Posted by Brian Halweil, July 18, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Editor's note: You may already be familiar with Brian Halweil, of Edible Communities, from previous posts on Serious Eats. But this entry marks his debut on SE:NY. Brian is the publisher of Edible East End, Edible Brooklyn, and the soon-to-debut Edible Manhattan. He'll be joining us from time to time as part of a Serious Eats partnership with Edible Communities. —Zach
With the commercial striped bass fishing season now open, Bay Burger in Sag Harbor has introduced perhaps the most interesting item on its menu—the striped bass burger. Complementing its standard offerings of burgers ground on site, parmesan-bread grilled cheese, homemade ice cream, and not so standard local wines and beer, the fish burger is particularly fitting for a burger joint in an old whaling village. (The original burger house at this site in the 1970s was actually called Whalerburger.)
In fact, owner Joe Tremblay, a former grill man at Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien Hotel and manager of ‘wichcraft, both in Manhattan, has taken a particular interest in water-related issues in Sag Harbor, and would eventually like to devote some share of the restaurant’s profits to reducing chemical use on lawns, restoring wetlands and generally preserving the village’s working waterfront. Frankly, it’s surprising that more East End restaurants don’t serve bass burgers, considering what a stupendous recovery Morone saxatilis has made in recent years.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 25, 2006 at 8:36 AM
People seem to have sworn their smoked fish, bagels and cream cheese allegiance to either Russ & Daughters
or Barney Greengrass.
I love them both, so when I want to have a plate of sturgeon, eggs and onions and not do the dishes, I go to Barney Greengrass.
There I'll be semi-graciously ignored by the waiters as they simultaneously slide my food to me as they walk away.
When I want snappy counter repartee and fantastic wild Baltic Smoked Salmon, or some herring, a bissel cream cheese and a pletzel, I head down to Russ & Daughters 
for some good-natured abuse from Mark, Herman, Josh and the rest of the Russ and Daughters gang.
And if you don't live in NYC, they both ship.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 19, 2006 at 3:48 PM
Clam shacks are one of my favorite eating destinations of all time, but sometimes I think that serious chefs think that all it takes to open a good one is to shuck some clams and make some chowder. Ever since Rebecca Charles opened Pearl, a bushel full of chowder and fried clam pretenders have come on the scene in New York. First Laurent Tourondel opened a less than mediocre clam shack on the ground floor of BLT Fish, and now Marc Murphy of Landmarc fame has opened Ditch Plains.
Based on one meal I've had, and numerous reports from friends and colleagues, Ditch Plains is not worth a visit. They sell fried clam strips, and though they are marginally better than Howard Johnson's, they should be ashamed of themselves for selling bellyless clams. When we first asked our waiter about the clams he assured us they were bellies. When the clams arrived at the table, I tried one and sent them back. Then the manager came over and said they started with clam bellies iin the kitchen and then cut them into strips. Huh?
The clam chowder had no discernible clam flavor and couldn't even be redeemed by the chunks of bacon swimming in it The roast oysters were pretty good, mostly for the oil-soaked bread beneath the oyter shells. A shrimp and bacon salad tasted like perfectly acceptable shrimp and and pieces of nothing special bacon on a plate. Not bad, but not great either. Plus, they use instant iced tea. Guess I really didn't like the place.
I think making this kind of food really good is a lot harder than chefs think.
So for now go to Pearl for your lobster roll, chowder and fried seafood fix. Maybe Ditch Plains will get better, but for now it's a skip.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 9, 2006 at 12:16 PM
In New York it's easy to forget about certain restaurants and chefs. Take the Sea Grill and Ed Brown. It's a corporate spot, owned and operated by Restaurant Associates, and though the well-spaced tables overlook the Rockefeller Center skating rink, the Sea Grill feels like a corporate spot, at least it did when I had lunch there last Friday (at dinner I presume there are fewer suits and a little more soul). But Ed Brown is a first-rate chef who uses his corporate resources wisely to buy the best ingredients on the planet. He then does his level-headed best not to mess with those ingredients very much. His food is disarmingly simple, his flavors direct and vivid. My lunch was very tasty indeed. I started with a snapper carpaccio with pickled red onions and baby cilantro, and then proceeded to a wonderfully meaty plate of sturgeon cooked a la plancha served with wilted spinach. The sturgeon had a lovely caramelized crust and the spinach delivered a surprising flavor punch. For dessert we had a palette of mini-ice cream cones and a couple of chocolate-covered banana mini-ice cream bars. There's not much new going on at the Sea Grill. When William Grimes last reviewed the restaurant for the Times, in 2000, he wrote about the same carpaccio presentation I alluded to above, and the same set of mini-ice cream cones. But it's still a treat to eat well-executed food prepared by a talented chef who still seems to care. Ed Levine Eats gives the Sea Grill a 90. The Sea Grill is at 19 W. 49th Street, 212-332-7610.
