This summer, Grand Rapids welcomed the high-end seafood restaurant prepared to serve a good underserved specific niche market in the downtown foods scene.

Michigan is not really exactly a haven for sea food — the nice fish from the truly great Lakes notwithstanding — therefore it’s no surprise there is not an enormous array of restaurants portion a vast lineup of seafood. Leo’s provides checked the particular box because the early 2000s, Fish Lad’s is the dynamic dealer in the Downtown Market, plus Beacon Part Bar recently opened to fill the niche, but the Might opening of the Real Seafood Company, 141 Lyon St . NW, was obviously a welcome inclusion. So considerably, it really is delivering on the promise in order to add quality seafood towards the marketplace.

The truth Real Sea food Company will be delivering must not be too a lot of a bg surpise, as the parent business, Mainstreet Projects Restaurant Group, has happy lots of Grand Rapids diners over the years from The Slice House plus Palio.

The Ann Arbor-based Main Street operates much like a nearby company here in Great Rapids plus Mainstreet TOP DOG Kevin Gudejko said this hopes to boost the significantly vibrant cooking options within Grand Rapids.

“We produced the commitment almost 20 years ago using the Chop House. I feel really highly concerning the town and western world side associated with the condition, ” Gudejko said.

The particular Chop House has already been a basic piece in the particular downtown Great Rapids eating scene given that 2004. In 2017, the company opened the Italian-focused Palio upon Michigan Road NE, close to the edge from the Medical Kilometer as the particular company expected the speeding up growth of the city’s health treatment industry.

“Those have exceeded our targets and it is been a business- pleasant environment, ” Gudejko stated. “The city has been doing a great job of inviting us and lots of industries around. The neighborhood has made this a positive encounter ahead within and it is an excellent market to hire within. There are a lot of excellent people within Grand Rapids. ”

Mainstreet has several concepts, so the True Seafood Firm was the particular next logical part of Grand Rapids.

Gudejko said he or she had already been interested in the new store space in the redeveloped Fifth Third Building. The location was slated in order to be a Brazilian steakhouse chain, Tx de Brazil, but Gudejko stated that possession group couldn’t associated with commitment to Great Rapids. Because Mainstreet has a sound relationship with CWD Investment, which has the developing, Gudejko said these were capable to state the open up space because of the COVID- nineteen pandemic.

Selecting what went into the room had not been a cakewalk, however. Thankfully, Mainstreet has multiple concepts already proven within various market segments across the particular Midwest and Florida. Real Seafood Company has locations in Ann Arbor, Bay City, Naples, Florida, and Toledo, Kentkucky.

“One associated with the benefits we have got is having four different ideas, and we can evaluate the market and determine what to carry out next, ” Gudejko said. “The associated with Great Rapids, all of us felt highly about. We were already looking with regard to what else we can perform here that will fits the need as well as the market. There is not the lot of seafood in order to be had, and this was the no-brainer. ”

For years, a single of Great Rapids’ preferred restaurants was Charley’s Crab — which usually for the time has been an expensive seafood eating place, an essential date night time for numerous Grand Rapidians. Since the closure, Leo’s has continued to hold the particular torch pertaining to high-end sea food in Grand Rapids. But as being a growing city, there is sufficient room regarding multiple quality seafood food selection.

While Mainstreet was starting a concept with multiple locations currently, Mainstreet Executive Chef Brent Courson stated that failed to mean it was destined to become exactly the particular same within West The state of michigan.

“We do have a lot of dining places, but it’s not cookie-cutter for us, ” he said. “The people of Grand Rapids are various compared to individuals of Ann Arbor plus even the particular seafood available in South Arizona is different than that in Michigan. All the selections are unique.

“It’s the combination associated with those great menus. It’s the top artists from those locations plus some colorful plates along with new concepts. ”

Real Seafood Corporation has history. While it isn’t really here within Grand Rapids, the cafe continues to be open up in Ann Arbor intended for more than 40 yrs. It continues to carry on and evolve, at minimum as much as the seafood eating place can.

“Chef [Courson] has done a great job associated with anticipating what we’re seeing in the market, ” Gudejko mentioned. “You return 20 yrs ago in the Real Seafood Company world, actually 1975, as well as the tastes have changed. It’s not just true great angling and protein coming in having a good choice of sides. It’s the great job of composing overall meals. ”

The particular menu starts with the small selection of raw bar options, including market fresh oysters, served having a strawberry mignonette. There also are broiled oysters, oyster photographers and a chilled sea food platter that will comes on a relative bargain in comparison to other sea food spots in town ($70).

The starters had been an interesting collection of options. Some were better than others. The calamari was an uninspired deep-fried version observed in several restaurants across town. The shrimp cocktail has been, of training course, simple, yet the beverage sauce additional a nostril-clearing rush. The particular crab guacamole sounded fascinating, and whilst its demonstration was much less than spectacular with exactly what looked like store-bought tortilla chips, the taste was eye-opening after the initial impact.

The machine was unsurprised by beginner opinions plus contact us her true feelings about products, which assisted guide our next orders. Servers leading diners is certainly an underrated feature of restaurants plus they should not be shy in their opinions to help diners have the particular best knowledge at the institution.

There frequently are in least six choices of fresh fish dishes.

The signature bank entrees also have a couple of tantalizing choices. The scallop risotto — which includes two foods items which are incredibly simple to miss on — has been impeccably prepared. The scallops were including perfectly seared coins of butter, as the risotto was cooked extremely well with a fresh veggie mix, producing the otherwise heavy dish rather summery. Other entrees include surf and grass, crab-stuffed salmon roulade plus paella, yet also a lot more inexpensive meals like fish and potato chips and lobster and fries.

The menus was comparable in a large amount of ways associated with any sea food restaurant throughout the Circumstance. S. But there had been many fascinating twists on plates that will help individual the eatery from similar concepts.

“I prefer the design and idea, the demand it places on cooks and their particular abilities, ” Courson stated. “We are not tied to any 1 thing. What is the Midwestern flavor? We’re honoring certain preparations from nations around the world along with great seafood. We now have good Latin United states, Mediterranean, Asian, New Britain and the southern area of states displayed in multi-colored dishes.

“We want to consider diners on a rewrite around the particular world along with flavors and textures and colors. ”

Real Seafood also stays on the particular fresh side of items, which associated with course can be a pricing and supply challenge at this point.

“I liken this to shopping within the grocery shop, ” Courson said. “The supply chain at the foods side can be not unlike what we all experience inside almost anything. In the event that I got bananas within the list, but the bananas may not be great within the shelves, which means you have in order to pivot to what does look great and that’s what we are likely to function.

“There can be periods we do not have fresh infant snappers. If the high-quality seafood wasn’t available, we won’t have this over the menus. Those outages may happen plus, thankfully, it does look like people are usually more forgiving in these periods opposed to requiring items many the time. When clients do arrive in, we will have the particular best, greatest quality seafood possible. ”

While Courson is focused on navigating the progressively difficult sourcing of high- quality meals, Gudejko mentioned he desires the front-of-house staff focused on ensuring customers have a great encounter, no issue what is in their glass or on the plate.

“We try in order to focus on the total encounter, ” he or she said. “We’re here intended for people to take pleasure in their period and i believe the particular table proceeds time has increased post-COVID.

“It’s not only a meal, but they are spending some time in order to have a great experience. What used to become a celebration of four acquiring an hour or so plus fifteen (minutes) is going to be a good extra half-hour. It’s not really just dining; we would like to be part associated with the entertainment. ”