Many restaurants these days are making an effort to menu sustainably harvested seafood where possible. But few are going all the way and offering only sustainably harvested product. Coast Bar & Grill in Charleston, S.C., is one of those few.
“We’ve partnered with the Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SSI), run by the South Carolina Aquarium, and I’m in constant contact with the director to find out what we can and what we can’t serve at Coast,” says David Pell, executive chef.
The SSI, designed to promote the use of local and sustainable seafood in Charleston restaurants, has partnered with 49 eateries that have pledged to remove Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, imported shark and other species it deems unsustainable from their menus.
Coast opened in 2002 in what was previously an indigo dye warehouse. With 40-foot ceilings, rustic tin roofs and the atmosphere of an eclectic beach bar, this is a fish-focused restaurant with only two non-seafood items: a chicken dish and ribeye steak. It is one of three restaurants and a catering company operated by Holy City Hospitality (HCH), a company that joined the SSI ?in 2005.
Pell initially worked at 39 Rue de Jean, a French restaurant owned by HCH, where he began as a line cook and moved up to the role of sous chef. Three years later he was appointed to Coast Bar & Grill.
To read the rest of the feature on Coast Bar & Grill click here. Written by SeaFood Business Contributing Editor Lauren Kramer, the story appeared in the November issue of SeaFood Business magazine.
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