Now Open – Fin: Your Fishmonger

I’ve been following this one pretty closely.

Fin: Your Fishmonger finally opened its doors in Guilderland yesterday (12/23).

Because there was something specific that I wanted on their weekly mailing (which conveniently details what the fresh catches are), I placed an order on Friday for pick up at the grand opening. When I called and spoke to one of the proprietors, Dora, since I’m close by, she invited me in before the opening to see the space and to chat about what they have going on. It was a fun conversation, and seeing it all come together for Dora and Pete was a very happy moment for me coming from a family with a small business.

I went on Sunday with the mission to pick up my order, and to snap a few photos of what they currently have going on.

Having Fin right in between home and work is awesome because, as you can see above, their offerings are absolutely beautiful. Not only does it all look great, but they are dedicated to providing seafood from sustainable sources.

There’s another special thing about Fin’s shop.

They’re bringing together other local resources. Through their involvement in the community, they’ve forged relationships with other small businesses that you probably would recognize if you frequent the local farmers markets. By making available goods that are available in a less limited capacity (let’s face it: farmers markets are great, but it kind of sucks that they’re only once a week), Fin’s shop can be a perfect stop for that one great meal.

Here are some pictures with some of the goods they had at the time of grand opening.

With the things you find in the shop, you could put together a fun little meal, but another focus of the shop will be to provide some dishes prepared for convenience. One thing Dora tells me they’ll be making are fish en papillote, little parchment envelops that contain fish and seasonings and just need a short time in the oven to provide a perfectly cooked and sauced steamed fish. They also will have other things that are easy to prepare like shrimp cakes and similar items.

Prices are not cheap. The products at Fin are not the overfarmed and flavorless things you’ll find in a supermarket or megamart. You might spend a little more than you’re used to for fish, but, not only can you rest assured that your fish was raised sustainably, you also get to interact with a great family who want to spend the time to get to know you and what you like. Building these types of relationships is very valuable.

Onto my order…

When I called Dora to place the order, she joked about the irony of me (someone who grew up hating fish) placing an order for fish in advance. I’ve never tried cooking arctic char or rock shrimp, so I ordered about 3/4lb of each.

The timing of all of this is impeccable, as today is Christmas eve, and seafood is a given for every Italian-American family on the Christmas eve dinner table.

So, for tomorrow (Christmas), I’ll have a short post with the simple ways in which I prepared my rock shrimp and arctic char for my Christmas eve dinner (which actually happened the day before Christmas Eve.)