A Small-Plate Bounty at Saint Julivert Fisherie | The New Yorker

"I visited Saint Julivert Fisherie, a new seafood‑centric spot on the same block as La Vara in Cobble Hill, and found the narrow, former coffee‑shop interior to suggest a chic fishmonger’s stall or a European ferry‑terminal café. The menu, which the restaurant describes as inspired by ports of call near and far, makes excellent use of the small‑plates tradition: I enjoyed oily, pleasingly gummy Cantabrian anchovies laid atop half a disk of vanilla compound butter; raw‑scallop tacos made with fragrant shiso leaves in place of tortillas; and a tangle of warm squid tentacles and Romano beans tossed with cubed potato in salsa verde and pine nuts. There were a few missteps—the jerk seasoning on a kanpachi collar was overly aggressive, and vanilla didn’t work well in a mayonnaise served with a tomato salad—but those felt like small sacrifices given the bounty the format encourages. Even the small‑plates averse can be happy here: I watched a man at the bar order a beer, a bowl of peanuts, and a steak sandwich that riffs on a Portuguese prego roll—tenderloin on squishy ciabatta slathered in garlicky butter and sweet, spicy mustard—made even better with an optional add‑on of crispy fried oysters." - Hannah Goldfield