"We go through about 60-70,000 pounds of the stuff every year," he says, "Aside from shrimp, grouper is our No. He's in charge of buying fish for Pincher's and is quick to proclaim that the juicy slabs fish served at the Shack are indeed grouper. "If a customer says to me, 'I can get it cheaper somewhere else,' I know they're not getting grouper." At most fish houses a grouper sandwich with two sides costs between $8 and $11. Phelan says the best way to spot a fake is the price. I've had them all served to me as grouper," he says. The thin fillets have a white hue and, once cooked, they have a mellow flavor, which Phelan says makes for a great grouper imposter. "Last week I ordered a sandwich, right here I on the beach, and this is what I got," he says, looking down at the bin filled with Victoria perch, a.k.a. "This is where we keep our pre-portioned fish," he says, reaching for a bin on a rack of metal shelves. We go to the walk-in refrigerator behind the kitchen. "Here, let me show you," he says, getting off his stool. I fish it and I eat it, but most people have no idea and they get taken advantage of," he says, sitting in the dining room of the Fort Myers Beach fish restaurant. He's not ashamed to say he's a large man who loves to eat grouper, but the restaurateur says more often than not when he orders a grouper sandwich he gets anything but. Phelan, 56, owns Pincher's Crab Shack on highway 41 and has other restaurants in Bonita Springs and Fort Myers. 1 question: Is the fish fresh?" says Tony Phelan. "Grouper" most likely derives from the Portuguese word "garupa." Groupers are often large food and game fishes of the genera Epinephelus mycteroperca, which tend to live in warm seas, according to and online dictionary. "People talk about grouper so much they end up getting a craving for it." Restaurants are driven by demand, and people want grouper, he says. "You don't have to like fish to like grouper." "Grouper has a real lack a flavor, and that's what make it an everyman's fish," he goes on. "And there are fish that taste more fishy, but that's not what most people want.
"Sure there are other fish," he says, listing off tilapia and cod. "Florida waters are filled with these things, so over the years they've been an easy catch," he says. Most Florida restaurants serve grouper, he says, because it has become an expected course. What's so great about this fish? Aren't there other fish that taste better? Should diners have more choice?ĭon Rodgers, manager of the Smokehouse on Fort Myers Beach, says it's because the fish has a reputation. Grouper is served at nearly every area restaurant. We set out with some basic questions, and an encyclopedic curiosity. When did Southwest Florida go all gooey over grouper?
But why? What's so special about these cousins of bass, these denizens of deep water and shallow sea grass? Grouper has become an inescapable fish on Florida's menus.
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