When it comes to finding the summer’s best lobster roll, why search for the quintessential seafood hut in a salty coastal town, where the overpriced fare is served up by surly teenage seasonal workers? Why, indeed, when we can comb the residential streets of Cambridge and find Alive and Kicking Lobsters wedged between two multifamily houses? True to its name, the fresh-seafood market has plenty of the red-shelled critters, kicking around in tanks lining the place’s left wall. They don’t have far to go to the food-prep area, where owner Louis Mastrangelo puts fresh lobster meat and mayonnaise on buttered toast to make his lobster sandwich ("Not a roll," he insists). Take the sandwich and accompanying potato chips down to the nearby Charles River, hope for a nice breeze off the water, and imagine Cape Cod — a weekend away in a bag lunch.

Available for $8.99 at Alive and Kicking Lobsters, 269 Putnam Avenue, in Cambridge. Call (617) 876-0451.