Danny Wells & Scott Weinstein of BlackSalt
At BlackSalt, fish is a two-man job
At BlackSalt Fish Market & Restaurant, there’s a symbiotic relationship between Danny Wells and Scott Weinstein. Wells is executive chef of the fish restaurant, and Weinstein is the on-site fishmonger. His ocean treasures on display in the front of the space supply Wells’ kitchen and anyone else popping in to buy.
Between four and 12 vans deliver fresh fish every day from small fishermen and fisheries up in Boston and New York, and both men are on the lookout for less-common fish.
“We try to utilize products that are not the hottest products,” says Weinstein. “So it’s not halibut every day. I’ll say, let’s go ahead and use sheepshead, a nice local fish not caught in great quantities. And puppy drum [a Florida redfish], which is every bit as good as rockfish.”
It’s part of BlackSalt’s policy to relieve pressure on stocks of fish that are dwindling. But you won’t find Weinstein readily using the word “sustainability.” “Sustainability is not a dictionary term. We have our own definition of sustainability. Somewhere farm-raised fish will destroy the environment. Do we carry some products that have been on the [endangered] list? Sure. Swordfish.”
He's referring to the swordfish-catch perils of long-line fishing in which up to 60 miles of fishing line are cast, supporting up to 8,000 hooks on which sea turtles can become impaled from below and albatrosses from above. “We need strict quotas, strict guidelines,” he says. Until then, Weinstein will supply demand. He won’t, however, promote or sell Chilean sea bass. “It sends a bad message.”
What he does do is subscribe to as many advisory Web sites as he can and talk to as many people in the know as possible. And he displays information sheets on diverse fish in a rack to the side of the fish counter.
The stock is driven by market sources. There are always two or three things, Weinstein says, that you’ll almost never see at any other fish market. And when they get something new, he and Wells cook it together to work out what treatment suits it best.
“Fish is more versatile than people think,” says Wells. “Where fish is from can provide inspiration for how you cook it. There’s a geographic basis for dishes anywhere. Regionally specific fishes come about for a reason. A Mediterranean fish needs a Mediterranean preparation.”
When it comes to Mediterranean fish, Wells knows firsthand what he’s talking about. Following graduation from Providence, R.I., culinary school Johnson & Wales in 2002 with a stint with his externship mentor, chef Ted Peters, at the now-closed Gaucho Room in Miami’s Loews Hotel and a summer as line cook at Addie’s (the Rockville restaurant of the owners of BlackSalt), Wells decamped to Spain. The Takoma Park native had saved up money to follow his sister, who was working in Barcelona. He planned to find a job cooking there. “But in three months, I literally wasn’t allowed to set foot in a kitchen! I didn’t have the papers, and there was an on-the-spot 30,000 Euro fine.”
It was a tremendous disappointment. Wells had fallen in love with the city and its food. “I ate just about everything they had,” he says. “But ... I realized this wasn’t going to be the time that I was going to be in Spain.”
He had been keeping up by email with Jeff and Barbara Black, of the Black Restaurant Group, who were about to open BlackSalt. “And they wanted me to be part of it.” He began as sous chef, moved up to chef de cuisine, then was named executive chef in October of last year.
Weinstein, also from the area, had planned to go to law school. But he took a year off after college and also wound up at Addie’s, as a cook. People told him that even without any formal training he ought to be a chef. So he tried it for a year. The law lost out and he signed on to cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa. Why that choice rather than one of the more university-like institutes such as Johnson & Wales? “I’d already been an undergraduate. I just wanted to do cooking.”
When the course was over, Weinstein needed a job and, familiar with the Blacks, he ended up back with them. With the opening of BlackSalt, he moved from the stove to fishmonger because he “wanted to be part of something new and get into management.”
He prepared himself for thisturn in course by reading every book on fish he could lay his hands on and traveling up and down the East Coast, meeting fishermen and wholesalers.
Both agree that supporting local fishermen and farmers makes a huge difference. Both say fish just one or two days out of the water tastes better. Says Weinstein, “Still in rigor mortis — that’s the cod I want to have.”
BlackSalt Fish Market & Restaurant (202-342-9101: blacksaltrestaurant.com) is located at 4883 MacArthur Blvd. NW. Main courses cost $26 to $36.