Ocean in Birmingham had a hit for years with its lobster poached in butter. But chef and owner George Reis knows that even favorite menu items can grow stale over time, so he took that off the menu to make room for new dishes.

After a while, Reis wanted to bring back a signature lobster dish and settled on the Wood Grilled Lobster now on the menu.

The whole Maine lobster is split in half, grilled over hickory wood and basted with a seaweed butter made in-house at Ocean. Together, that smokiness and seaweed butter combine to give the lobster a depth of flavor beyond typical butter poaching.

It’s special enough to earn a spot on the Alabama Tourism Department’s list of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama.

Wood Grilled Lobster at Ocean is one of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.