Beach Blog Restaurant Spotlight: Getting Hooked on Mr. and Miss Fish
By Becky Billingsley
Any restaurant that is jam-packed full at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon is doing okay. That's the story of Mr. Fish; he has always done better than okay in Myrtle Beach.
Throughout the 1980s Ted Hammerman was a seafood broker who traveled the world. In 1991, wanting to settle down and raise his children he opened Mr. Fish, which was downtown in the area of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. When he sold his little restaurant in 1998 it became Mrs. Fish, and Hammerman moved on. For a while he was overseas working for Phillips Seafood, and then came back to Myrtle Beach to run the fresh seafood market at Phillips. Most recently he has been a fresh seafood broker, and that profession continues.
This time the restaurant is called The Original Mr. Fish, and since it opened in December 2008 there has been no looking back. And now there are two Hammermans in the kitchen: his daughter Sheina is a culinary school graduate and professional caterer who also owns Life of the Party Catering.
The new location is at 3401 N. Kings Highway where Big Nick's Wings & Things, and before that Jimmyz Japanese Hibachi was located. The seating is still a compact affair - there is room for 24 at the indoor tables - but grab-and-go options will make it easy to pick up hot fresh tasty fish and take it back to the office for lunch or home for dinner. Or you can choose to take your food outside to one of two roomy picnic tables.
Mr. Fish originally opened for lunch and dinner and offered several fresh seafood items customers can take home and cook, but their food is in such high demand that changes and expansion have come quickly.
In September they added breakfast, which is cooked by Andy Graham, formerly of the Snack Shack and the Aloha Motel. His huge following came with him, and now early morning diners are enjoying Lisa's Crabby Muffin: An English muffin topped with a light egg, Canadian bacon and a sautéed crab cake, and topped with "Boom Boom Sauce;" the Shuck and Pluck with fried eggs and oysters, a variety of three-egg omelets; and more.
The Hammermans also added a mobile kitchen so they can take their act on the road, and they can create kosher catered affairs. By Thanksgiving they plan to open, two doors down from the restaurant, a fresh seafood market with another kitchen where they'll sell to-go orders of steamed oysters, house-smoked salmon and trout, pints and quarts of their she-crab soup, and other gourmet food items like wine, rubs and sauces.
In the existing restaurant you can get Grouper Bites with spicy remoulade, Crab Rangoon with citrus soy sauce, Calamari and Blackened Ahi Tuna. There's gumbo and Po' Boys, Shrimp Salad and Crab Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Signature dishes include Fish Tacos, Crab Mac and Cheese, Seafood Alfredo and Shrimp 'n' Grits, and there are always luxurious specials like Lobster and Grits or Walnut Encrusted Grouper. One day they might have Parrotfish; another day it could be Triggerfish.
But it is the seafood platters offered at lunch and dinner that brings in the crowds. Since Ted is a seafood broker, you can count on whatever fish special of the day you order will be fresh, tasty and piping hot. It is simply a good piece of fish, and the choice of sauces you can have with it makes the seafood irresistible. You could have Wahoo with Lemon Dill sauce, or Tuna with Blackberry Wasabi. Or maybe you'd like some tender fried Grouper Cheeks, or Cajun Salmon with Remoulade.
If you'd like a drink they have bottled beer and wine, and of course you can take home some fresh shrimp, oysters, crab and more to cook for another meal.
The Original Mr. Fish is at 3401 N. Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, and the number is (843) 839-3474.
There are no comments posted. Add yours below.