McLobster

McDonald's introduced the McLobster in 1993, a lobster roll served in a hot dog bun with lobster sauce and shredded lettuce. It was sold nationwide, and it was a commercial disappointment: the Christian Science Monitor later described it as "basically a low-rent lobster roll," and the Fiscal Times pointed to customers who were wary of a quality seafood item from a fast-food chain, plus a $5.99 price that was high relative to the rest of the menu. The product also had supply issues and was never very profitable nationally.

What kept it alive was geography. Lobster is cheap in summer where it is caught, so the McLobster stayed available seasonally in New England until 2005, and select McDonald's restaurants in Atlantic Canada kept offering it for a limited time each year. Along the Delmarva Peninsula, McDonald's answered with a McCrab sandwich in the early 2000s. In Canada the McLobster became an annual staple at east-coast restaurants during the summer lobster season, and not everyone was impressed: in 2013 Stewart Lamont, a 33-year veteran of the Maritime lobster business, bought one at a drive-thru and pronounced it "more McDismal than McLobster," then wrote to McDonald's urging the chain to charge more so fishermen could earn more.

The 2010s brought short-term reintroductions in Canada and Italy, and in the summer of 2015 New England McDonald's sold a lobster roll again after a ten-year break, now made with North Atlantic lobster, mayonnaise and lettuce on a small toasted roll for $7.99, with 290 calories. In 2017 there was no McLobster in eastern Canada at all, because lobster prices had climbed to the highest the processors' association had ever seen. That is the McLobster's whole story in one line: it only ever made sense where the lobster was, and only in the years when the lobster was cheap.