Ben Conniff knew he’d become something of a culinary star when a stranger tweeted him, asking him out on a date.
“There was a girl who Twittered: ‘My mom told me I should date a lobster man. Luke’s Lobster — any takers?’ ” says Conniff, a 26-year-old who favors t-shirts over stylish duds and blushes easily.
With a shy smile, he adds, “I did go on a date with her.”
Conniff and his business partner, Luke Holden, 27, founded seafood shack Luke’s Lobster in 2009 — and they’re suddenly hotter than a New England clambake. With three locations in Manhattan and two more set to open this month in the Financial District and DC, they’re fielding cookbook and TV offers and building a celebrity fan base that includes Tom Brokaw, Dee Snider, Wes Anderson, Bethenny Frankel and Michael Keaton.
“Matt Dillon comes in all the time,” says Holden. “He’s gone through five ‘Buy 10, get one free cards,’ but he won’t sign the cards.”
Holden even appeared live on the “Today” show with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb last summer to show off his signature treats.
“I was extremely nervous, and they were flirty,” the East Village resident says. (The appearance involved some cheek-pinching, courtesy of a tipsy Gifford.)
It all started with a dream in a Midtown office. Two years ago, Maine native Holden was a listless Georgetown grad working in mergers and acquisitions at CSCA Capital Advisors and raking in upward of $200,000 — but his thoughts kept creeping to the sea.
That summer, while still at his banking job, Holden posted a Craigslist ad seeking a partner to help him launch a Maine-style restaurant concept.
The listing caught the eye of
Conniff — then 24, fresh out of Yale and looking to break into the food industry. After being vetted by Holden’s family in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Conniff was hired.
A mere month and a half later, with no prior restaurant experience, the two wholesome lads, who wear plaid and floppy bangs, started Luke’s Lobster in the East Village.
It was an instant hit. Star appearances aside, much of the restaurant’s success is rooted in its laid-back appeal and relatively inexpensive, fresh seafood fare.
Each Luke’s location sticks with a simple menu of seafood rolls, bisques, chowders and whoopie pies (a New England version of a moon pie). The décor is equally straightforward: With stool seating and tchotchkes from Maine, the eateries look more suited to an ocean-bordered stretch of Route 29 than the sidewalks of Manhattan.
A lobster roll at Luke’s goes for $15, as opposed to as much as $25 at competitors’ spots — and the meat comes straight from Maine, courtesy of Holden’s father’s seafood processing company.
Holden only quit his banking job last May to operate Luke’s full-time, after the business partners launched a second spot on the Upper East Side (they opened a third on the Upper West Side seven months later).
“I work harder now,” Holden says of life after banking, “but now work doesn’t feel like work at all.” (Still, he admits to missing his old paycheck.)
That all might change with the new FiDi location, which will seat approximately 16 and boast a “lobster roll-only” line for hungry bankers on the go.
“This is our biggest space of any of the restaurants in New York City,” says Holden. “We’ll see how it goes . . . That lunch crowd — it’s like, let’s see how fast you can push it out and not interact with folks.”
Now if the guys could only figure out how to get the smell of seafood off their bodies at the end of the workday. “On the crosstown bus between the Upper East Side and Upper West Side locations, people will move away from me,” admits Conniff.
“It’s not always seafood. Sometimes it’s butter, too.”
dschuster@nypost.com