When Rosemary and Walter Smith moved to Brevard County from Massachusetts back in the 1980s, they decided to bring their native cuisine with them.
They opened a small New England seafood restaurant in a Palm Bay strip mall that was successful enough to inspire a second location in Melbourne Beach where my wife, Mary, and I dined on a recent Sunday evening.
The mainland restaurant was moved to a larger location in Stack Plaza in Palm Bay and eventually sold so that the Smiths could concentrate on their island eatery.
The island restaurant, which opened in 1995, is located halfway between the Sebastian Inlet and Indialantic, opposite Valkaria and near Washburn Cove. The low-slung building looks New England-like with a gray stone facing, blue door and window casings and a timber-framed side porch. The surrounding parking lot is unpaved, giving the place an unpretentious, semi-rural feel.
There is a large open-air bar area in back. It has walls as well as an open beamed roof, but the sea air flows freely through.
The inside dining room is relatively long and narrow, stretching toward a second dining room on the south side. The interior is as unpretentious as the exterior with black metal frame chairs with vinyl seats and Formica tables with condiments arranged in the middle.
The blue walls are decorated sports bar-style with baseball and motorcycle pictures, plaques and memorabilia.
It is clear people are not coming here for the décor but for the authentic New England and Florida seafood.
The restaurant website says it caters to a regular crowd of locals in the off-season with snowbirds filling more tables in the winter months. On the last Sunday in July, people at tables around us had the air of people who ate there regularly. The wait staff was casual and friendly.
Chelsea brought us drinks, answered questions about the menu and took our order for an ahi seared tuna appetizer ($8.95), while we continued to study the menu.
The tuna was superb, eight substantial slabs encrusted in peppercorn and sesame seeds, seared a quarter-inch in on the edges, rosy pink in the middle. The fish had a pure delicate flavor and came with a ginger and a sinus-clearing wasabi paste. The pastel green wasabi made a nice visual contrast with the pink fish and the dish looked attractive and appetizing on the plate, garnished with thinly sliced ginger.
Entrees come with two sides from a list that includes a Caesar and a garden salad, as well as the usual varieties of potatoes, rice, cole slaw, baked beans, etc.
Mary ordered the broiled Haddock Fillet ($18.95) with a Caesar and sweet potato fries. The generous portion of white fish was served with onion rings as well. The fish was done to perfection and Mary said the sweet potato fries, a favorite with her that she has eaten in many places, were unusually good.
The New England theme got to me and I ordered the whole Maine lobster with a garden salad, rice pilaf and drawn butter ($20.95). The pound-and-a-quarter lobster looked great on the plate and was full of sweet succulent meat.
Both salads were fresh and crisp and the rice pilaf, while nothing special, made a good starchy companion dish for the rich lobster.
We also sampled the New England clam chowder ($4.95 for a cup, $6.95 for a bowl), which was very tasty, full of large chunks of clam in a thick creamy broth.
Chelsea checked on us a couple of times but didn’t hover. She responded to any requests promptly and cheerfully. She made us feel welcome at the restaurant, even though we are not regulars, and made the dining experience more pleasant.
The only downside to the experience was this: When we came in, we walked through the front section of the dining room, which was warm and filled with an appealing aroma of steaming seafood, to be seated in the back section. The back section was too cold for my liking and smelled faintly of some type of cleaning product.
When I asked to be reseated, the hostess gave us a table in the warm, fragrant front room, so conditions in the back section didn’t interfere with our enjoyment of the meal. But I probably would have left if we had to sit in the back.
Other than that one atmospheric issue, the restaurant, meal and evening were well worth the drive up the island. Dinner for two with one drink each was $75, including tax and tip.
