Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 2.18.15

16 FEBRUARY 18, 2015
FOOD
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Fresh Fare for Seafood-Loving Landlubbers
For over 30 years, Flathead Fish and Seafood Co. has served the region with high-quality ocean fare
Alaskan Bairdi snow crab at Flathead Fish and Seafood Co.
company. It goes back to the roots of a mom-and-pop shop. It’s consistent and you can trust his judgment be- cause he knows a lot about seafood.”
For Valentine’s Day, Tupelo fea- tured a grouper special, and prior to delivery Adams proudly displayed the filets, pointing to the crystalline meat, gleaming pearls of flesh and silver- smooth skin.
“We flew this in from Mexico. See that nice clear meat? It should be shiny and pretty like that,” he re- marked. “You don’t want it to be dull.”
Adams and his lone employee, Max Pugh, make their deliveries in a refrigerated truck, storing the sea- food in a large refrigerator adjacent to Adams’ home, located off of Farm-to- Market Road in Whitefish. The facility is equipped with a filet station, a scale and the walk-in cooler.
It’s not much to look at, but it does the trick, particularly because Ad- ams doesn’t let his purchases linger at company headquarters, instead deliv- ering the orders as quickly as possible.
“People would be blown away if they knew how much seafood was coming out of this place, but I’ve been doing it a long time and I’ve got my system down,” he said.
On the rare occasion that Adams picks up a shipment that’s not up to snuff, he tells the restaurant he won’t deliver it, that it’s not the prime qual- ity they deserve.
“We’re like a line of defense. We monitor the quality and we deliver what our customers want,” he said. “If it comes here and it’s no good, it doesn’t go anywhere. If it’s not up to our standards, we let them know so there are no surprises. Because res- taurants don’t like surprises.”
“The quality of the product we de- liver is the best I can get, and our ser- vice, well, we can be there every day,” he added. “We’re committed to quali- ty and service.”
BY TRISTAN SCOTT
In landlocked Montana, where menus are better known for meat-and-potatoes offerings
than maritime meals, it’s a bit baffling when visitors see local restaurants peddling striped sea bass, scallops, fresh oysters, and sashimi-grade sushi.
Even more disconcerting is when the seafood stands out for its singular quality and freshness, particularly to discerning diners whose palates can detect a freezer-burned filet from an over-the-hill halibut, a melt-in-your- mouth scallop from spoiled scrod, or- ganic king salmon from farm-raised fish.
But in the Flathead Valley, one man has been plumbing the depths and mining seafood merchants– from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico – to deliver the freshest seafood he can to the region.
Rick Adams bought Flathead Fish and Seafood Co. in 1987, running the business alone until five years ago, when he hired an employee to meet the demands of a sprawling swath of Mon- tana that is increasingly in need of sea- food so fresh that it “slept in the ocean last night.”
In the week leading up to Valen- tine’s Day, Adams procured pounds of glistening grouper from the Gulf, co- lossal, ruby-red snow crab legs and hal- ibut from Alaska, oysters from Penn Cove, Washington, scallops and more, personally delivering the water-dwell-
ing wares to a host of local restaurants be found haunting Glacier Interna-
and grocers, as well as to far-flung es- tablishments in Missoula, Bozeman and Billings.
Since taking over the small busi- ness, Adams has watched the region transform into a nerve-stem of fine dining, with a local, farm-to-table phi- losophy figuring prominently into the chefs’ collective repertoire.
The movement has been a boon to Adams, who sets himself apart from behemoths like Pacific Seafood and Sisko by working with small suppliers to ensure quality and freshness at a reasonable price.
“I have relationships with some of these guys going back almost 30 years. We don’t just order something and see if we can sell it. We order what we want because we know it’s the best quality,” he said.
In the Flathead Valley, Adams’ customers include Wasabi Sushi Bar, Tupelo Grille, Seven, McGarry’s, Pes- cado Blanco, Latitude 48, Three Forks Grille, Whitefish Lake Golf Course, the Boat Club, El Rancho, and more, as well as merchants like Withey’s Foods, Third Street Market and Markus Foods.
“There’s a ton of killer stuff hap- pening in the valley, and the restau- rants know that I’m flying in fresh fish every week,” Adams said. “We cater to the places that want clean, good-quali- ty stuff. And they know they’re going to get it from me.”
On many weeknights, Adams can
tional Airport, waiting for his freight before delivering it directly to restau- rants and markets, or storing it at his company’s humble headquarters be- cause the airport doesn’t have refrig- eration facilities.
Cece Andersson, head chef at Tupe- lo Grille in Whitefish, says she orders all of her seafood from the Flathead Fish and Seafood Co., and the quality never disappoints.
“Rick will pick up an order at the airport at 4 in the afternoon, bring it straight to the restaurant and it will be on the menu at 6,” Andersson said. “It’s a great service, it’s just an awesome
Rick Adams sorts Grouper at Flathead Fish and Seafood Co.