The Brooklyn Fish House

by Lillie Jayne

With the dense summer heat pressing you into submission as you wait for the delinquent subway or sweat your way along the unforgiving concrete, as exhaust and debris create a fine coat of grime on your drenched skin, it is easy at times to forget that we live in a coastal city, one where the pleasures of the Atlantic Ocean are a short trip away. Gastronomically speaking, these pleasures are in abundance if you know where to look, and it needn't entail a reservation or a credit card. One place in particular has stolen my heart, my stomach, and my devoted patronage, and it is but a short walk away if you're a Williamsburger. This pearl in the oyster of Grand Street is the Brooklyn Fish House.

Unassuming yet eye-catching from the outside, it is painted a seaside blue with a couple of umbrella-clad patio tables resting casually out front, giving the place a cozy oceanfront feel. Lounging at one of these tables with a crisp, moist codfish filet and a pile of homemade crinkle-cut fries, one can almost hear the braying of a seagull or the crashing of the surf. The inside has an open feel to it; the food is cooked fresh to order right up front, and a few more patio tables and some maritime decorations complete the simple beachy feel of the place.

Of course, the food is the real showcase. Unlike many places who buy their seafood weekly, the Fish House gets their fish for the day early every morning at the Fulton Fish Market. Frank Loriggio and his partner, Nevel Lee, would rather run out of fish at the end of the day than have anything around too long that isn't fresh. Mr. Loriggio, born in southern Italy and raised in Bayside, knows his way around the seafood trade - his distributorship, the Bayside Seafood Company, is responsible for the fresh fish that is served up daily in many reputable restaurants all over Brooklyn and Queens. They have a steady and faithful clientele, not only because of their quality and reasonable prices, but because they are good to their customers and keep their prices low and their quality high for them. They know that this area is full of working families and now, many young workers and artists who don't have a lot of money in their pockets. There isn't anything on the menu over $10, and the portions are plentiful - "I tell my employees if they're not sure how much to give, give them that little extra piece. I'd rather give them too much than not enough," says Frank.

So what's the grub? Salmon or sole filet, shrimp, calamari, sea scallops, mussels, and clams can be had in a variety of manners; fried up in clear and healthy soybean oil and paired with their "World's Best French Fries"(more on that later), yellow rice or pasta - or broiled fresh with rice, vegetables or spaghetti. There are scampi and marinara pasta dinners, crab cakes, fish cakes, chowders, lobster bisque, and split pea soup, all made on the premises by a knowledgable and friendly staff. Popular in these sweltering months are their refreshing salads; the delicious cole slaw and potato salads are only $2.00/lb, and the light and flavorful seafood salads, some of which could easily cost upwards of fifteen dollars a pound at certain gourmet shops in Manhattan, are only $3.00/1/2 lb. The most popular seafood salad here is the seviche, which they can barely make enough of to keep in stock. Seviche is a classic South American seafood dish; there are many recipies which vary from location to location, and it is traditionally made with raw seafood. Here they lightly cook the scallop, shrimp, and calamari, and serve it up with a little diced red bell pepper, red onion, and fresh cilantro in lemon/lime juice and spices. The flavor is impeccably balanced; it is simple and divine and exactly what one craves these summer months. The most popular dish here is the standard Fish & Chips, a fresh cod filet rolled in herbs and breadcrumbs and fried to juicy perfection, complimented by their house french fries and tangy homemade tartar sauce. My personal favorites are scallops or calamari, which broiled or fried are always succulent and tender here, never overcooked and rubbery like so many places make the mistake of doing. And they keep their seafood from being smothered in sauces and spices - just natural and delicious.

About those fries...Frank Loriggio says that the previous owners used to use potatoes to clean the oil that the fish were fried in, and they would sell these fried potatoes in a paper bag at a cheap price to anyone who would like them. Eventually, these fried potatoes, so substantial compared to the frozen and processed fries one gets in most other places, developed a following of their own. About a year ago when Frank and Nevel began to take the business over, Frank noticed that the owner had tossed into the dumpster an old, iron potato cutting device, assuming that they would use frozen fries like everybody else. Fascinated by it and deeming it useful, he retrieved it from the dumpster, figuring there would be a use for it. No sooner had he retrieved it that he found it back in the dumpster, the owner convinced that it was useless trash. After this dump-and-retrieve act repeated itself a few times and Frank found himself defeated, he fortunately found a similar, even older device down in the basement of the shop and was determined to put it to use. After looking for new blades and parts for it, he found the devices were patented by a single company in Philadelphia, and that the blades cost a hefty $300 a piece - not only that, but the machine he had - and the few machines that got tossed into the trash - were worth more that $1300 a piece. These well-made manual contraptions pulls and then pushes the potato by lever through the serrated blades that make the classic crinkle cut, and these blades need to be strong - they go through an average of 1,000lbs of potatoes a week. It's not surprising - one really would be hard pressed to find fries these good anywhere else in Brooklyn.

So, next time you've got a hankerin' fer tha briny blue but you don't feel like getting out of your shorts and you've only got a few bucks in your pocket, rememer the Brooklyn Fish House. You can even drag your seafood-squeamish friends along for stuff like homemade hot wings or onion rings, and while they munch away on their landlubber grub, you can pretend you're daydreaming by the shore, clams in hand, the traffic swooshing by on Grand morphing into the roar of the waves hitting the sand.



The Brooklyn Fish House
617 Grand Street
(bet. Leanord & Lorimer)
Monday - Saturday 11am - 7:30pm, (Fridays 10am - 9pm).

tel : 718-599-3755
fax: 718 782 0562
free delivery ($8 min.)