Tidal shifts don’t lessen fish spot’s allure
Fish at 30 Lake remains a destination seafood place through multiple changes
Sometimes long-established restaurants go through enough changes to be virtually unrecognizable; others stay so unchanged they become the background noise — reliable fallbacks eclipsed by newer kids on the block. Take Fish at 30 Lake, the former seafood star in the Mazzone Hospitality arsenal that arrived on the Saratoga Springs dining scene as the restaurant anchor in the highconcept Pavilion Grand Hotel. While it remains popular, it’s been four years since we marched in to check out the literati holding up the bar and glitterati from the track demolishing seafood towers from outdoor sofas. But Fish has changed hands twice now: first to Ron Farber and Jodi Leuchten, co-owners of the former R & R on Phila Street, and now to Leuchten as sole proprietor.
It’s also three chefs deep, given the successive departures of Jeff Rayno and Brian Bowden. Colin Murphy, former founding chef of the Saratoga speakeasy Hamlet & Ghost, now has the helm. Add the news that Leuchten has filed to remove “Fish at” from the name, leaving it simply as 30 Lake, and you sense changing tides. What’s it like right now, we mused, imagining it squaring off in the off-season against fresh competition in town? Time for a second look.
I won’t start at the beginning but with the Upstate Apple Wellington the very end, an absolute corker of a dessert, with rustic pleated pastry enveloping a soft,
baked apple leaking bird chile-spiked caramel from its hollow core. It’s neither too sweet nor too precious, and a knife plunge later we’re collectively cooing over unexpected maple oatmeal doing a stellar job as the stand-in for the paté in the beef Wellie classic. As mad as this sweet version sounds, it’s a knockout from the mind of chef Murphy himself.
And this pleasant surprise becomes the overall take. The raw bar has gone, replaced by extra tables, and midweek — in January, at least — it’s quieter than any owner might like, but it’s still one of the best places for cleanly shucked clams and oysters cupping mineral brine. Beefy dayboat scallops arrive with that ideal gold sear sweetly caramelizing plump white flesh and ringed in a thyme and limoncello glace that glows radioactive chartreuse, which doesn’t sound good on paper but truly pops. A Bibb salad boasts full, leafy wings scattered in thinly sliced fennel and apple and crunchy pumpkin seeds, all licked with salty bacon in a warm shallot vinaigrette. If I could travel with this as a show-and-tell, I would: Look how happy salad wants to be.
We’re not prepared for a Spanish octopus tentacle so tender a knife slips effortlessly through and into the smoky paprika moat puddling over cheesy manchego grits. It’s the dish we pass and pass and finally scrape clean. If tuna nachos sound like a calling card from the ’90s, at Fish at 30 Lake it’s still a winner for generous size, crisp whole wontons and butter-soft tuna zapped with jalapeno, wakame and sriracha aioli. I’m just as happy to see furikake seasoning joining umami truffle unagi in crisp Brussels sprouts. Did you even question whether Olympic-host Japan would be trending in 2020?
If there’s a gripe, it’s that it can be hard to find a straightforward piece of fish or unfussy plate, since everything has swirls and stripes and jolts of f lavor. A Block Island swordfish, described with basil soufflé, has a fluffy carapace perhaps once inflated but now more cloth cap than top hat; with coulis and balsamic reductions circling the lot, the effort in the lobster mash is overlooked. But would we break up over it? Probably not. For land-lovers, a confit-chicken-and-sausage risotto dishes up cold-weather comfort in a fragrant herbes de Provence broth, though the rice is a bit hard when compared to the plate’s plush acorn squash.
There was a moment, in the beginning, where we scanned the cocktail list in panic, seeing rum and mezcal in a chai oldfashioned, and whiskey in the sangria, fearing an ambitious bar run amok. But still thy tongue: The ginger sour has candied fresh ginger with a fierce ginger syrup to spice the bourbon base, and that old-fashioned, now smoky and vaguely nautical, is transformed into something entirely new.
As much as things have changed, they’ve stayed the same. The muted decor may be missing urgently millennial tropes, and it may feel more hotel-y than the newer eateries in town, but Fish at 30 Lake — or 30 Lake, as it will soon be known — is holding its own as your steady date for the buy-a-pound, get-a-pound mussels at happy hour or a dozen oysters with cocktails at the bar. Moreover, if you’re a fan of Mangiamo’s Pasta at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market, the magic hands of owner-pastaio Rose Contadino are behind the squid-ink linguine custom-made in-house.
You might not have to fight for a reservation until summer rolls round, so take the opportunity to try the grilled octopus and grits, or a smashing apple Wellington you’ll only find upstate.
Dinner for two costs around $150 with drinks and a 12-pack of oysters. Happy hour specials make for deal steals.
Susie Davidson Powell is a British freelance food writer in upstate New York. Follow her on Twitter, @Susiedp. To comment on this review, visit the Table Hopping blog, blog.timesunion.com/ tablehopping.