"Airie In the City": Fisk by Ebbe Vollmer + Winter-y Vintage LOTD

 

I think this is a perfect post for the first post in Tampa in 2025. In 2024 I was at the opening night of EBBE and tonight we are now at Fisk. This post is probably more food heavy and less fashion, but I'll do my best here.

It's about 52 degrees and today was the release of the Louis Vuitton x Murakami vintage remix collection. The Louis Vuitton website has been crashed since 11:50pm yesterday. I had a more "fashion forward" look planned, but I was not able to get to LV this morning and as I heard from my SA tonight, the line was 2 hours with an appointment this morning and the little inventory they got from Paris sold out quickly due to pre-orders. So, while I planned to wear this cute little black vintage sweater dress with some black multi-colored Murakami, I could not buy any.

But I did buy white; but I didn't have time to add them to this look and frankly, I wasn't feeling it for a dressy look as well. Anyhow, but this is one of my favorite dresses and tonight I just went with an ankle bootie to keep my feet warm.

Dress: Vintage

Coat: Vintage

Heels: Alexander Wang, booties in Kendall, not recent

Lipstick: MAC: Chili

So, tonight we are dining at Fisk, a newly opened concept by Chef Ebbe Vollmer of the one Michelin starred EBBE.

You can find that post here.

This new restaurant was described as a Fish Steakhouse akin to the home cooked food Chef Ebbe Vollmer grew up eating. This was a response to the question of what does he eat normally at home, so you have this more laid back, casual, home styled atmosphere and service.

What I can tell you is you need a reservation and you may still have to wait (we did).

They serve wine and beer.

Fisk is in the same shared building as EBBE separated by a partition and is bar seating or Chef's Table only, they have the same kitchen and staff for both restaurants. 

During dinner which was well paced Chef Ebbe did make a short appearance on our side. The other restaurant, EBBE is definitely a more intimate experience which in my experience involved him more on that side vrs. Fisk. In comparison, I would recommend both restaurants for different reasons, it depends on what you are looking for.

Crab salad with pink grapefruit 

I would be a bit crazy to say one restaurant is more expensive and one is less expensive, they are both expensive. 

For the average person right now, I do believe both are expensive. So, it comes down to how much are you willing and wanting to spend? At Fisk it is possible to dine in for two and have a dinner on the moderate to high end ( under 200.00 for two people), I can see this restaurant getting a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide in May- if not a first star like the afformentioned EBBE.

 They have a fixed menu at Fisk as well for 85$ which has four courses. I was interested in that, but two of the four courses contained gluten so I chose to dine a la carte (which was actually cheaper for me).

Tuna Tartare 

Very much like EBBE, Fisk was able to accommodate my gluten allergy AKA Celiac Disease. In fact, everything we ordered was gluten-free. 

So, what did we like? Well, we can start with what we had:

Crab salad with grapefruit.

Tuna tartare 

Fisk soup

Turbot

We liked everything. I would highly recommend the...

Tuna tartare and the Fisk soup and also my husband recommends the crab and grapefruit salad. There were many fish options as you can see from the photo and a steak option on the menu. 

I need to return to give you my recommendation on the mains because I have a lot to say for our main, which was sharable. 

I have no doubt the NY Strip is fantastic as well as other offerings from my knowledge of dining at the other restaurant.

The crab salad was very creamy, we never

found out what type of crab was in it, but

the pink grapefruit paired well with it and it

was very Floridian.

The tuna tartare had the salt and acid that I

love so much and I also love tuna. This one was my favorite out of the crab salad and tuna tartare.

The Fisk soup is made with a fish broth, but

it is not fishy,  it is actually creamy and

herbacious and has two or three different

types of fish in it I think (I know I got Salmon and Cod). It was rather enjoyable

and we got the cup which was more than

enough.

Turbot

-which is priced the highest I believe 65$ and sharable and it comes with a small amount potatoes and spinach.

I'm just going to say... I am very familiar with Turbot (and local fish as well because I grew up eating fish that was fished in Tampa my entire life), it's a European fish, but you can fish it in New York waters. I bought Turbot many times in the last 10 years from Whole Foods and it was always about 12.00$ for a huge fileted fish and it usually was enough for three to four people. 

So, I thought this price point was a bit much at this restaurant because you can get it here locally from Whole Foods and Fish Markets. HOWEVER, it was enough fish for three people. You can decide how that matters to you. To me, it was a fair price point given that it's probably more expensive now due to inflation and it came with sides. If you count all of that plus the expertise in cooking all has to do with the price. 

The fish comes bone in which isn't clear also. So, I had to remove the bones and they were large and sharp and a lot (and there were many small bones also). 

Now, I tried to explain to our waitress that the wording would be better to just say it's "bone in" because not everyone knows how to remove bones from fish or they may not want to. You could also just do it for them tableside (which is the better option).

I liked the Turbot, but it left a lot to be desired for almost 70$ and I had to remove a lot of bones for about 15 minutes while it got cold. I would have just gotten Salmon because that's usually a tasty filet to be 100% honest.

We brought 75% of the Turbot home and are tasked with finishing it in 24 hours. The Turbot came with potatoes and spinach as well as sides.

UPDATE: The food re-heated great! It tasted even better the second day especially the Turbot. 

While I had a lot of opinions on the Turbot, the sear on it was fabulous and the Turbot was tender and flakey. I personally just needed less cream and more salt because the potatoes and spinach also had a cream sauce.

And before anyone gets on me about wanting more salt on my fish, Chef Ebbe is the reason I carry sea salt with me in my purse now and have for a year since I first visited his first Tampa restaurant when I saw how he applied salt to his dishes, he made that much impact on me when he gave me sea salt for my food. 

I have had my own personal salt with me in over 8 countries and I refuse all other salt (except Maldon salt). You will often see me in my videos with my personal salt. It is a choice, but it is not a seasoning.