After a decade of serving some of Vero’s best seafood, Joey’s Seafood Shack has decided it’s time for a change.
No, they haven’t decided to expand their dinner service beyond the current two nights a week. And no, thank goodness, they haven’t altered a menu that offers a wonderful selection of fresh fish.
But to mark the restaurant’s 10th anniversary, proprietors Joey Fenyak and Kim Coveny have decided to change the name to Joey & Kimmy’s Seafood Market & Restaurant, and they’ve celebrated by putting up a fancy new sign.
“How do you like it?” Kimmy asked, as we arrived Friday night to the usual packed restaurant. Well, that’s change we can live with.
On last week’s visit, we started with a bottle of very nice chardonnay, and a basket of tasty bread made it to the table even before the wine.
For appetizers on this visit, I ordered the Manhattan clam chowder ($6) and my husband went for a half dozen raw oysters ($16) from Kent Island, Maryland. Kimmy makes the best Manhattan chowder to be found in these parts (“Well, I am from New York,” she points out), and the relatively light, tomato-based chowder was absolutely superb this evening. My husband, meanwhile, raved about the oysters – six Chesapeake beauties on the half shell with cocktail sauce.
We were then served the large Greek salads that come with all entrées. The salads included strawberries, which go surprisingly well with feta cheese.
For entrées, I chose the jumbo shrimp stuffed with lobster ($38) and my husband opted for the seared sushi-grade ahi tuna ($43).
My jumbo shrimp, stuffed with chunks of lobster with butter, white wine, garlic and bread crumbs, could not have been tastier. The shrimp were served with wild rice. And the tuna was about as nice as we’ve ever seen, topped with a teriyaki glaze and accompanied by a seaweed salad, wasabi, and ginger.
On this most recent visit, there was no room for one of Joey’s tasty desserts. Dinner for two before tax and tip (and excluding wine) runs $110 to $120.
One other change we noted on this visit is Kimmy had ceded her seat at the restaurant piano – where she used to provide a selection or two during time-outs from the kitchen – to a snowbird who played throughout the meal.
“Yes, he just walked in one day,” she told us. He seemed to be a big hit with diners, and several of them were up dancing to his selections when we concluded our evening.
Overall, this restaurant has the homey feel of an Italian family kitchen, and on Friday and Saturday nights, it does a land-office business.
While there seems little chance after 10 years of persuading them to expand the number of evenings they serve dinner, Joey and Kimmy’s market remains the best place in town to buy fresh seafood. And Kimmy urged us to remind readers the restaurant does serve lunch – if not dinner – daily.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at [email protected].
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
