Frank Sprague holds one of many lobsters at Sprague’s Lobster on Monday, Aug. 25 in Wiscasset. Sprague marked 50 years of running his own business this season. (Ali Juell photo)

Frank Sprague knows a thing or two about lobster after preparing it for 50 seasons.

Sprague, 71, has grown Sprague’s Lobster from a lobster bake catering company to a mainstay on the Wiscasset pier over the course of 50 years.

“I’m proud of it,” he said. “I think it’s a success story for someone that never went to college.”

His waterfront restaurant is mentioned in many Maine food guides for its lobster rolls and lobster dinners. Most days, he can be found manning the lobster pot and calling out people’s orders.

He got his start at the Dodge Inn in Edgecomb at 16 years old, where he cleared tables and watched Stan and Velma Dodge operate the “packed seven days a week” restaurant, he said.

“It was such a great institution,” Sprague said. “Their claim to fame was lobster 13 different ways.”

Sprague also met Linda, the woman who would become his wife, while they both worked at the Dodge Inn, he said.

After going out with Stan Dodge to cater lobster bakes, Sprague started Sprague’s Lobster as his own catering business at 21. He said he took his van throughout Lincoln County to prepare above-ground lobster bakes for events.

“They were done with a wood-fired cooker with seaweed,” Sprague said. “They were big jobs.”

Sprague went on to open a year-round seafood takeout, Frank’s Fission Chips, at the Maine Yankee nuclear plant site in Wiscasset in 1988. Sprague said he kept up his catering company while running the stand.

Customers read through the menu at Sprague’s Lobster in Wiscasset on Monday, Aug. 25. The eatery has been at its current location on Main Street for 37 of its 50 years. (Ali Juell photo)

Sprague served baked flounder, haddock, and lobster rolls at the takeout eatery. His clam chowder and broccoli cheddar soup were particularly popular with Maine Yankee workers, according to a 2001 Lincoln County News article.

Since moving to the Route 1 location and turning Sprague’s Lobster into a restaurant 27 years ago, Sprague has accrued a museum’s worth of lobstering memorabilia, including lobster traps, bait boxes, and the claws from a 5-pound lobster.

He doesn’t have much time for catering these days because the restaurant is so busy, he said.

The business has become an “all-hands-on-deck” operation, he said, with Linda, his kids, and his grandkids all working at the patio restaurant at some point. He credits Linda as the person who keeps the business running.

“She does a lot more work than I do,” Sprague said.

Over the years, he said getting to interact with customers and ask how far they’ve travelled to try Maine lobster has been a highlight.

As he celebrates this milestone season, Sprague said he’s ready to pass the business onto the next generation. Next year, he said he hopes his daughter Alicia Huff will take the reins so he can step back.

“We get here six in the morning and we don’t get out of here until 10 (p.m.),” Sprague said. “I want someone else to take over and I’ll help them … No more 120-hour weeks.”

When asked what’s kept him going for 50 years, Sprague said Sprague’s Lobster is “one of the better jobs” he’s had.

“We’re at the controls of what we make,” he said.

For more information about Sprague’s Lobster, find the business on Facebook or call 882-1236.

A sign at Sprague’s Lobster in Wiscasset commemorates owner Frank Sprague’s 50 years in business on Monday, Aug. 25. Sprague said he hopes his family will carry on the business as he starts to consider stepping back. (Ali Juell photo)