It's been just over a month since we opened at Sea Rocket, so it's a good time to recap what's been going on for those of you who only subscribe to the newsletter.

What the heck do we think we're doing?

Our goal at Sea Rocket is to be part of a large community of people who enjoy local seafood. People like local seafood for different reasons, some of them being its freshness, fishing practices (sustainable and regulated), lower environmental impact (in terms of refrigeration and transportation), and support of local fishermen. We like it for all these reasons and love figuring out the puzzle that makes serving it in a restaurant possible.

What's been going on during the first month of operation?

Our biggest challenge has been learning about how to operate a restaurant! A restaurant is a very complicated operation. For that operation to be sustainable, it has to minimize waste in every way (wasted time, food, physical space, etc.). The operation also has to be set up to work as efficiently as possible in order to provide the level of service and food quality that is consistent with what we do at Sea Rocket. I think most of our initial kinks have been worked through now.

Where do you get your fish?

Our supply of fish from San Diego is getting better. We have consistent sources for sardines, sea urchin, clams, mussels, and oysters (Carlsbad Aqua Farm). We've found occasional (generally weekly) sources of San Diego fish, mainly white sea bass and rock cod. We need to find more sources for greater variety and regularity.

What's on the menu?

Our menu was in a state of flux during the first few weeks as we learned about our food sources and experimented with different menu items. We've now established a small, stable menu of dishes that we think are amazing, including things like the best mashed potatoes in the world! This has nothing to do with local seafood (except that we serve them with the market fish), but damn they're good!

"Local food" and "seafood" must mean it's expensive like those other places I've heard about...

Our goal is to be part of a large community of people who enjoy local seafood. That means we have to keep our prices down, otherwise we just become another fancy restaurant. But we aren't serving fish and chips made with farmed and frozen tilapia, so our prices do reflect our costs. We have several entrees in the low teens and our fish entrees are in the mid-teens (mostly 16 dollars). Skip the appetizer and go straight for the white sea bass and a beer and you'll be out the door for $26 including tax and tip for high quality local seafood (even less for a veggie dish or appetizer snack). And since it's generally slow earlier in the evening, we've added a happy hour from 5:30 to 7pm every night.

When's the party???

Funny you should ask... We'll be hosting a series of Grand Opening events starting on Friday, July 25 where you'll be able to meet both some of the fishermen whom we buy from, and the local brewers. Every Friday for 8 weeks, we'll feature a different brewery and offer a special on one of their beers on draft, as well as a special on a specially selected menu item that pairs well with it. Check out our blog in the coming weeks for more details or just plan on stopping by soon to get more info! We'll post a tentative schedule of featured breweries very soon...

--Dennis & Elena