Island Seafood Market & Bistro

AMBERJACK PHILLY CHEESE SANDWICH

 

At a recent St. Petersburg community event, I saw a booth for a new fish market near downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. This, I had to know more about. The fish section of Publix isn’t all that bad, really, but nothing beats a small, good fish market with fresh fish. One good one, locally, is the Mid Peninsula Seafood Market and Restaurant, but it’s not near downtown. This new place is. Like Mid Peninsula, it is a restaurant as well as a fish market. I’d carefully saved the literature I’d picked up about the new place and went there for lunch the other day. Boy, am I glad to have found this place!

It’s the Island Seafood Market (www.islandseafoodmarket.com), 2057 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, FL 33713; 727-821-8181. Owners, Linda Schuch and Elizabeth Moch have only been open about two months. I truly hope their market/bistro is successful. It deserves to be. They’ve got an excellent product: “fresh, locally caught fish, shellfish and live cold water lobster from Maine” and a bistro with some very inventive, great tasting light meals. One such meal is the novel sandwich idea pictured above (click on the image for a mouth-watering closeup).

ARTWORK FOR SALE

 

I adore inventive recipes that combine familiar elements in new ways, such as Nitally’s Thai-Mexican Fusion Cuisine dishes (like her panang burrito), the grouper mole at Tangelo’s Grille, (both St. Pete establishments) or the blackened grouper Reuben sandwich at Skipper’s Smokehouse over in Tampa. Along these lines, Island Seafood had a special the other day that I just had to try: a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich made with amberjack tuna instead of beef. Wow! It was terrific. The sauce (also of their invention), the cooked peppers and onions, the cheese, and the grilled tuna were a perfect match on a light, crispy roll.

Be sure to check out their online menu and specials. Among the things I want to try are their fish tacos (an example of a unique combo that’s now standard fare everywhere) and their crab pita…doesn’t that sound good?

AN INTERIOR WALL

 

Their website (www.islandseafoodmarket.com) has a link to vote for Island Seafood Market as Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2009. That’s what I’m doing right now! There’s also a useful link to Florida Seafood Recipes; their recipe cards are also available for free at the Island Seafood Market.

The Island Seafood Market is part of the Grand Central District Association, a collection of unique, independent businesses along a stretch of Central Avenue that has been revitalized by entrepreneurs with a contemporary vision. I strongly encourage you to visit the Grand Central district and while you’re there pick up something to eat in or take home from the Island Seafood Market. You might also, as I did, go right next door to Haslam’s Book Store, Florida’s largest bookstore, and pick yourself up some mental nourishment, too.

Island Seafood is open Tues-Thurs, 11:30-7; Fri-Sat, 11:30-9; Sunday, 12-4; closed Monday.

STOREFRONT

Most images link to larger images.

Tagged as: Florida, FOOD, markets, seafood, St. Petersburg