Miami, Fla. – For more than 20 years the Sanchez family harvested the fishing bounty of South Florida’s waters, selling their catch to markets, chefs and restaurants locally and abroad.
Now the independent fishermen are making their first foray onto Miami’s culinary scene by opening Casablanca Seafood Bar & Grill, a riverside seafood restaurant that serves boat-to-plate dishes directly to diners. Most guests will recognize the Casablanca name from the previous fish market that the Sanchez family owned on Watson Island.
Brothers Lazaro and Jorge Sanchez, and their wives Maribel Sanchez and Tania Sanchez, exclusively supply their new eatery and next-door fish market, Casablanca Fish Market, with fresh seafood harvested by their family fishing business.
The catch featured on the seafood restaurant’s fish-dominated menu and sold at the neighboring retail store is fished from local waters each day at dawn, delivered to the restaurant’s back door by noon and cleaned on site. A testament to freshness, the fish is iced and never frozen.
“Casablanca is paying homage to the old traditions and lifestyle independent fishers once enjoyed, when the fish came right out of local waters and directly onto a person’s plate,” said Lazaro Sanchez. “The fishing industry has changed. Seafood is a global commodity now, and most seafood served in restaurants is fished commercially in other regions of the U.S. and abroad. We are one of the few restaurants serving locally-fished seafood. “
The Sanchez family has selected a variety of Latin and island spices and ingredients to accentuate the flavor of the locally-fished delicacies.
House specialties include the Whole-Fried 1¼ lb Yellowtail and Whole-Fried 2½ lb
Florida Snapper, and the Sopon Marinero, a traditional Fisherman’s style seafood soup made of shrimp, scallops, fresh fish, calamari and lobster simmered in a tomato and saffron broth.
Casablanca’s Signature Stuffed Lobster, split Florida Lobster stuffed with crab, shrimp and scallops, broiled with garlic butter and served with yellow rice and vegetables, is also considered a specialty dish. Daily specials of the day are dictated by what fisherman catch in the morning and are served grilled, blackened, pan-seared or fried.
A raw bar features Oysters on the Half Shell, Traditional Shrimp Cocktail and a Chilled Seafood Sampler, a tasting of crab claws, jumbo shrimp, black mussels and oysters. Fresh Florida Stone Crab Claws are also available when in season. A citrus-marinated Grouper Ceviche served with cilantro, jalapeño and toasted corn, and Mixed Ceviche, a blend of citrus-marinated grouper, shrimp, octopus and calamari served with cilantro, Peruvian aji amarillo and sweet potatoes, round out the raw bar offerings.
Top seafood sellers include the Queen Conch Fritters served with homemade horseradish cocktail sauce and the Paella Casablanca, a traditional Caribbean casserole of shrimp, scallops, mussels, chicken, fish, Spanish sausage, peas and yellow rice.
Although seafood is the focus of the menu, Casablanca Seafood Bar & Grill offers several landlover items such as the Chicken Breast A La Plancha, thin chicken breast cooked on the griddle, served with onions, lime; Island Ribs, a full rack of fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs glazed with sweet and smokey guava barbecue sauce; and Churrasco Skirt Steak, 12-ounce aged USDA choice skirt steak served with sweet potato fries and chimichurri. The restaurant also offers catering packages.
Casablanca Seafood Bar & Grill’s specialty beverage menu features 12 exotic cocktails, but the crowd favorite is The Happy Fisherman, a white rum, cherry brandy and pineapple juice concoction. The wine list offers 45 by the bottle and 26 by the glass, five of which are house wines.
Guests can dine at Casablanca Seafood & Grill’s 160-seat location outfitted with nautical, Key West-style décor, on the outdoor patio that offers an idyllic view of the Miami River, or on their own boats which may be docked at the restaurant’s private wharf.
Casablanca Seafood Bar & Grill occupies the former Joe’s site, a seafood restaurant that operated for more than 40 years. Joe’s was a former client of the third-generation fishermen Lazaro and Jorge Sanchez which established their fishing business and fish market after fleeing Cuba in the early 1980s.
Casablanca Seafood Bar & Grill is located at 400 NW North River Drive, Miami, Fla. The phone number is (305) 371-4107. Restaurant operating hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The fish market is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit www.casablancaseafood.com.
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