Years ago when they were just starting in the restaurant world, David MacLennan and Brad Phillips worked for Dean James Max at 3030 Ocean. The restaurant in the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa was, from its inception, part of a new trend in Fort Lauderdale – an increasingly upscale restaurant scene’s move towards fresh, seasonal seafood restaurants with creative menus that complimented the popular old-fashioned seafood houses and beach bars the city had been more known for.
Eventually, all three parted ways. Max got out of 3030 Ocean; DJM Restaurants has projects around the country. And the pair of young chefs headed out to different parts of the U.S. MacLennan spent the better part of a decade working in Long Beach, CA. But the two friends talked about at some point returning to South Florida with a place of their own.
So when Max, who left the South Florida market entirely after 3030 Ocean, had a chance to partner with his two former employees on a new South Florida seafood place, there wasn’t much question.
The result is Even Keel Fish and Oyster, a spacious North Federal Highway restaurant with a printed-daily paper menu that gives a clue as to the restaurateurs’ commitment to the fresh and the seasonal.
“Seasonality is a huge part of it,” MacLennan says. “It allows us to offer the best produce at a good price.”
Printing the menu every day? Yeah, it’s a pain. But that’s part of doing the kind of business where you see what your fish supplier has in every day. “When you’ve got a laminated menu that’s set in stone,” MacLennan says, “you can’t adjust.”
So with the caveat that the menu does change, some favorites you might find include charred octopus with chorizo aioli, sweet soy-glazed grilled pompano and a perennial bestseller, lobster mac and cheese. You could find an “adult grilled cheese” featuring brie, truffle, blue crab and blueberry chutney. The raw bar does what raw bars do, and the wood oven portion of the menu typically offers several seafood-themed pizzas, including a white clam number with lemon zest ricotta. They even make their own fish dip, which for MacLennan is a no-brainer.
“Every restaurant I go to that has fish dip, I order it,” he says. “Ours is done so simply and so uniquely, in my opinion.”
Several other restaurants recently failed in the building, but for the Even Keel team, that’s less a problem and more a practical bonus – when they opened early this year, they got to move into a practically brand-new, ready-to-go restaurant.
“We were happy to take over the place,” MacLennan says, adding that it’s a huge advantage in the restaurant business when you don’t have to spend lots of time transforming or updating a building before you open. “It was definitely a lot bigger than we’d been talking about; it just kind of happened naturally.”
In the roughly half a year the place has been open, he’s been pleased by the progress they’ve made.
“The amount of regulars that are coming back several times a week is awesome,” he says. “We know that we’re still scratching the surface of the potential on that.”
The Dish: Sweet Soy-Glazed Grilled Pompano with Crispy Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 4 sides pompano filet
- 4 pieces pork belly
- 2 oz sweet soy soy glaze
- 1 pint spicy crab broth
- 4 oz charred sweet corn
- 6 t roasted shiitake mushrooms
- 2 oz tomato confit
- 2 heads baby bok choy, blanched, each cut in half
For the pork belly
- 3 lb. piece of pork belly (score the skin side with a knife)
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbs. juniper berries
- 1 tbs. black pepper
- 2 bay leaves (crunched)
For the sweet soy glaze
- 1 tbs sesame oil
- 2 tbs ginger (minced)
- 2 tbs ketjap manis (Indonesian soy, optional)
For the spicy crab broth
- 1 gal crab stock
- 2 t sambal
- 1 2-inch piece kombu, rinsed
- 1 stalk lemongrass, minced
- 1 knob ginger, minced
- ¼ c light soy sauce
For the crab stock
- 2 dozen crab bodies
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 1 cup ea onion, celery, carrot, fennel (chopped)
- ½ cup leek (chopped)
- 1 ea garlic bulb (halved), bay leaf
- 1 bunch thyme
- 4 stars anise
- 1 tbs fennel seeds
- 1 cup tomato (chopped)
- 4 tbs tomato paste
- ½ bottle dry white wine
- 1 gal chicken stock
- 4 cups water
Method
Lightly brush each pompano filet with the sweet soy glaze. Warm the pork belly in 500-degree oven for about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat grill to high heat. Char hard on the skin side first without turning, 3 minutes each side. Warm the broth in medium sauce pot and add the corn, shiitake, and tomatoes in the broth. In a sauté pan with a little water and butter, warm the baby bok choy. To plate, divide the bok choy among four coupe plates, pour the warm broth over. Shingle a piece of pork belly over the bok choy. Place one pompano filet on top of each plate and garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve immediately.
For the pork belly
Rub the belly with the spices and cure it covered overnight in the refrigerator. Remove the belly the next day and rinse it off with fresh water. Place the belly in a baking dish with some water to come up a third of the way. Make sure the belly is placed skin side up. Cover the dish and bake the belly at 325 degrees for 4 hours or until tender. Remove the cover and bake it at 350 until the skin is crispy. Refrigerate overnight and cut into the shapes desired for serving. To reheat, roast in the oven at 500 degrees until crispy.
For the sweet soy glaze
Warm the sesame, ginger, and manis in a small pot over a low heat for 10 minutes. Whisk the mixture occasionally to create a smooth glaze. Press the glaze through a fine strainer and keep refrigerated until needed.
For the spicy crab broth
In a medium sauce pot, lightly sauté the lemongrass and ginger in olive oil. When aromatic, add the crab stock and bring to a simmer. Add in the sambal and soy sauce. Adjust if you desire additional heat, but the sambal will bloom later so be careful not to add too much. Add the kombu and allow to simmer for only a couple minutes, then remove the kombu to prevent the broth from getting bitter. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and reserve.
For the crab stock
Heat a large stock pot over a medium high flame. Crush and chop the crab shells into small pieces with a butcher’s cleaver. Keep any juice that comes from the shells. Put the olive oil in the hot stock pot. Stir in the shells and sauté them for 4 minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrot, fennel, leek, and garlic and cook for 4 more minutes. Deglaze with the white wine, bay leaf, thyme, star anise, fennel seeds, tomatoes, and tomato paste. Reduce the wine until it is dry. Cover the shells with the water and chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Down the stock and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn the stock off and let it cool at room temperature. When the stock has completely cooled, strain the juice through a fine strainer while pressing the solids for every bit of its nectar. Store the stock in small batches in the freezer until needed.
