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Issue link: https://seafoodbusiness.epubxp.com/i/112398
Top Species Canada is the biggest producer of live blue mussels to the U.S. market. she says, noting that ���if all goes according to plan��� there will be more Flex Mussels locations in the future. Photo courtesy of Acadia Aqua Farms Grow your own Blue mussels With versatility comes volume potential BY JOANNE FRIEDRICK I f you ask the people who operate Flex Mussels, two Manhattan restaurants focused on mussels and little else, the versatile and a���ordable bivalves are the next chicken. With retail prices in the $3 a pound range, mussels take center stage at Flex. Its menu o���ers 22 preparations each day, ranging from the most popular Tai in a coconut curry broth with lemongrass and ka���r lime to the Copenhagen with Danish blue cheese or the Southern featuring Dijon mustard, ham, corn and bourbon. Mussel entr��es sell for $19.50 to $25. Tere is also Te Number 23, a special that changes 34 SeaFood Business March 2013 daily and provides the opportunity to test out new recipes that may eventually ���nd a way onto the menu. Alexandra Shapiro and her parents Laura and Bobby Shapiro run the New York eateries on 13th and 82nd streets. Te concept was born from a seasonal restaurant the Shapiros operate in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Although they no longer have a restaurant there, the Shapiros have ties to PEI, the source of their mussels. Tey use about a ton and a half of mussels weekly between the two locations. Te Shapiro family has always been in the restaurant business and wanted to focus on ���lling a niche by highlighting mussels. ���We���ve taken this protein and turned it into chicken by preparing it so many di���erent ways,��� says Alexandra Shapiro. Tere has never been a supply issue related to mussels. If there were a shortage of PEI mussels, Shapiro says they would look to Maine or some other fresh supplier, but wouldn���t consider frozen product. Among Flex Mussels��� customers, Shapiro says there are the die-hard mussel fans who are thrilled to ���nd their restaurant; those who liked them, but have now become fanatics; and others who are just discovering them for the ���rst time. ���We like to consider ourselves the mussel experts,��� Fiona de Koning, business manager at Acadia Aqua Farms in Bar Harbor, Maine, anticipates more volume from the operation she works on with her husband Teo, and son, Alex. Te de Konings are now sixth-generation mussel farmers with the addition of Alex to the business. Te family���s mussel heritage goes back to the Netherlands where the family has operations as well. Te business began as a partnership with Great Eastern Mussel Farms in Maine, but when that company went out of business, the de Koning���s took over the leases for bottom-culture farming of blue mussels, says de Koning. Acadia Aqua Farms was founded in 2010 and currently produces about 600,000 pounds yearly. Tat���s only about a third of what could be produced, she says, but the company ���We don���t feel threatened by competition. Rather, you just concentrate on what you do best.��� ��� Fiona de Koning, business manager, Acadia Aqua Farms doesn���t want to grow unless the sales and marketing support is in place. Bottom-cultured mussels produce a di���erent ���avor pro���le, says de Koning, as the seabed o���ers a more diverse set of minerals. Te resulting mussel is bolder in Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com