Adventures with Seafood and Citrus

While running a summer seafood promotion, it was only natural that the 11-unit Not Your Average Joe’s casual-dining restaurants based in Dartmouth, MA would add the flavors of fresh citrus to the seafood menu creations.

As the restaurant group considered summer promotions, “our executive chef suggested a summer seafood celebration to reflect our New England roots,” says marketing representative Scott Bernstein. Not Your Average Joe’s partnered with The New England Seafood Producers Association for its “Joe Goes Coastal” seafood celebration June 1-30. “Sunkist was a natural to add to the partnership, as citrus is the perfect compliment to seafood,” noted Bernstein.

For the successful month-long promotion, Chris Bodington, vice president of culinary and executive chef, developed a jicama cabbage citrus slaw, which the restaurants served with two dishes – a lightly breaded and fried New Bedford scallop roll and its seafood combo of lightly battered and fried haddock, shrimp and scallops.

To make the slaw, he combined julienned jicama, napa cabbage and red bell pepper with cilantro, red onion, fresh orange segments, fresh lime juice and a touch of honey. He mixed the ingredients with his own citrus vinaigrette made with orange reduction, garlic, ginger and rice wine vinegar.

The Asian flavor matches the restaurants’ international accents, Bernstein says. “We take international foods and fare and serve it to casual-dining crowds, while watching restaurant trends and culture movements which influence our preparations.”

Bodington also developed citrus ponzu sauce, which he tossed together with a mixture of

lo mein noodles, julienned zucchini, yellow squash and red peppers served with sesame crusted ahi tuna.

For his version of ponzu sauce, Bodington combines soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, oyster sauce, garlic, sesame oil, mirin (sweet sake) and a little sugar.

Customer feedback was great. In fact, the specials menu “was flying out the door,” Bernstein says.

There was plenty of opportunity for consumers to hear about the promotion as it received newspaper and radio coverage – especially for its connection to the local fishing industry, he adds.

Once inside the restaurant, guests couldn’t miss the seafood and citrus tie-in on the “Joe Goes Coastal” easel poster at the front of the house mentioning the sponsorships. Even the drink menu featured a Sunkist Cosmopolitan – which combined vodka with Cointreau and fresh-squeezed orange and lime juice. For dessert, guests could order homemade lemon poppy seed cake layered with pistachio and mousse and served with raspberry sauce.

The promotion was the largest the chain has done, and the citrus and seafood tie-in was easy, Bodington says. “It played well with the healthy direction our company is taking… trying to infuse lighter sauces, not cream-based, on the healthier side.”