A sea change for Montauk menus, as fishing families work to cut out the middlemen

Before a piece of seafood touches a diner’s plate, its journey may span thousands of miles — whether it's salmon caught off Alaska or farmed tilapia from China. Even fresh catch hauled off Montauk can ride a circuitous route back to an East End restaurant.

Hoping to shorten that journey, six Montauk fishing families have partnered on a venture to eliminate the industry's middlemen. The fisheries are offering fresh catch to restaurants as part of a growing "sea-to-table" movement that is upending traditional supply chain norms.

Dock to Dish, a Montauk company that relaunched earlier this year under new owners, is on a mission to serve as a "bridge between chefs and fishermen," said K.C. Boyle of Montauk, a partner in Dock to Dish.

The benefits of sourcing local fish are plentiful, chefs and fisheries experts say. Diners are introduced to new types of seafood that are widely available off Long Island, and the local fishing industry gets a boost as well. The goal is to put fewer delivery trucks on the road and cut down on carbon emissions levels.

"The diversity in our local waters is something that really has never been fully utilized," Boyle said.

Dock to Dish has partnered with about 100 New York City restaurants and about 10 on Long Island. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to work with more restaurants on Long Island.

Fresh catch "touches about five hands before it gets to the consumer," said Amanda Jones, a partner in Dock to Dish.

Most fish packed out in Montauk heads to the Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx where wholesale vendors sell to other wholesale vendors, who then sell to the restaurants, Boyle said.

Jones rattled off a list of local seafood that's currently in season: fluke, scup, whiting, squid, black sea bass, blackfish and blowfish, are just some examples. 

The company's goal is to "market those fish to chefs for menus on restaurants and have them stop importing fish from overseas," she said.

Chefs can trace the fish that they serve. They can identify details about a single piece of fish down to the captain’s name and sea conditions on the day it was caught. Most fish is delivered to restaurants within 24 hours, he said.

Sourcing locally

Kristin Gerbino, a fisheries specialist at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Riverhead, says she is on a mission to promote local seafood. In 2016, Cornell’s marine program launched the "Choose Local F.I.S.H." program — which stands for "fresh, indigenous, sustainable, healthy" — in an effort to encourage local seafood consumption.

"We’re living on an island surrounded by all this delicious, fresh, sustainable seafood, yet, what we see on restaurant menus most of the time is fish that’s not harvested on Long Island, that’s imported from overseas," she said.

Through education and marketing efforts, including live cooking demonstrations, the venture is introducing consumers to new species of fish. Gerbino said she hopes to put "pressure on the restaurants to carry more local seafood on their menus."

Cornell's program also directs people to seafood markets that sell local product. 

Sourcing local is top of mind on the East End culinary scene. In the Hamptons, for example, Catch of the Hamptons Seafood sells product caught directly from its fishing vessel, Legacy, that operates out of the Shinnecock Commercial Fishing Dock, according to its website.

In 2021, the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development & Planning copublished a survey on Long Island's commercial fishing industry. The agency collaborated on the report with the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the New York Sea Grant and Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program.

Overseas imports make up most of the seafood that is consumed in the United States, representing 62-65% of what Americans eat, the report found.

A total of 64% of commercial fishermen surveyed said it was either extremely or very challenging to source local seafood, according to the report.

Locally caught seafood "results in a fresher and a better tasting product," authors of the report said. 

Squid was most lucrative haul for fisherman at the two East End ports in Montauk and Shinnecock, generating about $6.5 million in 2019, according to the report, which relied on data from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Golden tilefish ranked second, bringing in about $4 million. Scup, flounder and monkfish also ranked high. In Montauk, the 10 top landings totaled nearly 10 million pounds, according to the data.

Fishermen in the report said they have a hard time selling scup. Boyle said he believes the fish, also known as porgy, has a "bad name" that turns off customers. Instead, it should be sold as sea bream, another name for the fish, he said.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, said customers are often introduced to new species of fish through the magic of restaurant marketing.

The popularity of the Patagonian toothfish surged after it was marketed as Chilean sea bass in the 1977, she recalled. Leo Lantz, a seafood wholesaler from Los Angeles, gave the fish a rebrand, according to published reports.

"The more people that eat fish that are wild caught, the better it is for fishermen not only in New York State, but throughout the East Coast," she said.

Revamping the menu

Chefs say they must be nimble and ready to adapt their menus depending on the day's haul.

Joseph Realmuto, executive chef of Honest Man Restaurant Group, which owns Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton and other Hamptons restaurants, said he’s supported Dock to Dish since its inception.

"There’s a layer of support to the community, which I really like," he said.

Andrew Whitcomb, the chef de cuisine at Craft New York in Manhattan, a Tom Colicchio restaurant, said the concept of sourcing local is less about what a consumer wants and more about what the fishermen can supply.

Whitcomb, who grew up in a fishing community in Maine, said he understands the popularity of fish such as salmon and tuna, but there's a responsibility "to really think about eating other stuff."

Whitcomb said the restaurant also markets the "really delicious" golden tilefish as "golden snapper," which sells well. Tilefish is most abundant between Nantucket and Cape May, New Jersey, according to NOAA Fisheries. 

This fall, the menu at Nick and Toni's features two flexible seafood options depending on the type of fish Dock to Dish can provide, Realmuto said. The "wood fired market catch," for example, can be tuna, striped bass or tilefish. The menu also features a "wood oven roasted whole fish," which can be a black sea bass or fluke.

Armond Joseph, executive chef of Léon 1909 on Shelter Island, said he spent his first two years at the restaurant "looking for good fish." Surprisingly enough, he said, "It was so hard to find local fish out here."

Joseph, who lives in Montauk, met Boyle through an oysterman Joseph knew.

Checking in with Dock to Dish on what seafood is available at certain times has "changed the culture of what we do," Joseph said.

He said he'll hear when a boat is landing with specific fish. On a recent day, the chef checked in about Shinnecock Bay scallops. Joseph said Boyle told him he had clams coming in instead, so Joseph rejiggered his menu and put together a clam dish.

Still, it may take diners some time to adjust their palettes.

He recalled a few instances when a diner sent a dish back because it didn’t taste fresh. Meanwhile, the fish had been caught the night before.

"I laugh because I don’t think they’ve ever tasted fish that fresh," he said.

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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