Dinner from the Deep

Shore restaurants revel in the ocean's bounty.

Delish! Scallops from the Diving Horse in Avalon.
Photo by Jason Varney

Keyport

Drew’s Bayshore Bistro

Hurricane Sandy forced chef/owner Andrew Araneo to move his restaurant for the third time in a decade. But he’s still in his hometown, cooking New American “with a New Orleans accent.” Diners can see part of Keyport Harbor, but Araneo’s voodoo shrimp, crawfish étouffée, Creole crabcakes and other Big Easy inspirations make it easy to imagine they’re on the Gulf Coast. How much does he love seafood? It’s 75 percent of his summer menu. 25 Church St, 732-739-9219.

Keyport Fishery
This building, once an equipment shed for an oyster company, had been in the Wilson family since the 1920s. The Wilsons were fishermen, but in 1962 they decided to build a kitchen and sell cooked and raw seafood—takeout only. Some locals still call it Wilson’s, though the operation was sold in 2002. Most fin fish is dusted with cracker meal before it hits the fryer. Smelts, calamari and other more delicate fare are dusted with flour. Avoiding fried food? Choices include shrimp cocktail and Italian squid-and-scungilli salad. Everything, even the tartar sauce, is made from scratch. 150 West Front St, 732-264-9723.

Atlantic Highlands

Copper Canyon
Fish tacos reach their apotheosis in the hands of chef Michael Krikorian. In a soft flour tortilla, he layers guacamole, chunks of flaky fried cod, pico de gallo and—here comes the magic—a thick drizzle of cayenne-soy-lemon sauce. The only way to improve on that may be to order a margarita made from one of Copper Canyon’s more than 175 tequilas. Krikorian puts a Southwest spin on fried oysters, too, giving them a crumbled corn-tortilla crust. Crab cakes get a chipotle aioli lift. 51 First Ave, 732-291-8444.

Highlands

Bahrs Landing
John Bahrs, the son of a German ship captain, and his wife, Florence, opened this restaurant in Highlands in 1917 after their Newark necktie factory was robbed of all its silk. Today, Jay Cosgrove is the fourth-generation co-owner. The menu hasn’t changed much. Broiled lobster is still a hit. So is the clam, shrimp, scallop and finfish combo. Boaters can dock-and-dine. Feeling adventurous? Charter a boat from the marina Bahrs owns. The kitchen will cook your catch, which you can eat on the deck. 2 Bay Ave, 732-872-1245.

Asbury Park

Langosta Lounge
Self-taught chef Marilyn Schlossbach has traveled widely in search of waves to surf and local foods to sample. Her travels inform the eclectic “vacation cuisine” she serves at this hip spot on the boardwalk. Exhibit A might be her shrimp-and-scallop rigatoni in a cilantro pesto made with Spanish sherry and macadamia nuts. Sushi rolls come charged with Thai curry, Cajun spices or Meyer lemon oil. Langosta’s colorful stained-glass work in lush reds and teals and live music create a tropical vibe. 1000 Ocean Ave, 732-455-3275.

Taka
Chef/owner Takahiro Hirai grew up in Kyushu, Japan. His basic rolls, such as the $8 salmon-avocado, are so good you don’t need to spring for the $15, top-of-the-line Ju-San roll. On second thought, the Ju-San (tuna, avocado, salmon, yellowtail, scallion, crunch, caramelized soy sauce and spicy mayo) is one heckuva way to go. Hot dishes like Japanese curry with shrimp or scallops with bok choy and cucumber in miso-mustard sauce more than hold their own. 632 Mattison Ave, 732-775-1020.

Ocean Grove

SeaGrass
Chef/owner Janine Cinseruli buys her seafood at the Point Pleasant docks. At Seagrass, large framed photos of fish and a 600-gallon saltwater tropical fish tank set the mood. Cinseruli’s style is personal and wide-ranging: Her baked cod topped with lobster harks back to her youth in Boston. She serves tuna with wasabi potatoes and seaweed slaw; calamari marinated in buttermilk, then tempura-fried; and oysters raw, fried and in a creamy New England-style chowder. 68 Main Ave, 732-869-0770.

Brielle

Shipwreck Grill
The raw bar at the newly remodeled Shipwreck Grill sells 1,500 oysters a week. When Cape May Salts are available, chef/owner Terry Eleftheriou features them. Though he is Greek, his only Greek dish is an octopus salad with feta and black-olive infused oil. He serves staples like broiled sole, surf-and-turf and linguine with clams, but cuts loose with salmon topped with bone marrow butter; sea bass drizzled with curry-infused oil; lobster ravioli with caviar; lobster “mac” and cheese made with couscous; and butter-poached lobster topped with powdered prosciutto. 720 Ashley Ave, 732-292-9380.

Point Pleasant Beach

Red’s Lobster Pot
Lobsterman Martin Stillufsen opened Red’s 20 years ago on a dock he bought to moor his boats. Lobstermen still dock at Red’s. Their catches go to the kitchen and come out steamed, broiled, stuffed, fra diavolo and more. Stillufsen’s daughter, Kitty, helms the front-of-the-house. Diners on the deck can drink BYO beer or wine and watch the lobstermen pull in. 57 Inlet Drive, 732-295-6622.

The Shrimp Box
The boats of the Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative, visible from the patio, provide most of the seafood. Choose from stalwarts like lobster bisque and fried shrimp (wild caught in the Gulf of Mexico) to cioppino, the Italian seafood stew. To look at the restaurant now, you’d never guess that Sandy flooded it with six feet of water. 75 Inlet Drive, 732-899-1637.

Seaside Park

Chef Mike’s ABG
While the wait for a table at this beachfront grill can reach two hours, Mike Jurusz lets customers chill on his private strip of beach, where they can order absinthe-rinsed Sazeracs or drafts from Jersey’s newest microbrewery, Rinn Duin, of Toms River. ABG stands for Atlantic Bar & Grill. Jurusz renamed it after a spruce-up last year. You can still get onion-crusted sea bass, or try the new tapas, like garlic shrimp and tuna lollipops. 10 Central Ave, 732-854-1588.

Barnegat Light

Viking Off the Hook
Viking Village, a block away, supplies Kris Panacek—granddaughter of John Larson Sr., one of the original owners of Viking Village—with the fish and shellfish she serves “fried, broiled, grilled, sautéed or tossed with pasta.” Also available: mahi mahi tacos and tuna salad made from line-caught albacores. It tastes even better from a seat at one of the outdoor picnic tables. 1905 Bayview Ave, 609-361-8900.

Manahawkin

Mud City Crabhouse
Since they opened Mud City 16 years ago, the Magaziner and Nugent families have bought its blue claws from a veteran crabber who sets his traps right behind the eatery. One of the most popular preparations is garlic steamed, meaning steamed and tossed in garlic, butter and breadcrumbs. Fin fish are easy to order; just choose your cooking method and sauce. Anything can be ordered to go. Eat at the picnic tables overlooking the marsh, or buy raw seafood in the market out front to cook at home. 1185 E Bay Ave, 609-978-3660.

New Gretna

Allen’s Clam Bar
Win Allen Jr. buys his clams freshly raked from the shallows of nearby Great Bay. Allen’s grandfather was a clam raker, and so was his father, Win Allen Sr., who opened Allen’s in 1966. Nautically styled, it serves clams raw, fried, baked, Casino, deviled or simmered in Manhattan or New England-style chowders. All the clam recipes were handed down by Win Jr.’s grandmother. Allen’s also offers oysters, scallops, crab cakes and fried lobster tails. 5650 Rte 9, 609-296-4106.

Absecon

Corey’s Seafood Corner
Chef Corey Kurica’s place, located a few miles inland, is a hidden gem, the kind you want to keep to yourself. But…oh, well. After 33 years at the Bayberry Inn on LBI, he opened Corey’s last year. It has just 40 seats, but the tables have white tablecloths. Kurica’s cooking can be casual (fried or sautéed Cape May scallops) or upscale (lobster Francaise or seared, almond-crusted flounder in Amaretto beurre blanc). No matter how ambitious the cooking, the atmosphere is always laid-back. 637 New York Road, 609-404-3474.

Leeds Point

Oyster Creek Inn
Chef Scott Kuppel’s family has owned this restaurant since the 1940s. It stands right on Oyster Creek, facing a vast marshland. Diners can boat in from Great Bay or drive in from Route 9. Grab a table on the screened deck and settle in for steamed garlic clams and blue-claw crabs, both local. For fancier fare, repair to the dining room, where the offerings include sushi, pasta in seafood vodka sauce, and salmon stuffed with crab and Brie. 41 Oyster Creek Road, 609-652-8565.

Atlantic City

Dock’s Oyster House
Frank Dougherty, the fourth-generation owner of Dock’s, always has at least eight different kinds of oysters on ice at the raw bar. The 3,000-bottle wine cellar includes many flinty whites perfect for oysters, but a cucumber martini mixed by bartender Demetri Karenesis may mate just as well. The menu touches contemporary bases (scallops over risotto with lobster beurre blanc), but standards like crab cakes, fried shrimp, and lobsters from the 100-gallon lobster tank have been pleasing customers since Dock’s opened in 1897. 2405 Atlantic Ave, 609-345-0092.

Kelsey’s
Kelsey Jackson hails from Philly, but his gift to the Shore is the Southern-style seafood his mom, a North Carolina native, grew up on. Jackson filters her culinary hymnal through the skills he honed in 18 years of cooking at the former Trump Castle and another 18 helming his own barbecue joint. Fried fish gets a cornmeal and flour batter. Blackened salmon starts with a smoky dry rub. Crab-stuffed shrimp is as complicated as Jackson’s food gets. On weekends, live jazz, blues and neo soul keep toes tapping in the more than 200-seat dining room. 1545 Pacific Ave, 609-344-2200.

Somers Point

The Clam Bar
Regulars know it as Smitty’s Clam Bar, and many have been coming since it opened in 1973. Pete Popovic, one of the original owners, runs the place with his wife, Patrice. (They met in 1974, when she started waitressing at Smitty’s.) People line up for a seat at one of the three outdoor or one indoor counters. Clams arrive fresh daily from Clam Daddy’s hatcheries in Brigantine. Order them fried, steamed, in chowders, in seafood Alfredo or in a white-bean and clam chili. Fried fish and other standards are available, too. Insiders know to come on Thursdays for Smitty’s legendary potato skins stuffed with lobster, shrimp or crab. 910 Bay Ave, 609-927-8783.

Stone Harbor

Quahog’s Seafood Shack
Chef Lucas Manteca and his wife, Deanna Ebner (who also own Red Store in Cape May Point), create a menu that touches down “somewhere between South America and Maine,” as she puts it. Argentinian chef Carlos Barroz cooks New England clambakes and bowls of moqueca, a Brazilian seafood stew. A diner can order lobster taquitos or a seviche of tuna and watermelon. Ebner has decked out the roughly 100-seat restaurant in beach ephemera and found objects (floats, oars, old chairs). Starting this summer, Quahog’s will get all its vegetables from Fincas Del Mar, a 10-acre farm in Cape May in which Manteca is a partner. 206 97th St, 609-368-6300.

Spiaggetta
Born in Rome, chef/owner Marco Tarantino spent summers as an adolescent working on the docks of Ladispoli, a town on Italy’s Tyrrhenian Coast. At Spiaggetta (“Little Beach”), opened in 2012, he offers Italian-American red-sauce favorites, but more exciting are his authentic regional Italian dishes, like octopus salad, branzino over citrusy polenta, basil-crusted halibut and pappardelle with lime-marinated shrimp. Pastas come from Tarantino’s mother-in-law, who hand-makes them daily. 9800 3rd Ave, 609-368-9400.

Avalon

The Diving Horse
Seafood at this sleek, wood-paneled restaurant is prepared with an Italian mindset: simply, flavorfully and in synch with the seasons. That’s partly because chef Palmer Marinelli sees an affinity between the seasons and harvests of New Jersey and those of Italy. He changes his menu three times a season, using local produce and seafood from Duck Street Seafood in Wildwood. Marinelli creates modern dishes like black-bass crudo and scallops in almond-lemon pesto. This summer, he plans to serve sea robin and other unheralded fish. 2109 Dune Drive, 609-368-5000.

Wildwood

Hooked-Up Seafood
“We kill it, we grill it”—that’s the apt motto of this seafood shack, opened in 2010. Owner Bill Bright fishes for squid from his 140-foot boat, then uses the squid for bait when he takes his 55-footer on four- to five-day hunts for tuna and swordfish. The catch goes almost directly from boat to table, with just a brief stop in the kitchen for blackening in a skillet or grilling. The crowning touch is a nubbin of flavorful compound butter. The friendly staff includes Bright’s wife, Michele, and their four teenage kids. 1044 W Rio Grande Ave, 609-522-2722.

West Cape May

Black Duck on Sunset
Husband-and-wife owners Pam and Chris Hubert wanted to create an unstuffy alternative to Cape May’s signature Victorians. Their BYO, opened in May 2003, is spare, white and housed in a vintage, gray clapboard Shore house. Chris, the chef, picked up an Asian flair from restaurants where he worked in Philly, New York and Colorado. You’ll find those accents in his lobster dumplings, blue-crab spring rolls, grilled Szechuan shrimp over stir-fried noodles and pan-seared tuna-over-rice-paper. Naturally, the menu includes duck, roasted with a honey glaze. Asian or otherwise, all his food is fresh and whimsical. 1 Sunset Blvd, 609-898-0100.

Cape May Point
The Red Store
Husband and wife Lucas Manteca and Deanna Ebner (who also own Quahog’s in Stone Harbor) met while surfing in Costa Rica. A native of Buenos Aires, Manteca serves Argentinian-inspired, market-driven food, including lightly sauced grilled fish, Cape May Salt oysters and Hawaiian Kona Kampachi sashimi. Manteca changes his menu as often as twice a week, depending on the market and his imagination. Ebner, an Avalon native who runs the front of the house, based its clean, rustic look on the general store it used to be. The six seats at the counter are coveted—it’s where Manteca cooks a multicourse feast. Red Store was one of NJM’s 2013 Top 25 restaurants. 500 Cape May Point, 609-884-5755.

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