Urban Fishing

Sea Salt Eatery
4825 Minnehaha Ave. (in Minnehaha Park), Minneapolis
612.721.8990
www.seasalteatery.com

"The river is cleaning up," Weglinski told me, when I talked to him on the phone for this story. "It used to be nothing but dirty foam and a lot of garbage, but every year I've been noticing the water clarity getting better and better. When I was a kid I used to swim in the Mississippi up by I-694, and I'd stink when I was done. Now, though, the water clarity—you can actually see a couple feet down. You never used to see muskie or pike on the Mississippi up this far; usually they were downriver past Hastings. But now there's a lot of them, and bass, too. I never saw them before this year, but now they're there." There are walleye too, says Weglinski, especially where Minnehaha Creek enters the Mississippi, just a little downriver from the restaurant—in fact, he says, that's where some walleye spawn.

Does all this urban fishing talk leave you frenzied as a spawning walleye, and in need of proof that such fishing can be done? Then proceed to Sea Salt, the restaurant Weglinski co-owns with business partner John Blood, and check out the pictures of remarkable fish on the walls—all caught within 15 minutes of the restaurant in Twin Cities lakes and rivers. Does all this talk of fish make you yearn for lunch? Then proceed to Sea Salt as well, because this unassuming little restaurant in Minnehaha Park has the freshest fish in the Twin Cities, at prices appropriate for the setting.

Like what? Like a plate of soft, warm tacos filled with inch-thick Marlin fillets ($5.95) enlivened with fresh chopped cilantro, onions, and tomatoes, and served with little squares of lime. I've never had such fresh, real fresh fish tacos in town, not even in white-tablecloth restaurants. Each bite was clean and energetic, as only the freshest fish is. Incredibly crisp, thinly cut strips of Alaskan haddock star in a fantastic fried-fish basket ($9.95), in tacos ($4.95), and in a big, sloppy charmer of a po' boy ($9.95), made light, creamy, and drippy with plenty of add-ins like mayonnaise, sliced tomato, and lettuce. A basket of cornmeal-crusted "clam fries"—the meat of the clam without the belly, also known as clam strips—($5.95) were so crisp they were crisp squared; crisp from the frying and instant delivery to the table, and crisp from the teensy facets of the crisped cornmeal. They were more devourable than potato chips.

Even if Sea Salt, in all its deceptively lowbrow counter-service humility, only had these deliciously simple ocean treats, it would be worth your time. However, it has a lot of highbrow waterborne joys as well, like the lake herring that stole my heart.

How's that? Oh, you should have seen it. It was a Lake Superior herring, about 10 inches long, silvery, cleaned simply, and grilled hard, hot, and fast so that it was blackened beautifully on both sides. It was served beneath a rough-chopped sauce of tomatoes, thickly sliced giant pimento-stuffed green olives, and whole black calamata olives. And oh, how tender it was, how fresh, how roasty, how delicious, the flesh pulling away from the bones with the merest pressure of a plastic fork. I haven't had fish like that since I last dined in Portugal, on the beach—and that fish was enhanced by being in Portugal, on the beach. At $9.95 it was without question the best affordable fish I've ever had in the Twin Cities.

When I was eavesdropping on kitchen staff chatting with another table, I heard someone say this marvelous herring would probably become a staple. And my date and I locked eyes and slightly widened them, in the mode of co-conspirators who spy a $100 bill on the floor, and don't want anyone to know they've seen it. We'd be back! Daily! Especially before the review ran! Unfortunately, this turned out to be a red herring, as well as a Lake Superior one, and the fish has yet to reappear.