{"id":1421,"date":"2011-07-24T12:47:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-24T17:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:14:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:14:05","slug":"fishbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1421","title":{"rendered":"Fishbar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deep-fried smelt stuffed with olive tapenade - 40 are never enough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fishbar, on Ossington, is open at last \u2013 the long-awaited new project from William Tavares (an original partner in Salt, a few doors north) and chef David Friedman (Vancouver-trained and most recently sous chef at Table 17). We took some friends there on Friday and had a very good time. It reminds me of Kitchen Galerie Poisson in Montreal (at 399 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest, to be precise), one of my favourite, merrily informal spots in that talented town, \u00a0only Fishbar lacks KGP\u2019s kick-ass foie gras. What they do have in common is a cool but unpretentious d\u00e9cor of open brick walls and wooden tables, not to mention excellent oysters and a laid-back party atmosphere. Fishbar\u2019s wooden benches are a bit hard on the bum and I\u2019ve probably seen enough Edison light bulbs by now to last me a lifetime, but all such teeny issues evaporate once the food starts to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The oysters come from Rodney\u2019s and we tried three different kinds \u2013 some mild, sweet beauties from New Brunswick; briney, substantial, temptingly metallic Mystic Cocktails from Connecticut; and great big, full-flavoured Marina Top Drawer from B.C. They were accompanied by three sauces: a classic red cocktail, a decent ponzu and a tart, spicy \u201capple orchard\u201d sauce like fruity mustard. Oysters are also served as pogos \u2013 in other words heavily breaded, stuck on the end of a stick and deep-fried to a mahogany colour. Moist, greaseless and delicious, they were even better when dipped into a loose tomatillo salsa that balanced the corn sweetness of the breading with a sharp, fresh tang.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love deep-fried smelt especially when they\u2019re on the big side \u2013 but not so big that you have to clean them: then you can taste the funky, bitter flavour of their fishy innards. Friday\u2019s smelt were bigger than that so Friedman did clean them but then had the brilliant idea of stuffing them with olive tapenade before fritting them in tempura batter. So I had my bittersweet fix anyway, crispy and piping hot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thus we began to work our way through the menu of small plates, a piece of paper divided into \u201cstarters,\u201d \u201ccold,\u201d \u201chot,\u201d \u201csides\u201d and \u201cdessert.\u201d Almost every dish showed the Ocean Wise symbol, reassuring us of the kitchen\u2019s commitment to using sustainable, ocean-friendly seafood. Halibut ceviche is a case in point, the juices of the soft, tender fish seized but the flavours more to do with salt and coriander oil than citrus. There were lime wedges for a squeeze-your-own moment that perked the dish up considerably. Hair-thin sweet potato fries were too thin to offer much tuberous presence \u2013 more like a heap of frying.<\/p>\n

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Wild sockeye tartare with apple instead of onion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0Salmon tartare was a champion \u2013 the wild sockeye cut into large pieces and tossed with shiso, soy and chopped apple \u2013 a great idea and undeniable proof that a tartare doesn\u2019t always need onion. The kitchen pairs\u00a0it with ethereally thin fried wonton wrappers which are much too\u00a0delicate and brittle to bear the weight of the fish. I guess we\u2019re supposed to take a forkful of salmon and then a bite of crunchy crunch. As a system, it works admirably.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Chef Friedman does hearty as well as refined \u2013 witness a mound of PEI mussels smothered in big chunks of juicy grilled tomato with lumps of chorizo lurking in the tomato sauce. Many slices of baguette were needed to make sure every drop of the sauce was accounted for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Battered Pacific cod from the Queen Charlottes lies at the heart of his fish and chips \u2013 surprisingly the weakest dish of the evening. The chips were fine \u2013 unpeeled, slender, crisp where they should be and tender inside \u2013 but the flavour of the fish was missing in action, smothered by the taste of the batter. A side dish of fresh bright green peas with flecks of bacon and the wicked sheen of bacon fat totally stole that particular scene.<\/p>\n

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PEI mussels with a robust sauce of tomato and chorizo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0Dessert restored smiles to faces. They make their own ice creams here and serve a trio of chocolate, honey and goat cheese ice creams, the latter undeniably cheesy and brilliantly framed by the more conventional treats. A giant, crusty chocolate brownie covered in cherry jam and vanilla ice cream ended up as a sort of blue-collar homage to Black Forest cake, swiftly eaten and enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Veteran sommelier Jamie Duran is in charge of the wines at Fishbar and has put together an attractive little list that includes a dry Muscat from Terre di Orazio in Basilicata ($44), a crisp, aromatic white that smells like a bunch of lilies, a lovely match for many things on the menu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Early signs are that Fishbar will be a hit for the team behind it \u2013 original, affordable and above all blessed with a chef who understands how to cook seafood and have a little fun while he\u2019s doing it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fishbar is open for dinner only, closed on Mondays. 217 Ossington Avenue (a few doors south of Dundas). 647 340 0227. www.fishbar.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fishbar, on Ossington, is open at last \u2013 the long-awaited new project from William Tavares (an original partner in Salt, a few doors north) and chef David Friedman (Vancouver-trained and most recently sous chef at Table 17). We took some friends there on Friday and had a very good time. It reminds me of Kitchen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,19,95],"tags":[467,466,469,468],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}