Nothing fancy about good quality food at this take-out
Take-out restaurants are doing very well along the Jersey Shore. It’s convenient and less costly, allowing a family or a group to eat at their rental or vacation home, rent a few movies and spend a quiet evening together to break up an itinerary of restaurants, Boardwalks and beaches.
Some of the restaurant owners say a reason they’re hearing from the clients is the higher cost of renting a shore house, and that the renters are looking for ways to cut back on the cost of their vacation. It’s also a matter of convenience.
As we wrote about last week, Pastabilities in Sea Isle has found a niche, serving full-course Italian meals to go for people who want a home-style meal among family and friends.
By now everyone knows of Wing-It in the Villas, where during a holiday weekend visit a man from Atco was telling owner Larry Fazen that he should open a franchise (everyone tells Larry and his wife Leigh Ann they should franchise—everyone!) in the Camden County town of Waterford so he doesn’t have to drive so far to get their succulent wings and tenders platters. The take-out-only establishment has become a mainstay on Bayshore Road, attracting people to an area that might only be utilized by locals.
But also gaining steam in the burgeoning to-go business is Fish ‘N’ Fancy, a take-out seafood restaurant that has been in business for 11 years but has only recently caught on. Also on Bayshore Road, this little establishment is big on quality, customer service and cleanliness. It’s interesting how people pick up on restaurant owners who are doing things differently than their peers. Word spreads, traffic increases and suddenly an average business that was doing OK is a hit with locals and the surrounding communities.
Such is the case at Fish ‘N’ Fancy, where 2001 was the best season ever for co-owners Bill Damiano and Lisa Swecker, but it won’t even come close to what they are doing in 2002.
“We’ve been doing much better the past four years. It took me a while to get the knack for the business side of things and to learn about where to get the highest quality ingredients, and now things are paying off for us. Last year was my best year ever and this year we’ve so far surpassed what we were doing last year. It’s incredible,” Damiano said. “I mean I just can’t believe how things are taking off. This past week was my best week ever in business. We have just continued to grow. What’s amazed me is that people are driving from Cape May Court House, Cape May, the Wildwoods, Stone Harbor……I wonder how people even find us. Lisa and I used to have this running joke about being the best-kept secret around. Well, maybe that’s not true anymore.”
Damiano is a Lower Cape May Regional High School teacher and former wrestling coach. His wife, Kelli, is a teacher at Middle Township High School and a field hockey coach, which is where Swecker comes in. She is a Dennisville resident who graduated from Middle where she played field hockey for Kelli Damiano. Now she’s Bill’s business partner and the godmother to one of the three Damiano children.
“I’m very lucky to be in business with Lisa. She’s very smart and a hard worker,” Damiano said. “She has good business sense, and we both have a mutual love for the food business. And I’ve been very lucky to have great people working for us. We have very good help. Everyone who comes in will find we have very courteous help.”
Damiano was in the commercial fishing industry before taking over the management of the property owned by former Lower Cape May Regional School District President Dave Robinson, who owns Robinson’s Produce next to Fish ‘N’ Fancy.
Damiano said several things go into the rising popularity of Fish ‘N’ Fancy, including how employees must adhere to strict food-handling guidelines.
“We put cleanliness and careful food handling at the top of the list of priorities. You’re not going to see people handling food and then handling money. And we do all the cooking out in the open for everyone to see. We have nothing to hide. It’s all done right in front of the customer.
Everything that is sold at Fish ‘N’ Fancy is homemade except for the fishcakes, which contain codfish, so they come from New England, and Robinson’s salads, which come from the produce market next door.
“Everyone knows you can’t find a better cole slaw or potato salad around than Robinson’s, so we’re happy to make that part of our menu,” he said. “We prepare everything ourselves here on the premises. We do all the breading and stuffing right here. We use freshly browned breadcrumbs instead of stale breadcrumb, and we use cracker meal instead of flour as a coating because it’s crispier. Flour gives you more of a doughy coating, and crispy is what people appreciate.”
Perhaps the best aspect of the take-out is the freedom given to the customer to create their own platter or combination. They have 15 different prepared items, and several side dishes from which to create a personalized platter.
“They can literally walk along the glass case and say ‘Give me two stuffed shrimp, one scallop, one grouper fillet, a crab imperial and two oysters.’ People really appreciate that about us. No one else around does anything like that, not with 15 items to choose from,” Damiano said. “And the other things is, we’ll cook it for you here (broil, fry or grill), or you can take it home. If you want, we’ll give you instructions on how to cook what you buy. It’s whatever you want to do, that’s the beauty of it. If it’s not on the menu, we’ll try it another way for you. We have pan blackened tuna, swordfish, salmon, whatever you want.”
Some restaurant owners talk about the 10 year itch, of wanting to move on to something else after a decade of doing the same thing day in and day out, but for Damiano and Swecker, their best days at the restaurant are ahead of them.
“We are very excited about the business. We want to keep it going. We have a bond with our customers where they look forward to us being here. It’s almost like we have a responsibility to our part-time and our full-time residents to be there for them. That’s how seriously we look at this, we feel we have to be here for them,” Damiano said.
“We could have closed the doors and walked away anytime, but it’s hard to do when you enjoy your work and you have that bond with your customers. If you don’t care about the public, you don’t care about the product. We care about both.”
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed at
seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can
comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
FISH ‘N’ FANCY
2406 Bayshore Road
Villas
886-8760
www.fishandfancy.com
ON THE MENU
Hours: Monday and Tuesday, 3 to 7 p.m.; Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday,
noon to 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Chef’s Favorites: Best-sellers include the Baltimore-style crab cakes ($3.95), extra large fried shrimp (plain, $14.95/lb., or stuffed with lump crabmeat, $3.75), fried flounder (market), crab imperial, and the Seafood Combo Pasta (extra large shrimp and scallops, sautéed in a white wine garlic sauce, served over linguini, $8.95). Soups include white and red clam chowder, cream of crab, and snapper. Top-three-selling side dishes are the fried tomatoes, fried eggplant and sweet corn fritters.
Credit Cards: Visa/MasterCard, debit and credit.
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog