Canned goods
Hub diners get hooked by tasty tinned seafood
When it comes to seafood, most restaurants like to boast about their fresh daily catch. But right now, the hottest commodities were actually hooked years ago.
Tinned seafood is popping out of the pantry and on to dining tables in Boston and beyond, a trend that is forcing upturned noses to reconsider a foodstuff most often associated stateside with cheap tuna chunks and grandpa's too-salty snack of sardines. Inspired largely by western Mediterranean wine bars and Spanish tapas joints, where spreads of tinned fish are social noshes akin to munching on charcuterie boards, more American restaurants are embracing a tasty, low-labor and still novel way of feeding guests.
“Americans are being reintroduced to something that feels very nostalgic,” said restaurateur Kathy Sidell, of the burgeoning tinned fish trend. Sidell, owner of the Met Restaurant Group, which has locations from Natick to Nantucket, opened her latest venture, Saltie Girl, in June. The cozy 28-seat Boston restaurant, which neighbors her much-larger Met Back Bay, is dominated by a long raw bar where guests sip wine and slurp freshly shucked oysters and other fin fare. But the restaurant really emphasizes its tinned seafood collection, billed as one of New England's largest and proudly displaying its colorful, eye-catching packaging like a mosaic on bar-side shelves.
Guests choose from Sidell's curated selection of imports, which range from simple anchovies preserved in olive oil to Spanish octopus canned in paprika sauce, Costa Rican tuna fillets with jalapeno, cockles in brine and squid set in a spicy ragout. Each opened tin arrives on a slate board with bread, salts for sprinkling, jam and other accoutrements.
“It's an intimate, boutique experience,” said Sidell, an avid sailor who was particularly inspired to launch Saltie Girl by travels to Barcelona wine bars. Indeed, many tinned seafood fans invoke similarities to wine: The seafood, caught in prime season, can see its flavor deepen and develop in infinite permutations depending on how long it is canned and the combined profiles of the olive oil and any accompaniments.
Already prominent in Spain and Portugal, tinned-seafood-focused restaurants are now sprouting up all over. London has been home to Tincan, a pop-up restaurant serving only gourmet tinned fish. New York City has specializing spots such as Maiden Lane and Donostia. Locally, Boston's hit Spanish tapas restaurant Toro imports tinned seafood for its afternoons-only conservas menu (including pickled mussels and razor clams in brine, served with bread and nori butter), while Newburyport's Ceia Kitchen + Bar makes similar noshes “in the style of” tinned seafood, said chef Jeremy Glover. For instance, Portuguese sardines are slowly marinated in wine, olive oil and roasted garlic, then served with spicy cured pork and agrodolce tomatoes. Such artisanal preparations are slowly dissolving some of the lowbrow associations many Americans have with canned fish.
“As chefs, we're always looking for ways to introduce people to something new to appreci-
ate,” said Lydia Shire, chef at Boston's Scampo and doyenne of the city's dining scene. Shire is a big fan of tinned seafood, with a 70-plus-strong collection in her home kitchen acquired during travels from Italy to Istanbul. Her go-to sandwich: garlic-rubbed anchovy on toasted ciabatta with roasted pepper and chipotle aioli or romesco sauce.
Bostonians are also baited by Haley.Henry, opened downtown in August. The nautical-inspired 18-seat wine bar, owned by Haley Fortier, previously of star restaurateur Barbara Lynch's Sportello, pairs its selection of thoughtfully selected bottles with an equally well-curated tinned seafood selection culled almost exclusively from Spain and Portugal. The classy, cloistered joint feels hip and vibrant, netting the neighborhood's 30-something professionals with a soundtrack of throwback hip-hop and a light menu of fresh crudo and tinned eats for spreading on bread or house-made potato chips: Think smoked oysters in barbecue sauce, trout with port wine pate and eel in olive oil. That last one is a top seller, said Fortier, and especially accessible to those who never thought they'd give this trend a try.
“Perception is everything, and it's just a matter of getting people to try something new,” Fortier said. “It's fun to watch someone's reaction. They might start off unsure, but after one bite they say, `This is delicious!'”