How would you feel about green gazpacho oyster shooters? Pretty good. What about squid and bean salad? Sounds sustainable and tasty. And have you ever had bluefish sliders? No, but I’d love to. Now, what if we told you this was just the tip of the iceberg of a seasonal seafood festival where you get to stroll among chefs plying these dishes of all sorts of fish-forward awesomeness, alongside New York beers, on the beautiful Hudson River waterfront in lower Manhattan? Wait, what? Where?
On June 13, at Brookfield Place, the illustrious seafood-sensitive likes of Esca, L&W Oyster Co., Fort Reno, Back Forty, Littleneck and more can be your lunchtime or dinnertime play date. The coming together is dubbed New Fish City and it’s a joint effort of Edible Manhattan and Arts Brookfield, and some of our favorite chefs and brewers.
Brookfield has hosted such joyous occasions as Noodlepalooza (there were noodles at least 15 different ways) and CANSTRUCTION (competitors created sculptures out of food cans as a fundraiser for City Harvest). For New Fish City, Brookfield has organized a pop-up beer garden in the evening, with an alcohol-free lunch break preview in the afternoon. This plaza on the Manhattan waterfront is a stone’s throw from Manhattan Sailing Club. A bit farther offshore, you can see Governor’s Island, where the New York Harbor School is hoping to raise one billion oysters. Boats steaming up the East River to supply the old Fulton Fish Market would have passed by here. How fitting?
The original idea was for a fish fry with New York beer. (Fish fry beer, a well-established combination.) The menu ultimately evolved to feature seafood in many incarnations—not simply the breaded and boiled in oil kind, as well as plenty of slaws, salsa, black and white cookies, and other accompaniments. And the beer remains, including pours from Empire State brewers Kelso, Southampton and Captain Lawrence, and Peak Organic ale.
New Fish City goes down at lunch time and dinner, so check your schedule and book a date with a bunch of friends. See you in seafood nirvana.
