About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Diners wonât find crab on the opening menu at Seamoreâs Sustainable Seafoodâthe dining room is bucking the tradition of out-of-town restaurants throwing it on the menu as a local nod (see also: half-smokes, mumbo sauce). The coastal spot opens in Arlington on Thursday, September 29. for dinner. It’s the first Seamoreâs outside New York for the five-restaurant collective, centered in Manhattan and Brooklyn.Â
Why no crabcakes? Itâs not about the higher-than-average prices of the Chesapeake delicacy. Though the restaurant will source a variety of fish and shellfish from the Bayâas well as further afield along the East Coast and Gulfâco-owners Jay Wainwright and Topher Bertone-Ledford have centered their mission around aquatic sustainability.
âWe only sell fish whose populations are stable or growing,â Wainwright says, referring to both wild and sustainably farmed seafood. Crab may eventually come onto the menu, but given recent reports of population decline, the crustacean didn’t make the cut (same goes for Chesapeake rockfish). The Department of Natural Resources enforced new crab catch limits this year, though there’s no current limit for commercial or recreational crabbers starting October 1 through the remainder of the season, which ends November 30.Â

On the oft-changing âdaily landingsâ menu, diners might find Atlantic croaker, red drum, bluefish, porgy, dogfish, sheepâs head, sea robin, Chesapeake oysters, and Virginia clams. Seamoreâs also sources invasive species like snakeheadâa threat to the Potomac Riverâand the Chesapeake’s menace, blue catfish.Â
âYou might not always recognize the species of fish, but when theyâre delicious, youâll come back,â says Wainwright. The team works with only two wholesale seafood purveyorsâDC-based ProFish and Baltimore’s JJ McDonnellâto help with quality and monitoring. The restaurant also looks to the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, a sustainable seafood advisory list, for guidance. That said, Wainwright admits: âItâs complicatedââsustainableâ is like the word âgourmetâ in the ’80s. Itâs a problematic word with no firm definition. We like to develop a reservoir of trust and are happy if people want to scratch the surface.â

Helping the cause: a restaurant that feels more like a breezy Montauk hangout than a lesson in ocean preservation. Wainwright has been in the biz since college, having founded the fast-casual CosĂ chain with his brother in 1993. He also helped grow Le Pain Quotidien’s US presence as its chief development officer. While Seamore’s is full-service, he says it “speaks to how people want to eat today. The ethos is casual, but it gives people something to bite into.”

The Clarendon locale will offer some of the same menu items as New York, including shrimp or fish tacosâseared or crispyâlobster rolls, seafood or beef burgers, steamed mussels, and fish and chips utilizing blue catfish. Chef Laurence Cohen (formerly of Truluckâs) will also offer a variety of âreal dealâ fish preparationsâsimply grilled daily and core catches like steelhead salmon or Montauk scallops with cauliflower mash, seasonal vegetables, and a choice of sauces like red curry or chimichurri. The kitchen also offers a âguppiesâ (kids) menu with fish sticks and mac nâ cheeseâlobster optionalâfor all ages.
Seamore’s Sustainable Seafood. 2815 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington.