Restaurants & Dining
Steaming Ahead at Fishmonger Seafood
First it was take-and-bake seafood, and now Chef Louie Gelormini at Fishmonger Seafood in Surfside Beach has innovated a fresh seafood treat: personalized carry-out Lowcountry Steampots.
For prices starting at $20 per person (with a two person minimum), Chef Gelormini will layer a stockpot with ice, snow crab and Dungeness crab clusters, Gulf oysters (yes, oysters are still coming out of the Gulf of Mexico) local McClellanville clams, potatoes, onions, fresh local corn on the cob and a generous dusting of seafood seasoning.
“All the customer has to do is take it back to their home or condo or RV or even the fire at their tent site,” Gelormini said on July 6 at the shop, “and add one cup of liquid. It can be water, beer, wine – whatever you're feeling. Throw a couple shots of cognac in there, who cares?”
The pot is brought to a simmer, and when the potatoes are done the meal is ready to eat.
“People can ask me to put any seafood I have in the pot,” the chef said. “What I put in there on a daily basis will change also depending on what's fresh and available, but it will always be seafood, potatoes, corn and onions.”
Customers get to keep the pot and its lid; a typical 2-person boil is put into a 12-quart pot.
The chef reports their take-and-bake fresh seafood entrees are also proving to be popular. The grill-ready vacuum-sealed packets of fresh Roasted Almond Swordfish, Mandarin Orange Swordfish, Parmesan Crab-Stuffed Flounder and more are selling extremely well. He also has in the cold case ready-to-cook Crab Cakes and Tomato Crab Strudels.
For those who don't want to do even a little bit of cooking, there's Crab Dip, Smoked Whitefish Dip and She-Crab Soup. And of course this is a seafood shop, so naked seafood ready to be made into original creation are available, from fillets to whole fish and scallops to shrimp. Fresh local blue crabs are a specialty of the house along with local head-on or head-off shrimp.
The day's offerings change, so if you'd like to have something specific it's a good idea to call ahead.
FishMonger Seafood also stocks bait and tackle.
If you bring your children or grandchildren with you, and a children's book or two, you can take away new books to read. FishMonger Seafood has stocked a Bright Blue Sea Bookshelf with dozens of children's storybooks. If you bring one for the shelf, you get to select a new title to take home with you, for free.
FishMonger Seafood is at 1511 U.S. 17 Business S. in Surfside Beach. It's open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from until 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. They're closed Sundays and Mondays. The number is (843) 903-CRAB (2722).
