Plano restaurant Fishmonger’s — beloved for its shrimp tortilla soup, gumbo, seafood with Ponchartrain sauce and bourbon bread pudding — is closing Nov. 27, 2022.
Co-owner Jim Elrod says the restaurant has been busy “like Mardi Gras” within the final week, as regulars started to listen to the restaurant would shut a couple of days after Thanksgiving.
Fishmonger’s would have turned 41 years previous on Dec. 7, 2022, however co-owners Pattie and Jim Elrod don’t wish to wait that lengthy to retire. But additionally: “Every part has modified” concerning the restaurant trade because the coronavirus pandemic hit and inflation drove costs up, Jim Elrod says.
“This financial system is loopy,” he says. “It’s actually troublesome to make any cash, with labor issues and supply issues and meals prices.”
He provides one instance: “Proper now, we will’t get iceberg lettuce. Each week, it’s a distinct factor.”
Their wrestle is gloomy information for Fishmonger’s loyal clients, some who’ve been visiting the restaurant since 1981. Fishmonger’s has been at three addresses in Plano, all close to East Park Boulevard and Central Expressway. For a couple of years, Fishmonger’s additionally had a restaurant on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue.
When Fishmonger’s began serving Cajun-inflected seafood within the early ‘80s, Elrod, then age 29, says the Dallas suburbs weren’t populated with many seafood eating places aside from Crimson Lobster.
Their gumbo, obtainable with rooster Andouille or seafood, is Pattie Elrod’s grandmother’s recipe. Sadie was Sicilian, and she or he got here to america on the port in New Orleans. The Elrods took her gumbo recipe and made it their very own, and a few think about it to be the perfect gumbo in Dallas-Fort Price. In a dive into Dallas Morning Information archives, a whopping 5 writers referred to as consideration to it in evaluations over time.
Clients who’ve lived in D-FW for many years would possibly bear in mind Fishmonger’s all-you-can-eat oysters within the ‘80s and a part of the ‘90s. That’s lengthy gone: “Now, it might be $100 to try this,” Elrod says.
He additionally thinks again to the adjustments of their well-liked Ponchartrain dish. “It was initially purple fish, when that was dust low cost. Now it’s unattainable to get,” he says. They modified the dish to tilapia.
Right now, he doesn’t anticipate to have the ability to promote it in any respect as a result of the restaurant is out of provides.
However Elrod isn’t able to get sentimental about Fishmonger’s simply but.
“I don’t suppose we ever imagined it might final 41 years. Again once we began all this, it was only a job, one thing to do,” he says.
Because the restaurant winds down, the Elrods ask for endurance. The restaurant will probably be closed on Thanksgiving Day however is predicted to open all different days till dinnertime on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 — so long as there’s nonetheless meals to serve. They’re already working out.
We’ll go away you with a candy change between former Information critic Dotty Griffith and a reader in 1987.
Q&A: Expensive Dotty: I not too long ago had lunch at Fishmonger’s in Plano. The Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce was completely the perfect. I ponder if they might share their recipe with me? — G.D., Garland.
Fishmonger’s shared the recipe in 1987 and we’ll share it right here once more throughout its final week in enterprise. Perhaps it is best to make it this vacation season.
Fishmonger’s Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce
1 lengthy loaf French bread
3 1/2 cups milk
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
4 eggs, calmly overwhelmed
Whiskey Sauce (recipe follows)
Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 F. Tear bread into bite-size chunks to make about 4 to five cups. Place bread in massive mixing bowl and add milk. Put aside and permit bread to soak up milk.
When milk has been absorbed, add sugar, vanilla, raisins, pineapple and eggs. Stir gently till completely included. Pour bread pudding combination right into a well-buttered 9×12-inch baking dish and bake about 45 to 55 minutes, till golden brown on high and crusty across the edges.
Serve heat with Whiskey Sauce ladled over particular person servings.
Makes 6 to eight servings.
Whiskey sauce: In small saucepan, mix 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter and 1 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and the juice of 1/4 lemon. Stir over low warmth till butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Take away from warmth and stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and a pair of tablespoons bourbon whiskey. Serve heat.
Fishmonger’s Seafood is at 2301 N. Central Expressway (close to East Park Boulevard), Plano. It’s anticipated to shut Nov. 27, 2022, or sooner, in the event that they run out of meals.
