It’s a bright early morning at Ponce Inlet on Florida’s east coast. Lines of small boats sit docked as fishmongers display the day’s catch—harvested by spearfishers, rod-and-reel anglers, and longline fishermen trained to return bycatch to the sea quickly to protect fish stocks for future generations.
Such is the work of Simple Seafood, which supplies fresh, sustainably harvested, handpicked fish to restaurants like Sophia’s Trattoria at Conrad Orlando at Evermore. The restaurant serves coastal-inspired Southern Italian fare, and for chef Stephen Ullrich, the partnership is essential to a seafood-forward menu.
“Having a direct source has a lot of advantages. We get fish we wouldn’t normally receive from a freshness standpoint, which is a value-add we pass on to our guests. We also get to highlight the many offerings of Florida fishing grounds,” Ullrich says. “By not using nets, utilizing line-caught fish ensures we’re all doing our part to be able to enjoy seafood 15 years from now. At the rate we’re going, everything is going to be predominantly farmed, which is a shame.”
Because the menu depends on what fishermen catch, Ullrich and his team must remain flexible. Flipping from snapper to grouper is simply the cost of doing business, he says. However, one native fish is consistently available yet often unfamiliar to guests: wahoo.
At Sophia’s Trattoria, wahoo is grilled and served over spaghetti alla puttanesca with spicy tomato, capers, and olives, alongside squid ink potato purée. Firm yet flaky, the fish grills like a steak.
“This is a native Floridian fish that guests rarely see at the supermarket or on menus, but it’s delicious,” Ullrich says. “It exemplifies opening the lens for a client. It sheds light on a local fish that doesn’t quite have a spot in the market yet, only because people don’t know and aren’t asking for it.”
Guest behavior is also driving the rise in sustainable seafood. More than ever, diners value wellness and transparency about where food comes from. Fish, Ullrich says, is not heavily manipulated; it’s served light and flavor-forward. The fish speaks for itself.
“These conversations around the processing of ingredients wouldn’t have happened five years ago. It just wasn’t in the vernacular. But as chefs, we’ve been very cognizant and made pivots to align with what people really want on their plate,” Ullrich adds. “I think we’ll continue to see snapshots and captions on menus that delineate whether something is farmed or wild-caught because guests make decisions now based on that.”
In the heart of New Orleans, seafood has always been interwoven into the city’s culture—it’s on nearly every street corner. But Phil Cenac, co-chef of Hungry Eyes alongside Mason Hereford, says guests are increasingly intentional about the source of the seafood in their diets. They want to know: Where did it come from? Is it wild-caught? Was it sourced in the United States? Today, nearly 30 percent of diners say these claims are key motivators.
“Everyone seems to be waking up and paying more attention,” Cenac says. “There are major events occurring all around us, and they’re putting more thoughtfulness into things like global warming. I think everything is political, especially food … and guests are more intentional about what they decide to support.”
Alaskan seafood, with its wild origin and American harvest, is outpacing the overall seafood category, posting 5.4 percent year-over-year growth. It is often frozen within hours of harvest using cryogenic blast technology to lock in flavor and nutritional value. At Hungry Eyes, Cenac and his team use this method for Alaskan halibut.
“We’re using the whole halibut, breaking down one fish a week and portioning it into blocks, ensuring we’re using the whole fish and reducing waste,” Cenac says. “From a sustainability aspect, it’s great. But it also helps us with labor pressure because it’s so quick and consistent.”
One of Cenac’s favorite dishes is halibut crudo, combining raw, cubed fish with pineapple, cinnamon, nam prik broth, and crispy quinoa. The dish balances crunchy, salty, sweet, and acidic notes, pulling inspiration from both Vietnamese and Mexican flavors.
It reflects what he expects guests to order more of in the future—as temperatures rise, raw fish prepared in acidic applications is gaining traction over heavier fare. Still, he says, the story behind the dish matters most.
“The storytelling aspect of how the fish was caught and where it comes from is one of the things that will help us move a specific menu item more so than if it’s just written out on a page,” Cenac says. “Every time we have a pre-meal, we’re educating our servers on all of these talking points. The story goes such a long way with today’s diner.”
