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Issue link: https://seafoodbusiness.epubxp.com/i/105616
News Recap LAS VEGAS In BRIEF Casual-dining company Ruby Tuesday is shuttering its seafood concept Marlin & Ray's and 13 restaurants. The chain reported a second-quarter net loss of $15.1 million and CEO J.J. Buettgen says the seafood restaurants, which were formerly under-performing Ruby Tuesdays, are not an "optimal conversion vehicle for us going forward." Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Acme Smoked Fish Corp. unveiled a new website, www.acmesmokedfish. com, with a password-protected wholesaler portal and high-resolution video. Trans Global Products of Tampa, Fla., joined the National Fisheries Institute Crab Council to promote sustainability and fund blue-swimming crab sustainability projects in Southeast Asia. Montvale, N.J.-based The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P;), launched its new Great Atlantic Seafood Market in all of its A&P;, Superfresh, Pathmark and Waldbaum's stores. The new department will feature seafood sourced primarily from Boston-based North Coast Seafood. Described by the company as "So fresh, so healthy and so easy," the stores will offer cleaned, seasoned and even steamed seafood for customers. Leading farmed salmon supplier Marine Harvest completed its acquisition of salmon processor Morpol less than two weeks after the transaction was announced in mid-December. Marine Harvest took 48.5 percent of Morpol shares at $2.07 per share and planned to make an offer for the remaining shares at the same price. Direct QUOTE [Restaurants] couldn't afford the freight of having [seafood] shipped from farther away, and they weren't going to serve refreshed product. The storm overall hurt a lot of people, even people not in the seafood business. — Frank Gonzales, owner of Columbus Fish & Seafood (see Top Story, p. 22) 6 SeaFood Business February 2013 D iners at seafood restaurants can interest in other species. expect to see different offer"If we can just add some more ings on menus this year, including diversity to our diet, we can reArctic char, barlieve some of the ramundi or cobia, pressure on those along with the target species," usual shrimp, scalhe says. lops and mussels. Tere's a finanTe National cial benefit, too. Restaurant AssoFish that are not ciation's "What's as well known are Hot in 2013" cunot in high delinary forecast listmand, Moonen ed nontraditional says, which means seafood as an they will often emerging trend. be cheaper. It's no surMoonen has prise to chef Rick offered cobia beMoonen, owner Chef Rick Moonen is trying to fore, an Atlantic of RM Seafood drum up interest in species fish that is fatty, in the Mandalay like Arctic char (below). sweet and easy to Bay casino in Las cook. He tells his Vegas. He has customers it's a lot made unusual spelike Chilean sea cies a staple on the bass. Barramundi, menu in his reshe says, is another taurant for several species that could years. A longtime grow more popular activist for more in the future. Even responsible fish steelhead trout, a farming, Moonen river fish that rarehas been offering nontraditional ly makes it into restaurants, could species, he says, out of a commit- begin appearing. ment to sustainable seafood. But Moonen says chefs and restauhe too predicts that new or differ- rant owners should not be afraid of ent species are on the cusp of be- unusual species, even if some diners coming mainstream. won't respond right away. "Te species that we may think "It's difficult to get people out of sound weird today will be the norm their habits," he says. tomorrow," he says. Tat's why it's important to keep Moonen isn't opposed to putting some staples on the menu. Having traditional seafood on his menu. a variety of options, he says, will He offers classics like shrimp and entice more adventurous diners, salmon, but with the latter, he usu- while more conservative ones at ally offers the wild product. Many the same table will be encouraged salmon farms, he says, are under to check out something different. so much pressure to produce that Te key, Moonen says, is to they don't always do it in what he maintain that balance between thinks is an ethical or safe manner. traditional and nontraditional fish Moonen offers other fish, like — even RM Seafood menus plenty Arctic char, which he calls "salmon of recognizable choices for those lite," for two reasons: to keep fish with a more conventional palate. on the plate when wild varieties "It's not just a house of weirdare out of season, and to drum up ness," he says. — Sean Murphy Photo courtesy of RM Seafood United States Cold Storage is building a 5.5-million-cubic-foot public refrigerated warehouse in Dallas that is scheduled for completion in June. Seafood chefs turn to underutilized species Photo courtesy of High Liner Foods Morey's Seafood International earned British Retail Consortium (BRC) certification for its specialty products processing facility in Motley, Minn. The BRC evaluates both manufacturers and retailers in the food industry, based on food safety, quality control, site standards and other categories. The Morey's facility received an "A," the highest possible grade. For updated NEWS, go to www.SeafoodSource.com