant’s owners decided to “pardon” her.

The lobster, who has since been named “Ruby,” is a rare find, with only about one in 30 million lobsters sharing the yellowish hue that comes from a genetic mutation, according to the University of Maine Lobster Institute.

Live lobsters appear brownish, only turning red after they have been cooked. Ruby's coloring, which has a slightly pinkish hue, makes her appear as if she survived the fatal lobster sauna treatment, according to Steven Costello, a co-owner of Burger & Lobster.

Her bright coloring made her too rare to end up in the pot, Costello said.

“We thought it would be nice to celebrate her a little bit, so we named her Ruby and plopped her in her own tank at the restaurant,” Costello said. “It was so cool when we discovered her, we had to enjoy her.”

And it’s not just Ruby’s yellow-orange tinge that makes her stand out from the crowd. According to Costello, she’s also one of the feistiest lobsters he’s ever encountered.

“Generally speaking, unless you touch them they’re pretty docile,” he said. “But Ruby, if you go up and look at her in the tank she gets her claws up, ready to fight. She definitely has her own personality.”

For now, Ruby is on display in a tank at the front of Burger & Lobster, located at 39 W. 19th St., but Costello said he is looking into whether she can be given to an aquarium, or somewhere else that many people can have the pleasure of seeing her in all her one-in-30-million glory.