Going Fishing at Erato on Main
This weekend at Erato on Main Kevin Willmann is trying to win some sort of Kona Kampachi contest and will be serving what he once called “assuming fish with unassuming fish.” At least he called it that to me.
Not a fan of the duo overall “because one always upstages the other” he’s all for doing it when it works and the two items truly make something greater together than they would on their own.
The assuming fish is pressure-canned in house with olive oil and the unassuming fish is a kampachi crudo. When we had it he served it with some of Farmer Lee’s micro vegetables and called it a mirepoix as it was literally carrot, celery and leek shoots. I have no idea how he’s serving it this weekend, but it’s bound to be delicious.
That’s not so much the point as this though: I’ve spoken about the quality of the fish Willmann gets in many times. I was just looking at some menus from my trips over the river this year, and just off the ones I have in front of me (which represents only about half), I have eaten the following fish this year:
wahoo, tilefish, opakapaka, moi, kona kampachi, bigeye, red grouper, orange niragi, opakapaka, lobster, scallops, mongchong, uku, ehu, bluenose “snapper”, halibut, hamachi, black snapper, grouper, king crab…and I’ve still had some I can’t think off off the top of my head.
If seafood is your thing (and it is mine which explains why I go there so often) you owe it to yourself to head over to Erato some weekend. It’s the freshest I’ve consistently had in St. Louis by far.
Full disclosure: As always, please keep in mind that while I believe my opinion to be correct, there are some establishments where my opinion is personally biased. This is one. Kevin Willmann has become a close friend because of my regularity in his restaurant.
photo by: kona-kampachi.com
One Response to “Going Fishing at Erato on Main”
I’m generally no fish lover, but the seafood I sampled at Erato last night (lobster — in martini form! — monchong, and snapper) was downright amazing. I’m not enough of an expert to tell whether it was the quality of the meat or just the chef’s compelling seasoning choices. I would hazard a combination of both.
By nedim on Jun 20, 2008