Santa Monica Seafood is completely renovating its Costa Mesa, Calif., retail location from a self-service concept to a full-service café — with sustainable seafood in mind.
The location was the California seafood distributor’s first stand-alone retail concept, opened in 1997. The remodel includes a Mediterranean-inspired menu, an oyster bar and a revamped fresh seafood display.
The menu aims to attract an entirely different consumer segment and will include more steamed calms, sautéed scallops, shrimp salad, roasted halibut and grilled salmon. While most items from the old menu have been removed, a few customer favorites, such as the fish tacos, will carry over.
Sustainability is also a big part of the new menu.
“We wanted to find the best choices possible, and a lot are not deemed sustainable but we can still find products that are the best choices,” said Michael Cigliano, Santa Monica’s executive VP, told SeafoodSource. “Most people say farmed salmon isn’t sustainable, but [the Scottish Loch Duart salmon on our menu] has the highest rating for farm-raised salmon. It’s responsibly sourced.”
With lack of knowledge being one of the biggest barriers in getting consumers to eat more seafood, the café staff is well educated about each species to answer any customer questions, said Cigliano. In addition, cooking demonstrations are held daily in the afternoons to show customers simple preparations to make seafood at home.
“After 14 years, we felt it was time to freshen up our look and add some exciting new features for our loyal customers. We’re always going to have the freshest seafood offerings but we’re really excited to offer unique wines, cheeses, pasta from Italy, sauces and anything else that you need for a perfect seafood dinner,” said Cigliano. “The oyster bar and the revamped dine-in menu are really extraordinary ways for our customers to get their seafood fix, as well.”
Construction on the café began on 4 October and is scheduled to wrap up on 15 November.
