Delaware Shore Report: Fins Fish House & Raw Bar

Today's post takes us all the way back to mid-October when my wife and I made our third annual autumn pilgrimage to the Delaware shore. This year's trip falling hot on the heels of our adventures in NorCal, we cut things back from a full week to a long weekend. And this year, for the first time, the weather gods did not smile upon us. In three days, the torrential rain let up only once for all of about ninety minutes, just long enough to get the boys out for a quick jaunt on what was left of the storm-battered beach.

Now that we've had our first snow here in the Mid-Atlantic – just enough to coat the landscape with a thin layer of crunchy white icing – it's about time I get to today's topic before it gets any further out of season. Then again, now that we've entered the heart of oyster season, perhaps this is actually prime time to be trotting out a quick write-up of Fins Fish House & Raw Bar.

We had little in the way of expectations walking into Fins. The name hinted at potential cheesiness. But Fins had been recommended by friends and we were both in the mood for a change from our usual Dogfish Head fallback, so we decided to give it a whirl. Happily, our lunch at Fins was not only surprisingly good but turned out to be the gustatory highlight of our rain-soaked trip.

The shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of locals slurping down pints and bivalves at the nautically themed ground floor bar was certainly a good sign, even if it did take a few minutes for a staff member to direct us to the more spacious upper floor bar and dining room.


Upstairs, the decor shifts from the nautical blue of the ground floor bar and dining rooms to an amalgam of British pub and American tschotschke.


Coniston Bluebird Bitter: one of my favorite session beers and one of the best values on Fins' impressive beer list.
A quick scan of Fins' wine list continued to build upon our feeling that we'd come to the right place. Though populated mostly by the typical beach town commercial offerings, it's one of the few lists I've yet to come across at the DE shore that actually included a couple of wines I'd like to drink — Albert Mann Pinot Blanc and Vouvray from Domaine des Aubuisières — as opposed to bottles I could only settle on and suffer through. The real decider, though, was the beer list. Sure, there's the ubiquitous Coors Light and Yuengling happy hour special and the de rigueur offerings of Corona and Amstel Light but, beyond that, someone at Fins clearly knows and loves their brews. Their constantly rotating draft selection is anchored by a well chosen if slightly hop-skewed bottle list, which eschews the local powerhouse (Dogfish Head is practically right across the street, after all) in favor of bottlings from some of America's top craft brewers, all backed up by a pretty solid selection of British and Belgian imports.



What about the food, you ask? As with the beer program, I was pleased to find that it far outperformed my usual expectations of shore town pub grub. My wife's seafood chowder starter was supremely satisfying, just the thing to melt away the rainy day chill in the bones and a dish I'd love to try to replicate by the cauldron-full at home. Opting for oysters, I was initially put off by the minimum order of three of any one type, as a single serving of each of the six varieties on the day's board would have been just right. The two types that I settled on, though, were in prime shape, well shucked and went down easy with a pint of Rogue's Dead Guy Ale.

I continued the oyster theme, selecting a po'boy as my main course. With the oysters fried to a crispy, crunchy exterior yet still perfectly tender and juicy inside, the sandwich paled to its New Orleans cousin only via a near second place in the condiment department. The wife scored again, with a perfectly cooked and seasoned Mahi Mahi fish sandwich. Now, when that fish sandwich hankering calls, I need only drive the two hours south to Rehoboth rather than make the trip all the way to The Fish House in Key Largo.

Rain or shine, between Fins and Dogfish Head, I've definitely found my favorite block of Rehoboth Beach.

FINS Fish House & Raw Bar
243 Rehoboth Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
(302) 226-3467

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Highs and Lows at the Delaware Shore

The early post-season is a great time to visit the shore here in the Mid-Atlantic. The crowds are modest yet most businesses – at least those in the town centers – are still open. The water’s still warm enough for a swim, even if the weather can be unpredictable. Besides, the occasional drab day makes for extra time to sample the goods at some of the local watering holes and dining establishments.

The tides in Rehoboth Beach:


High: Really scrumptious breakfast and lunch at Green Man Juice Bar & Bistro (12 Wilmington Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971, (302) 227-4909). The sausage and grits “soufflé” and crème brulée French toast were both particularly tasty. Our pups rather liked the pet-friendly front porch.

High and Low: A really crummy picture of a really great bottle of grower Champagne, which we enjoyed immensely with dinner at Nage (separate write-up coming soon).

Low: Go Fish looks like a tourist trap; a notion supported by its location just a few doors up from the boardwalk. Nonetheless, the beacon of fish and chips summoned. On our previous trip, lunch at Go Fish (24 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971, (302) 226-1044) proved they could do it right. This time, the fish was again deliciously golden, crisp and moist. But the mushy peas were bland. And the chips were a disaster. Cold, greasy, limp, even pasty. Inexcusable in a place where the entire menu is based on deep frying. If you go, go at lunch when the same food sells for lower prices and the fries may stand a better chance of being fresh.

On the Bay Shore in Lewes:

Low: We’d enjoyed a simple lunch at Café Azafran on our previous trip so we planned a dinner this go 'round without hesitation. Thursday paella night, when the chef cooks a huge batch of paella based on the number of reservations, sounded too fun to miss. It wasn’t. The whole kit and caboodle, from rice to shellfish, was overcooked. Chorizo and chicken, advertised as prime ingredients, were barely in evidence. A letdown in any scenario, a serious bummer at $30 a head.

High: Hanging out on the porch at Half Full, a charming little wine, beer and pizza bar located in the quaintest heart of exceedingly quaint Lewes. I’ve heard reasonably good things about their pizzas and the beer list looked decent but we just stopped by for a late afternoon glass of wine and a little relaxation on the front stoop, which I can only imagine is a bustling spot in peak season. That’s one of the owners in the picture, chatting with a fellow we dubbed the Mayor of Lewes. Definitely a good spot to strike up conversation if you’re feeling so inclined.

Low: The wine list at Half Full. There was nothing of immediate interest so, after eyeballing every bottle on offer, I settled on an Argentinean Malbec and a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. They’re both things I rarely drink but both were estate bottled so I figured what the heck. The Malbec was drinkable but that’s all; the Cab was downright awful.

I don’t mean to pick on Half Full specifically, as this wine scenario was repeated at every single place we visited in both Lewes and Rehoboth. The seasonal aspects of the area’s business seems to have led to lists populated by nothing but commercial brands, some of them acceptable in a pinch but far too many of them plonk. For the sales reps and distributors out there willing to make the drive for four or five months of business each year, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

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In order of appearance:

Green Man Juice Bar & Bistro
12 Wilmington Avenue
Dewey Beach, DE 19971
(302) 227-4909


Go Fish
24 Rehoboth Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
(302) 226-1044


Half Full
113 W Market Street
Lewes, DE 19958
(302) 645-8877


Cafe Azafran
109 W Market Street
Lewes, DE 19958
(302) 644-4446

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A Burger and a Beer: Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats

Even though I live closer to the Jersey shore than to Delaware’s beaches, over the last few years I’ve taken a keener liking to the first state’s shore points. Maybe it’s a throwback to childhood summer vacations, when my folks packed up the family car and took us to varying beaches on the DelMar peninsula for a week. Or maybe it’s the fact that dogs are welcome on some of Delaware’s beaches starting not long after the season finale of Labor Day. In any event, when it comes to Delaware's fairly short stretch of shoreline, there’s little doubt that Rehoboth Beach is the area’s economic epicenter as well as its focal point when it comes to options for good grub.

Since opening in 1995, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats has been one of the anchors of Rehoboth’s casual dining scene. Maybe “dining” is not the right word, as DFHB&E is first and foremost a brewpub. The food is hearty, straightforward and honest, served in more than ample quantities in an environment that more or less matches the tone of the food. Given the relatively low bar set by the food at all too many brewpubs, I almost always choose a burger when eating at any brewpub for the first time, figuring that if they can’t get it right with a burger (and a beer, of course) then there’s little reason to explore further.

Even though I’d visited Dogfish’s brewpub a couple of times in the past, I could hardly pass up starting over as if from a blank slate. Their headliner, the “Indulgence Burger,” a hefty patty of locally bred beef topped with an onion ring, cheddar and bacon sounded hard to beat. Though there are other burger options available at Dogfish Head, I figured “why bother?” A choice well made, as it turned out. The “Indulgence” is not without room for improvement – the Kaiser roll was a touch meager for the scale of the sandwich and full strips of bacon would have delivered greater depth of flavor than the dried bacon crumbles. Those are minor quibbles, however, as the sandwich was more than satisfying – beefy without being greasy and cooked to a dead-on medium rare, just as ordered. It’s the onion ring, though, that really provides the burger’s signature. Sliced thick (it’s as large as the burger itself) and fried in beer batter made with Dogfish Head’s Shelter Pale Ale, the ring adds a sweet, earthy richness to the meatiness of the burger, pushing the whole combo right over the top.

What to drink with an over-the-top burger? How about an over-the-top beer? Dogfish Head has made a name for themselves producing some of the biggest, boldest and hoppiest beers on the craft brewing market. Their 90-Minute IPA – intensely hopped, rich with malty goodness and exhaling aromas of apricot and caramelized grapefruit – may just be the finest all-around beer in the Dogfish Head lineup. Tipping the scales at 9% ABV, it’s hardly a session beer but it’s well balanced and made a very fine match to the burger.

They got it right – the rudiments, that is – enough so that I was compelled to return again later in the week to explore the beers on tap menu a little further. But that’s another story for another day. This is just about a burger and a beer.

Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats
320 Rehoboth Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
(302) 226-2739

Exterior photo of restaurant courtesy of Dogfish.com

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Related reading:

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Beer. Wine. Food. What More Could Next Monday Offer?

If I had the ability to be in two places at once, this coming Monday would present a no-brainer of an excuse to exercise the power. Trappist beers in Philly and Piemontese wines in Wilmington – two of my favorite things, one in the town I call home and one in the town where I work. Since I can’t be in both places at once, work will most likely win out. But you have a choice….

The last time I attended a beer tasting at Philly's own Chick’s Café & Wine Bar, importer Dan Shelton was pouring French farmhouse ales. The evening was a blast. And I was introduced to some new brews that have since entered regular rotation, like Gavroche and Thiriez Extra. Mr. Shelton will be back at Chick’s on Monday, May 19th. The proceedings kick off at 6:30 PM. This time around, he’ll be expounding on the history of monastic brewing in Belgium and pouring examples from every single one of the country’s true trappist breweries, including Westmalle, Chimay and Orval. Between Dan and the crack staff at Chick’s, I’m sure there will be some other goodies in store. In spite of Shelton’s predilection for beer, there may even be a taste of wine thrown into the mix. Sound like your speed? Check out the details.

At the same time, not much more than 25 miles to the south, Wilmington’s own Toscana Kitchen + Bar will be hosting a Piemontese wine dinner featuring the Monforte d’Alba wines of Elio Grasso. Gianluca Grasso, son of Elio and co-winemaker at the family estate, will be in the house greeting the guests, expounding upon the vinous wonders of Piedmont and pouring some of his own wines along with those from a friend or two. The full write-up of my visit with the Grasso family in February of 2006 has yet to see the light of day. To whet your fancy though, please do check out my old post on the virtues of Elio and Gianluca’s Baroli from the difficult 2003 vintage. (That’s the beautiful Grasso estate and their Rüncot vineyard in my profile picture, by the way.) The event, also on Monday, May 19, begins at 6:00 PM. Check out the menu. Or just dive right in and make a reservation.

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Wine Dinner: Vini e Brasati at Toscana Kitchen + Bar

This Wednesday, March 7, 2007, I'll be hosting a dinner at Wilmington, Delaware's Toscana Kitchen + Bar. The event, Vini e Brasati, will focus on one of my favorite seasonal cooking techniques -- braising -- and a selection of wines from northern Italy, with a focus on Piedmont. Proprietor Dan Butler and his team of chefs at Toscana always kick the creativity up a notch for these events. And they keep the pricing very reasonable: $75 per person, all inclusive. For five courses, matched wines and tip, that's a sweet deal. The reception starts at 6:00 PM, followed by seating for dinner at 6:30. For a full description of the menu or to make a reservation, check out http://www.toscanakitchen.com/.

As always, I've chosen the wines with an eye to regional affinity, a progression of style and intensity, and an instinct for flavor, texture and structure in the context of each wine's marriage with each dish. The focus of the event is not didactic. Presentations will be succinct and lively with discussions tailored to the spirit of the audience. Please do join me, and enjoy.

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