Bay Area restaurant managers and food truck owners cite the high costs of shipping ingredients by road and air, paired with warmer ocean temperatures, as the culprits behind the recent price hikes of those delectable lobster rolls across lunchtime menus.

And as the average retail gas price in California soared to $5.92 on Monday, according to the American Automobile Association, the costs of some of the area’s trendier lunch choices won’t likely see a dip in price any time soon. It’s all making that brown bag lunch look that much more delicious during the work week grind.

“What really drove our prices was COVID, because our shacks closed. We had to depend on other means, mainly online direct shipping orders out of Maine,” said Jason Olvera, general manager of Luke’s Lobster in the SoMa neighborhood, through text message. “We also expanded to Whole Foods and many other grocery stores. That was good and bad for us, as we had a lot of other competitors.”

Luke’s Lobster currently has one location in San Francisco and 25 other shacks from Chicago to Boston and even Tokyo. A Luke’s Lobster menu found on Yelp in 2018 listed a 4-ounce lobster roll at $16. It now sits at $24, an $8 price jump. Its 6-ounce lobster roll, however, for those with a larger appetite and wallet, is now priced at $35. Each roll, big or small, boasts chilled, wild-caught Maine lobster that’s tossed in mayo, lemon-butter and house seasoning before packed into toasted, buttery bread.

“It’s not cheap by any means. But we try our best to make it [as] affordable as possible by taking out the middleman [in a] completely transparent way,” Olvera wrote. “From the fisherman to our shacks, we complete every step ourselves.”

From its appearance on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2012, Cousins ​​Maine Lobster started with a single food truck in Los Angeles and grew its fleet to nearly 40, which also includes a handful of brick-and-mortar eateries throughout the United States. A decade later, Cousins ​​is one of the top players in the lobster roll business.

Bay Area franchise co-owners Raj and Rahul Mohan, operate three Cousins ​​Maine Lobster food trucks that cover the entire region, reaching anywhere from Martinez to Danville, and often setting up shop in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Marina Green.

Raj Mohan told SFGATE that warmer ocean temperatures are causing the lobsters to migrate further north, while rising gas prices and even a decrease in fisherfolk actively working the Atlantic due to the coronavirus, are all key factors for the $2 increase found on Cousins’ menu. Their lobster roll currently costs $21.

“The Maine lobster is definitely sweeter than other forms of lobster, better than in Hawaii, and it gets imported a lot into Asian countries. As a result of that, there is a lot of competition,” Mohan said. “Maine lobster is very, very sustainable in terms of their practices. So, literally one out of 15 lobsters that comes into the trap, one is kept and the rest are thrown back.”

Mohan added if the lobsters are not fully grown, or they’re egg-bearing, they must be thrown back until they reach a larger size. He also said the lobster traps are designed to allow juvenile crustaceans to easily escape.

“It’s not about the weight of the lobster. It’s about the size. And they need to be at least 5-and-a-half inches from the back of the head from where the eyes are to where the tail starts,” he said. (Editor’s note: Cousins ​​Maine Lobster later clarified the lobsters are in fact 3.25 to 5 inches in length.)

Despite the price increase, Mohan said business remains consistent with food trucks parked in various locations throughout the Bay Area seven days a week.

“Most people have accepted the fact that everything in general is higher,” Mohan said. “We have a following. I think what people appreciate is how we’ve kept the recipes really original without mixing mayo, without mixing celery, without playing around too much with it. So people appreciate that, and we are busy.”

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Police confirmed late Tuesday that they had arrested 32-year-old Jorge Davis Milton in connection with the attack and another case in which someone was stabbed in the face in the San Francisco mission district. Milton has no home address and has been charged with multiple criminal offenses.

RELATED: ABC7 Presses SF DA About What Is Done In Crimes Against Asian Americans

“Somebody pushed me from the back and started beating me and I am losing consciousness. When I wake up, I am bloody,” said 59-year-old Danilo Yu Chang, whose eyes are bruised and swollen after being attacked. Chang describes what happened near 3rd Street and Market Streets in San Francisco.

“I have two black eyes, but my vision has returned to the right, but the left is still … I cannot see from the left,” says Chang, who further told us, “They didn’t take anything, everything is with me, I have not lost anything. “

While Chang believes he was targeted as a Chinese Filipino male, police say that “there is nothing to suggest that the incident was bias motivated,” and tell us that the suspect was also involved in the incident.

The attack on Market Street happened Monday afternoon and was the first day Chang, a travel agent that commuted from out of town, was back at work since the pandemic began.

VIDEO: Suspect arrested in attack on 91-year-old in Oakland’s Chinatown

Chang says he now fears San Francisco and will try to move in with his family in Indiana or Nevada.

“San Francisco is just getting worse, old San Francisco is gone, everything is gone, and it’s a dangerous place to go for a walk, it’s no longer safe,” says Chang.

There’s a GoFundMe that Chang can use to pay for medical expenses. Here you can make a contribution.

San Francisco police say the two incidents began around 1:30 p.m. Monday when officers on 16th and Mission Streets responded with a knife stab. They found a 64-year-old man who suffered from a wound on his cheek. Police say he was rushed to hospital with life threatening injuries.

The officials eventually found that the “suspect cut the victim’s face with a knife and threw him to the ground.”

The suspect then fled to the 16th and Mission BART station.

RELATED: The video shows a brazen ambush on an elderly Asian man in the SF laundromat

About 30 minutes later, police said a 59-year-old Vallejo resident was walking on Market Street’s 600 block when he was attacked.

That victim was Danilo Yu Chang.

Chang suffered head injuries and did not know what had happened to him. A witness told officers that the suspect ran up to the victim and hit him several times in the head, causing him to fall to the ground where he lay motionless.

Police say the suspect escaped the scene on a Muni bus.

“Using images captured on surveillance videos and descriptions from witnesses, SFPD investigators found that the same suspect was responsible for both unprovoked attacks,” a police statement said.

Crime alert bulletins were distributed to the police.

RELATED: Asian Grandma Knocked Out in New York in Unprovoked Attack

The next morning, Tuesday morning at around 9:30 a.m., officers found a man who matched the suspect’s description.

Police say “the officers have arrested the subject and, during an investigation, developed a likely reason for arresting him for both of these incidents.”

Jorge Devis-Milton, 32, was arrested on the following charges:

16. / Mission streets:

• Attack with a deadly weapon other than a firearm
• Intensified attack likely to cause major bodily harm
• Heightened chaos
• Battery that causes serious injury

600 block of Market Street:

• Battery that causes serious injury
• Intensified attack likely to cause major bodily harm

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