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Wahoo! Bonefish spawns a chain
[Times photos: Krystal Kinnunen]
John Griffin from Clearwater enjoys a beer at Bonefish Grill's bar located at 2519 N McMullen-Booth Road, Safety Harbor. Griffin says he visits Bonefish Grill about twice a week. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 21, 2002
St. Petersburg's Bonefish Grill opens three more restaurants, offering people the chance to eat at a seafood restaurant that's also hip. But we have a few bones to pick: More fish choices, please.
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A year ago St. Petersburg tongues wagged over the fresh fish and fresher style Bonefish Grill brought to Fourth Street. Now partnered with Outback, Bonefish has opened in Sarasota, Safety Harbor and Tampa, another test before going nationwide.
The Safety Harbor spot is the first big restaurant success in the Northwood Cluster Oaks in more than a decade. The Tampa restaurant replaces the failed Zazarac and makes better use of the odd corner with big signs featuring the hip logo that you can't miss. Inside both have the metal mangroves and fresh-faced, chef-coated servers of the St. Petersburg original.
St. Petersburg can be proud. After barely two years, Bonefish is now a full-fledged chainlet, with five locations open as of next week, and poised for further success. It already shares one key characteristic of other big hits in the Outback portfolio: SRO crowds and waits of an hour or more on the busiest nights (a limited number of reservations are taken). And that is confirmation of the bull's-eye accuracy of the concept.
Where Outback found a big gap between Ponderosa and Bern's 12 years ago and made steak safe for yuppies again, Bonefish serves seafood to the upscale demographic that is tired of eating fish in ersatz whaling museums and outgrew Shell's and Red Lobster long ago.
Among dishes offered by Bonefish Grill, opening all over the Tampa Bay area, is a half portion of ahi tuna sashimi that’s seared, sliced thin and served with wasabi and pickled ginger.
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When it opened in St. Petersburg, Bonefish offered not only wood-grilled fish, but also the trimmings of a modern restaurant rarely seen here: hip graphics, a handsome staff, crusty bread, crisp greens and even goat cheese.
And now South Tampa, which claims to take fashionable dining for granted, stands in awe -- and in line -- for a seafood restaurant that looks hip. Oh, how delicious that Tim Curci and Chris Parker, the young Hops veterans who invented Bonefish, let St. Pete have an innovation first for once.
But seafood is harder to buy, cut and cook than beef, and higher-priced; here appetizers hit $9.50 and entrees run $13 to $17.50. Bonefish has clearly pegged the image of the New Seafood Place right, but it needs good, distinctive food and far more fish to be worth cloning.
As I said when I first reviewed Bonefish, it's good stuff, but not good enough.
Since then it has added a few specials; swordfish with spinach and feta was great, but grilled scallops were tainted by a bitter, dry garnish of capers and mushrooms.
The core of the menu is still the mix 'n' match format of five fish and three sauces, plus some sautes and meat entrees. Most of the fish were cut large and thick (ahi tuna must have been over a half-pound) and done with the taste and smell of the grill; only sea bass was too thin and limp. Mango salsa is old hat, but the lime tomato and lemon sauces are sinfully buttery.
Yet Bonefish's best achievements can be ordinary when plated with mushy garlic mashed potatoes or overcooked spaghetti with watery marinara. Island rice with raisins and nuts needs herbs or peppers for crunch and color. Au gratin potatoes are a better choice: hash browns tossed with melting cheese please the tummy if not the low-fat diet. Likewise, the vegetable medley can rise to new heights on nights when fresh whole green beans are added and all the vegetables have crunch.
There is other great eating here, like the rock shrimp appetizer or pasta dish, those tomato-y mussels (a starter but possibly the best meal in the place) and a lushly tart key lime pie.
But the selection of fish remains far too skimpy. Any restaurant that claims to specialize in fish (especially one that names itself after one of the most revered Florida game fish) should serve more than six fish. And it should seek out better fish than the trite, overfished ones here; Atlantic salmon, Chilean sea bass, tuna, grouper, mahi and trout are now commodities far removed from any catch of the day in local waters or by a sharp eye on the fish market. (Some California chefs now boycott sea bass as they did swordfish.)
All that's missing are orange roughy, tilapia and other species designed for people who don't like fish. I give Bonefish points for using rock shrimp, but where are the Cedar Key clams? Top restaurants, seafooders and just plain good kitchens have them -- and far more finfish: wahoo, cobia, pompano, amberjack, mackerel, kingfish, bluefish, halibut, haddock, cod. My favorite place for a poor man's fish sammitch has mullet and whiting; my fish market has all manner of snapper, and if the boats are lucky, luscious scamp.
Our best kitchens -- like Island Way Grill, Mystic Fish, Redwoods, Pacific Wave, Splash, Oystercatchers, SideBerns and Mia's -- seek out more fish for freshness and variety. Charley's Crab in Sarasota has become Claw & Fin to emphasize its lengthy finfish selection.
So do top chains: Boston's Legal Sea Foods, Outback's own partner Roy's from Hawaii, and Portland's McCormick & Schmick's (30 species a day, flown in twice daily to all locations including Kansas City). Old Red Lobster, based in Orlando for more than 20 years, has a global fish-buying operation that turns up a more diverse catch.
Otherwise, Bonefish is run with sparkle and smiles. The wine list is short but more diverse than the fish list, and affordable too; most bottles are under $30. (The only off note in beverage prices is $3.75 for espresso -- and not well made at that.) The wait staff works happily and helpfully in teams and the overall ambience can make an hour wait in the bar no problem, mate.
You can enjoy uptown dining at Bonefish, and the combination of Outback quality and seafood's status as upscale health food will make this a big success. I predict it will win Hot Concept honors from the industry and ensure Tampa Bay's reputation as the home of great chains.
It will do little however, for our reputation for seafood. For the home of good fish and people who care about it, we will continue to look north and especially west.
BONEFISH GRILL
- 5901 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg, (727) 521-3434
- 3971 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, (941) 924-9090
- 2519 McMullen-Booth Road, Safety Harbor, (727) 726-1315
- 3665 Henderson Blvd., Tampa, (813) 876-3535
- (Opening Monday) 13262 N Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, (813) 969-1619
Hours: Dinner nightly; hours vary by location
Reservations: Limited, recommended
Credit cards: Most
Details: Smoking area provided; wheelchair access good; full bar.
Prices: Dinners, $13 to $17.50
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