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Pair to open F.I.S.H. on Fox Island Road By Jananne Abel
you’re walking through the hallway to get to the restaurant, you pass through sheets of steel and glass so it has the effect of being on a big ocean liner, like you’re passing a ship’s hull.” Then, he said, there’s a huge fish eye. Large painted canvas sails hang from the ceilings which are painted to give the effect of water.
After a complete renovation, the restaurant at the foot of Fox Island Road is set to reopen by the end of this month. Two men of disparate ages who have known each other for 10 years, first working together at a former eatery in Port Chester, have teamed up to create a Mediterranean seafood house at this lovely, out of the way location. Billy Rosenberg of Port Chester and Denis Ossorio of Greenwich, still very much in the throes of redecoration at 102 Fox Island Rd. this week, are hoping to open F.I.S.H., short for Fox Island Seafood House, on Aug. 26. Ossorio said getting people to find the place, now painted a fresh coat of yellow, will be the challenge, but Rosenberg said “once you’ve been there, you’ll always remember. The beauty of it is that it is kind of off the beaten path. It’s an oasis.” So its biggest drawback is also it’s biggest asset, said Rosenberg. “Although it’s behind the sewage treatment plant and the dump, it is still a nice spot,” said Ossorio. “There are not many places to eat on the water from New Rochelle to Greenwich where you can watch the boats go back and forth and see the swans.” Besides the panorama from the Port Chester Yacht Club and from the homes in the village’s Greyrock section, there’s no prettier view in Port Chester than the one from this location. It overlooks the Byram River in a tranquil, beautiful spot with lovely homes across the way and boats pulling in and out during the warm weather. The restaurant features a deck that seats 30 for outdoor eating and has docks in front of it so customers can reach it by boat during the spring, summer and fall. In the past Ossorio, 61, owned Black Sheep and Two Moons in Port Chester and
is currently the principal owner of Dome in Greenwich. Rosenberg, 34, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, was the chef at Two Moons from 1993 to 1996 when Ossorio was the owner. He was later the chef at Dome, which features contemporary American food in a former bank building on Greenwich Avenue, then at Barcelona in South Norwalk for three years before pairing up with Ossorio on this project. He is back at Dome as executive chef until F.I.S.H. is ready to open, spending his days doing and overseeing construction at the Fox Island Road address. Rosenberg grew up in Port Chester and has lived in the village all his life, currently on Irenhyl Avenue. He and his wife, Gina, have two children—Hanna, 5, and Joseph, 17 months. “It was always my dream to do my own restaurant and there is not too much of a better person to do it with than Denis,” said Rosenberg. “He’s got amazing vision.” “I’ve been looking for a restaurant for a long time and The Pearl finally came around and I asked Denis if he wanted to do it with me,” said Rosenberg. Since they’ve known each other for 10 years, he said, “it was kind of an easy match.” The Fox Island Road location became known for its variety of Portuguese lobster preparations and seafood dishes when it was run by a Portuguese family as Pearl
The outside of the Fox Island Seafood House, formerly The Pearl, has been painted a fresh coat of yellow.
Cuisine: Mediterranean seafood
Billy Rosenberg of Port Chester and Denis Ossorio of Greenwich on the deck of their new restaurant overlooking the Byram River at the foot of Fox Island Road. of the Atlantic. They returned to their homeland, but their daughter, Lucy Torregiani, has remained behind to lease out the building and operate the marina next door. The restaurant was later taken over by Joe and Donna Boyers of Port Chester who changed the name to The Pearl. They continued offering the Portuguese seafood dishes and added a number of pasta and meat entrées, including some Italian specialties. It has been closed for about a year.
Brand new decor Rosenberg and Ossorio have been working on their new restaurant since November, doing much of the work themselves. “The building was a disaster, so we rebuilt the building from the ground up—new steel, joists, floor and everything,” said Rosenberg. “We gutted the entire place, so it’s nothing of what it used to be. We moved the kitchen to where the bar was and the bar to where the kitchen was. The flow is much different and it’s really a cool space now.” “We’ve directed everything to the waterway,” said Roseberg, “moving the kitchen to the back of the building so all the views are of the water. There are a lot of windows and much more natural light.” In addition, they hired the same artist who created the interesting Southwestern décor at Two Moons, Rick Molina of Norwalk, so, said Rosenberg, “it really has a nice feel to it.” The nautical décor, underway but not complete, is very colorful and uses the effects of faux painting. It starts with a beautiful fish sculpture in the entryway. “The entire restaurant is like a piece of art,” said Rosenberg, “with no differentiation between the ceiling and walls. As
The restaurant will feature a wood-burning pizza oven imported from Italy for cooking pizzas and baked fish. Wooden tables that can withstand being outdoors have also been imported from Italy. A large antipasto bar and a raw bar will be open until the lounge closes “so people can get good food all night,” said Rosenberg, who will be the head chef. Prices for these appetizers will range from $5 to $12. Pizzas will also be available till closing. On the regular a la carte menu, appetizers will start at $8 and entrées will range from $17 to $48, the top price being for a 32-ounce Florentine steak for two. Entrées will be served with vegetable or potato. The cuisine at F.I.S.H. will be Mediterranean seafood with a Tuscan influence. The menu will consist of 80% seafood, said Rosenberg, plus steaks and veal chops “for the meat people.” Ossorio and Rosenberg have a 20-year lease for their Fox Island Road location but, said Rosenberg, “with the amount of money we dumped in there we would eventually like to buy the building.” Ossorio estimated the cost of renovation at a few hundred thousand dollars.
Future plans The partners had hoped to open sooner to take advantage of the summer, but “we’d fix one side of the building and the other side would collapse,” said Rosenberg. They knew they were in trouble when Ossorio fell through the floor in the kitchen. “It was amazing repair work,” said Rosenberg. “We had no idea we were in for this. It turned into an engineering nightmare.” Ossorio and Rosenberg are currently before the Port Chester Planning Commission with plans to make some changes to the building, the exterior of which is painted a fresh coat of yellow. If approved, they expect these additions will happen sometime next year. They plan to add additional deck space where there was once “a ratty catwalk” and a sunroom on top of it which, said Rosenberg, will bring their capacity up to 100 in the winter and 140 in the summer. “If the village allows us to do the deck, it will be a really nice venue.” Next summer the partners hope to add a casual outdoor tiki bar serving New England style seafood for boaters.