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Boat-fresh fish
[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
Groupers owner Renee Holt, a former caterer from Nashville, sits at the counter of her tiny restaurant in St. Pete Beach. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 19, 2002
It's got a view of asphalt and a minuscule dining room, but the seafood at Groupers is prepared to perfection.
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ST. PETE BEACH -- Warning: There aren't but three tables here and a few seats at the bar. But anyone who looks for fresh seafood on the beaches knows that a small number is a welcome increase and worth waiting your turn.
We owe this latest catch, Groupers, not to a salty old Cracker but to Renee Holt, a transplanted caterer from landlocked Nashville who landed here and soon hungered for fresh seafood.
Local fishing crews have filled that gap, and this tiny kitchen, with boat-fresh fish and seafood. Add Holt's gentle, respectful hand and laser-sharp cooking to good ingredients, and it restores the good name of grouper sandwiches, crab cakes and even wraps. All for less than $10.
The glass case in front is not jammed with inventory, just with ice and a few plates of what's really fresh: a big crimson tuna loin, a hunk of grouper and bowls of scallops and shrimp.
Ask for a shrimp basket and Holt takes eight or nine from the cooler, peels, deveins and dredges them in a light batter, and drops them in the fryer. In less than five minutes, a basket of perfect shrimp is sitting in front of me.
Most of us have forgotten what good fried shrimp taste like. I sometimes invoke the image of tempura, but the truth is not so foreign. Fast, hot frying of cold, fresh shrimp in clean oil produces flesh that is light, white and springy as a beach ball, with just a whiff of salt in the air. And here they come with a crust that is crisp and paper thin.
[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
A yellow-fin tuna wrap with pasta salad and a wasabi and cucumber sauce is featured on Groupers’ menu.
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Groupers does grilled and blackened, too -- the slab of black grouper on my sandwich was moist, lush and better than most salmon -- but frying is the treat.
Consider a lobster wrap; your first guess might be a little lobster salad and a lot of lettuce. Holt fries whole slipper tails and slides them into a big spinach wrap.
Ditto on a scallop wrap. Big, fat scallops get that crackling crust, yet are more lightly cooked -- and served more generously -- than in most white tablecloth spots.
There's a cheeseburger, too, but even a half-pound of Black Angus couldn't tempt me away from the seafood.
Coleslaw shows class, with shreds of many colors in a bit of vinegar and no mayo; fries are skinny and crisper than most. If you must have more, try the chowder of shrimp, scallops and assorted fish in light cream or the chunky smoked fish spread of amberjack, kingfish and mackerel.
Groupers serves all the above in plastic, closes at 7 p.m. and offers picture window views only of asphalt. But service is warm and friendly, and the food local and fresh. If you want it fresher, fillet your own catch before you dock and Groupers will cook a pound to order for $6.95.
Maybe it'd be nice if Groupers had a larger menu, more seats or longer hours. Naah, it'd be much nicer if more restaurants cared about serving fish this fresh.
GROUPERS
- 9524 Blind Pass Road, St. Pete Beach
- (727) 367-9000
- 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday; prices $5.95 to $8.95.
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