The Anchovy Project

A few weeks ago, I discovered (via The Marshall Store) local pickled herrings. I’m not a huge fan of pickled herrings, but I was surprised to learn that they catch them here in the Bay Area, as I had never seen them in the markets or on a menu. I was telling this to my friend, Kate, my go-to person for all things related to oceans, and we got to talking about why we don’t eat more local fish, especially those lower on the food chain. She pointed me to State Bird Provisions’ Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski’s brilliant Anchovy Project:

They were planning on opening Anchovy Bar in San Francisco before COVID-19 shut everything down. I hope this pandemic doesn’t kill the project. We need more places like this.

4 replies to “The Anchovy Project”

  1. I love anchovies; I hope they get a chance to open it.

    (I say this as someone with about 100 tins of fish in my pantry, not bought for the pandemic, I just had them already.)

  2. I am really not a fan of anchovies but one of the best meals I had in Italy last time I was there was fresh anchovies on a thick, round pasta with a little oil, wow! It was a fixed menu for a DesignShop team, so I didn’t even know what it was before digging in. I was amazed at the difference – all I’d ever had was canned. So if you have the opportunity to have fresh, definitely try it!

    Also, I recently read about a chef in the gulf coast purposefully getting and offering bycatch fish on his menu – fish that are caught up in fishermen’s nets but that are not standard offerings at restaurants and so frequently are considered “trash” fish that get tossed out. If I run across it again I’ll post the article here. It might have been in Garden & Gun…?

    1. Now I’m doubly crossing my fingers that they open it. Yes, if you run across that article, please share, would love to read more. Wish they had restaurants like that here in the Bay Area.

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