Trend Alert: Seafood's Having a Moment in LA

Seafood feast at the "new" Water Grill

By Lesley Balla

When people think of seafood in LA, it's often something like Providence, The Hungry Cat (both on Top 5 list) or sushi. We do have a few spots that resemble a good East Coast seafood shack, most notably Malibu Seafood, but you have to battle PCH traffic for it. But Los Angeles is seen as a coastal city, and yet being so close to the ocean, we don't really have the same kind of seafood spots that proliferate the East Coast from Maine to the Keys. That seems to be changing.

Chef Michael Cimarusti has Connie & Ted's in the works, a much more casual East Coast-leaning seafood spot than Providence, now under construction where the Silver Spoon diner was in West Hollywood. The owners behind burger-and-beer Stout, which is growing almost as fast as Umami, have dibs on Ole in Studio City with plans to open a seafood gastropub, according to Eater. Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo opened Son of a Gun as a seafood flip of Animal, and The Water Grill went more low-key with a mean plate of fish and chips along with the raw bar, various whole fish preparations and less-haute dishes. We now have oyster po' boys in Silver Lake (L&E Oyster Bar), lobster rolls in Santa Monica (BP Oysterette) and fried Ipswich clams on food trucks (Roll'n Lobster).

So what gives? Why is it suddenly all about seafood? Have we tired of meat already?