The Chicago restaurant scene has been taking on a distinctly aquatic look of late. Rooney`s Original Lobster House, with its New England tavern theme, is only the newest in a series of recently-opened dining spots dedicated to seafood. In fact, Rooney`s impresario Dan Rosenthal has gone fishing before. He and partner Cathy Newton also created the Old Carolina Crab House at North Pier Terminal in 1989.
”Most people prefer to go out to eat fish,” Rosenthal says, ”and we felt the lobster market hadn`t been fully explored here.”
However, before launching a venture to harvest gold from the sea, or going to feast on that harvest, restaurateurs and consumers alike should consider some of the challenges, problems and pitfalls that have to be met constantly if a fish house is going to float.
There are, it should be noted, seafood operations that survive-and even thrive-by merely deep-frying frozen ”product,” as it`s called. My focus is directed instead toward restaurants that have committed themselves to serving a variety of fresh fish.
Their owners know it is less trying to provide outstanding steak or even great Peking duck than superb seafood consistently. So why do they specialize in fish?
For two reasons. Although Americans are conscious of the health and nutrition benefits of eating seafood, they seem to be reluctant to cook fresh fish at home due either to concerns about food safety, discomfort about preparing it or both. Instead they order it when they dine out. Second, seafood is versatile. It can be adapted to a wide range of cooking methods and presentations. That appeals to both diners and chefs. (A third, unspoken, reason is to make money. There`s money to be made, but, as you will see, it is not easy money.)
Here are some of the considerations and concerns that face the restaurateur as seafood is brought from ocean to plate.
Finding a seafood source: ”Getting great product is the biggest challenge,” says Steve LaHaie of Shaw`s Crab House. ”We have one manager who does nothing but buy fish.”
The difficulties are manifest. With the exception of farmed fish (about which more later), the availability of fish and shellfish shifts not just with the season`s but with each day`s weather. Quality and price swings frequently, too.
Then there`s the challenge of geography. Two factors, improved technology in packaging and transporting fish plus a dramatic reduction in the cost of sending them by air, have created a truly global market for the restaurateur. If he doesn`t want summer oysters from the northern hemisphere, he can order prime winter oysters in August from Chile or New Zealand. Is Gulf shrimp too expensive? ”Send me some from Brazil,” he says. (All these flying fish have erased the handicap Chicago-located so far from an ocean-once had in obtaining prime-condition fresh seafood. Now the fish have a relatively short flight to Chicago from both oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, while the heavy volume of air traffic at O`Hare makes timely delivery possible, even from overseas.)
But a desire to buy seafood isn`t enough. ”Even if you go to the best suppliers and pay top dollar, it`s no real guarantee of quality,” says Jon Rowley, a nationally recognized seafood specialist based in Seattle. ”It depends on how much you know about what you are buying. The more you know about the biology of fish, the fisheries they come from and trade practices in the industry, the better off you are. If you don`t know the product, you can`t evaluate the quality of the delivery.”
Such knowledge doesn`t come overnight. In a serious seafood restaurant, the person charged with buying must have a multilingual vocabulary of fish names and descriptions. There`s a need, too, to recognize which species and fishing areas may present potential food safety hazards and know regulations governing harvest periods and limits in the various U.S. fisheries.
”You need to be reading and talking to people constantly,” says LaHaie. ”You can`t be passive with purveyors, either. To stay ahead of your competition you`ve got to know what might be available and push them to get it for you.”
Three years ago, Yoshi Katsumura, chef-owner of the popular Yoshi`s Cafe, decided to help himself and other chefs by getting into the wholesale distribution business. He founded the Big Tuna company and began bringing fish to Chicago.
”I was getting bored,” he says, ”cooking the same fish all the time. The selection was too limited. I was able to get different fish from Japan and all over the states.”
Katsumura, who grew up near a fishing village, knew about fish even before he was trained as a chef, so he was able to cut through confusing nomenclature to provide Japanese cooks or other nationalities the exact species they desired. His business, to which he devotes mornings before begining to cook himself, has grown steadily.
As for price, don`t be upset if prices fluctuate at your favorite seafood house-as long as they don`t always move up. Wholesale seafood prices fluctuate, too, often sharply. Large-scale farming of fish, notably salmon, catfish and trout, have kept prices for these species down, while those who prefer the flavor of wild fish in season pay a premium for their pleasure. At the same time, the United States does not have a good track record of managing its aquatic natural resources. Bad management may lead to over-fishing. Meanwhile, low prices (such as those currently asked for New England lobster) may force fishermen out of business. Then, as supply shrinks, prices tend to soar.
Handling the product: ”The biggest problem with seafood,” Dan Rosenthal says, ”is that the quality window-the time when the product is at its peak-is so extremely short.”
Even with the services of a good distributor, a seafood restaurant needs someone in the kitchen with the ability to evaluate the fish when it is delivered and be sure it is properly handled and stored until the chef needs it.
”The receiver needs to know how to read a fish,” explains Rowley, ”to tell its history just by looking at it. He will work closely with the supplier and build up relationships over a period of time. If the delivery doesn`t meet his specs, he has to get on the telephone immediately and send it back. That`s not fun for anybody. The restaurant needs the fish, the driver has to issue a credit, someone has to pick up the return costs. It`s a mess, but you have to maintain your standards. You can`t compromise quality.”
(Most experts, incidently, feel quality frozen seafood has a place in restaurant kitchens. ”For some species the fresh product will be pricier, but it may not be better,” says Rowley.)
The resident expert will determine what fish must be used first and make sure each species is stored properly. Tuna, for example, will oxidize quickly if exposed to the air. It must be tightly wrapped. Left exposed to the forced air in a walk-in refrigerator, oysters will dry out and open their shells. Fin fish should be stored at a temperature barely above freezing, while shellfish can suffer if kept that cold.
Special equipment adds to the cost of building and maintaining a seafood restaurant. Ice is essential for preservation. At Shaw`s, constant demand taxes three giant ice machines. In the basement of Bob Chinn`s in Wheeling, one of the nation`s top-grossing restaurants, the flamboyant owner has installed enough tanks to hold a ton of live lobsters and crabs. ”It`s easier when your seafood is fresh,” Chinn says with a grin. It`s also a big addition to bottom-line electricity and water costs.
Real fish houses will buy as much as possible of their product whole. Whole fish stay fresher, it`s easier to judge their condition and the restaurant can cut the fish to its own specifications when needed. ”Here`s where you move into a high degree of professionalism,” says Jon Rowley. If you are going to work with whole fish, you have to have an specialist in the kitchen, but expert knife guys are not easy to find or develop.”
Preparation: To this point, the public has no way to know the effort the restaurant has taken to provide the chef with pristine product. But if it is pristine, the chef and his cooks should try to keep it that way. That`s the irony of great fish cookery. The less you do, the better cook you are. The ultimate challenge is timing: to saute, grill or fry the fish to doneness without crossing what Dan Rosenthal calls ”that incredibly small margin of error” before it becomes overcooked. That means extra money spent on kitchen design and extra care to be sure the menu categories match the kitchen`s equipment and capabilities.
”When I eat fish,” says LaHaie, ”I want to taste the flavor of the fish, not have it hidden under a fancy preparation.”
”One of the worst things you can do,” adds Bob Chinn, ”is camouflage the taste of the fish instead of using seasoning just to bring out the flavor.”
Of course, presentation and supporting items such as sauces benefit when a fish restaurant has a French chef as talented as Shaw`s Yves Rabout, but even he stresses technique and timing over elaboration.
Delivery: Another challenge. It`s not enough to cook fish properly. It must be delivered to the customer immediately, if not sooner. A few minutes of neglect on a counter or under a heat lamp can rob the fish of all its charm. So coordination between kitchen and wait staff must be much closer than in most restaurants. In addition, the dining room folks have the heavy responsiblity of ”selling” fish, some of it unfamiliar, to an often-reluctant public. The odds grow long against a seafood restaurant
prospering if the serving staff is left uninformed and unenthusiastic.
Of course customers` tastes enter into the equation. Bob Chinn reports considerable progress in selling fish on the bone such as Dover sole and black sea bass, but little response to hard-shell blue crabs or crawfish. Shaw`s and Bub City, meanwhile, have staged very successful promotions for oysters, wild salmon and crawfish. ”We`re big on product-oriented promotions,” says LeHaie. ”They intrigue the customers and educated the staff.”
So how does a consumer choose where to eat seafood and what to eat?
”Look for a seafood restaurant, not a restaurant that serves seafood, one that`s big and busy” says Bob Chinn. While this does happen to be a thumb-nail description of his own restaurant, Chinn makes a good case for following his advice.
”If the place is busy, they are moving their fish. It will be really fresh. If you are big, you can be better because you can buy better. You can get large quantities direct from the source and negotiate a good price. I get the best and my customers get the best, but my food costs are about 50 percent (far higher than the industry average). So the key is volume.”
”If I`m looking for a terrific pieces of fish, I always look to the daily specials,” says Steve LaHaie. ”That should be what`s freshest.”
”If you walk into a place and immediately smell a fishy odor, walk out” advises Rowley. He recommends studying the menu and listening to the server for specific information, such as the source of a product, that indicates knowledge of and enthusiasm for seafood. ”Bob Chinn posts his air-freight bills of lading where customers can see them to show how fresh his seafood is. That`s a great marketing tool.”
But the greatest marketing tool of all is something indefinable, an atmosphere of pride in the product and care for it you can detect in restaurants as different in style and price as posh Nick`s Fishmarket and casual, crowded Bob Chinn`s.
”You can sense it,” says Shaw`s LaHaie. ”There`s a feeling for fish.”
