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What's for dinner?
It's five minutes past five o'clock, the evening rush hour is grueling, and a supermarket stop is out of the question. What's a cook to do? Shop at Seafoodie, of course, Reston's answer to the best and freshest home-prepared seafood around - and that means just about anywhere in Northern Virginia.Owned and operated - and cooked for - by Kevin Mesiah, this fresh-fish market puts an entirely different spin on seafood shopping. As his motto proclaims, "We make it, you bake it," and that's exactly what happens.
Mesiah has perfected assorted seafood entrées, from fried flounder and barbecue shrimp to crispy-fried shrimp and his prize-winning and very unusual batter-dipped crab cakes, that he partially readies for the home cook. Each dish has specific heating times in a 450-degree oven, and that adds the finishing touch for making entrées table ready.
Although his offerings are limited to only 10 fish-based and one beef entrée, Mesiah also stocks ideal accompaniments, including vegetable sauté, truffled mashed potatoes, and for an over-the-top calorie extravaganza, Mom's Macaroni and Cheese. The macaroni dish, he says, is an adaptation of one his grandmother used to make with quarts of cream. "It's very dense, sinful." That and his vegetable sauté and truffle mashed potatoes are very popular.
Seafoodie |
Made with only crabmeat and no filler, Mesiah's crab cakes more nearly resemble crab "balls" because he forms each round, then coats them with his secret recipe in breadcrumbs before flash-frying them. These are excellent enough to qualify him as an entrant in the second annual "I Love Crab Cakes" competition sponsored by the American Institute of Wine and Food held at the Phillips Flagship Restaurant in Washington in June.
All these seafood successes may sound natural, but consider this: Kevin Mesiah comes to the food world via an office job in the technology industry and stint in a catering business. His main food skills have derived from what his mom taught him and for the rest, he says he is self-taught. Mesiah proves that with enough grit and determination, people can achieve seemingly impossible goals.
But why seafood instead of, say, hot dogs? "I love seafood, and I believe that the general market loves seafood too," he says. "And most people don't know what to do with fish. We take that 'fear of failure' out of the equation."
Although Seafoodie is closed Sundays - with the exception of Mother's Day - Mesiah puts in long hours, starting at 8:30 a.m. and closing at 8:30 p.m. for a total of 65 to 70 hours a week in his kitchen. But his diligence has paid off. His regulars drop in three times a week, and he tells of one elderly gentleman who shops there three to four times a week, alternating between crab cakes and the salmon fillet.
Mesiah has added a lunchtime crab cake sandwich to his cook-at-home-only business, and takes online orders for immediate pickups or for overnight shipping of crab cakes, macaroni and cheese and gumbo anywhere in the United States and Canada. On top of all that, he is considering expanding to a second location. Where? No answer.
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