EAT
Tried, True & New
Like the décor, the menu also has changed. Baby boomers who first sampled seafood likely tried flounder, scallops, and shrimp stuffed with crab imperial. Upscale restaurants served Dover sole, which Teixido remembers preparing tableside at the Columbus Inn when he worked there. Many spots catered to the public’s demand for anything fried: shrimp, clams or flounder. The public was slow to move away from the fried, baked or broiled mainstays. Teixido in the early 1990s set out to make waves. He was determined to serve tuna tartar to customers at Harry’s Savoy Grill. He specially ordered it from Dawson’s Seafood, but customers didn’t bite. After a trip to Hawaii, where he saw a decidedly unhip man wearing white shoes tuck into rare tuna, Teixido persisted. Only this time, the kitchen lightly seared the tuna. Today, “tuna is king,” he says. “You can put tuna on just about anything.” Haley agrees. Tuna and salmon rule at the beach, although rockfish—considered a local fish—and swordfish are swimming close behind, he says. As with rare versus seared tuna, a slight change can make a difference. Wahoo sounds a lot more appealing when you call it ono, Hawaiian for “good to eat.” No one wanted Patagonian tooth fish until someone dubbed it Chilean sea bass. Haddock, cod, halibut, rockfish, grouper have all become more familiar on area menus. Of course, the perpetual favorites remain. The Blue Crab Grill in Newark, for instance, offers steamed whole lobster. Just about every seafood restaurant—or area restaurant of any persuasion, for that matter—sells crab cakes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with the favorites. Feby’s Fishery recently started buying live snow crabs, and each week, the restaurant offers allyou-can-eat Dungeness crabs. Big Fish pairs the perpetually popular yellow fin tuna with lobster sauce.
The Pluses & Minuses
The variety stems from better farming techniques and faster shipping methods.
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The range of raw oysters available at many restaurants is staggering. The rise of more options has caused consumption to ebb in other areas. DiFebo loves porgy, but people no longer take the bait. They also want a fish fillet, he says, despite the fact that a salmon or halibut steak has more flavor because of the bones. The popularity of newer fish has presented other issues. “We used to order 70 pounds of Chilean sea bass to make it through every weekend, and we still fell short,” Butler recalls. “I couldn’t help feeling personally responsible when the fish was put on the endangered list due to overfishing.” While seafood encourages creativity —Haley recently braised scallops in coconut water—it can also be unforgiving. When you buy quality beef, you typically know by the grade what you will get. Some beef cuts are better when they age. Not seafood. “Seafood is extremely perishable,” Sugrue says. “You might not know the quality until you start fabricating it. At that point, it’s already paid for and there isn’t much else you can do.” Big Fish has its own wholesale division, which helps with quality control. Teixido and Banks carefully select vendors, which include a woman who sells salmon line-caught off the Alaskan coast. Dawson’s Seafood, Teixido says, is finicky about what they sell, and that’s fine by him. “People study fish, smell it, and poke it for doneness before diving in to eat it,” Teixido says. “They want to know exactly how it’s prepared and where it comes from.” One mistake could cost you a customer. While seafood is the primary emphasis at restaurants like Deep Blue, Butler acknowledges that it can be limiting during a static economy. He and his team recently put the experience they’ve cultivated at Brandywine Prime Seafood & Chops into play at Deep Blue by adding a steakhouse section to the seafood spot’s menu. “With mixed emotions,” he notes, “I have to say that it’s been wildly popular.”
JUNE 2013 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM
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