Here’s how you can enjoy Boston food in Houston without traveling for the ALCS

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — If you want a taste of Boston, but don’t want to travel north for the American League Championship Series, there’s a restaurant where you can find one of New England’s iconic sandwiches.

For nearly a decade, ‘Maine-ly Sandwiches’ has offered New England food in the Houston area. it’s a venture that New England native, Buddy, wanted to start.

He wanted to bring the infamous lobster roll to Houston.

“When we first opened, I called my mother said, ‘How do you make it?’ I prefer how mom makes it,” he explained. “That’s what I’ve served to many, many thousands of customers.”

A lobster roll is simply how it sounds. It’s pieces of lobster in a roll.

You can get it with mayo or butter, and that’s it.

“You know how we do barbecue every week in Texas and we have leftovers,” Buddy explained. “The lobster we steam on the weekends, we steam too much. We have it in the fridge. Take it out of the fridge, slap it on a hotdog bun, and you have a lobster roll.”

Getting the protein isn’t easy. Buddy said it was the hardest part of bringing the sandwich to Houston.

The lobster roll in Houston is similar to what you’d find in Boston, but there is a slight difference.

“What you would typically get in New England is a hotdog size,” Buddy said. “Because we’re in Texas, we made the Texas-sized lobster roll.”

Buddy has a few locations. He’s a transplant from Maine.

With the Red Sox playing the Astros in the American League Championship Series, he says it’s a win-win for who he wants to see win, and introducing more Houstonians to Boston cuisine.