Wheelhouse Fish Co. will open in Urban Eats in Dutchtown in February

Wheelhouse Fish Co. is bringing its wild-caught Alaskan seafood to the Urban Eats food hall at 3301 Meramec St. in Dutchtown in February. The seafood specialist will serve a selection of ready-to-eat fish and shellfish dishes, in addition to raw seafood for cooking at home.

Until now, Wheelhouse Fish Co. has sold its products at farmers markets for customers to cook at home, as first reported by St. Louis Magazine. However, the Urban Eats space will allow Wheelhouse Fish Co. owner Shalie Dahl Moore to expand to serving seafood dishes and snacks either for takeout or for consumption in the dining area at Urban Eats.

Dahl Moore said she can vouch for the freshness of Wheelhouse’s products – she spends around five months of the year catching seafood in the waters off the Alaskan coast. Dahl Moore grew up around fishing communities in southeast Alaska and learned to fish with her father and other family members and friends. “Most of the fish that we’re selling is caught by myself, my husband and our family on our fishing boat,” Dahl Moore said. Those items include frozen-at-sea spot prawns, sockeye salmon, coho salmon and halibut.

A number of items are also sourced from other fishermen but, as Dahl Moore said, every supplier is somebody she trusts implicitly. “Every single piece of fish that I have sold thus far and plan to sell in the future is coming from someone that I actually know,” she said. “It’s extremely traceable down to the boat, which I think is important.”

Dahl Moore, who moved to St. Louis for her husband to enroll at a local college, said the move to Urban Eats is an important part of her vision for Wheelhouse, which she describes as a “seafood marketing company.” “I like to explain it as a product and experience,” she said. “The experience I’m trying to provide is everything from serving a meal with those items, eventually maybe a cooking class or a wine pairing event, or the social media showing behind the scenes content of what it’s like when we’re out fishing. Just giving people an experience beyond just buying a piece of salmon.”

 

The menu will be divided into three sections: bites, bowls and plates. Wheelhouse’s signature salmon bowl features pan-seared teriyaki-marinated salmon served on a bed of rice and accompanied by cabbage slaw, avocado, cucumber, toasted panko, green onions and a sriracha aioli. A rock fish taco bowl will be accompanied by rice, a roasted tomatillo salsa, a cilantro-lime crema, radish, avocado and cabbage slaw. The “bites” selection will include shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon dip, and a tinned fish board. Dahl Moore said the “plates” section of the menu will offer fish and chips, salmon skewers, salmon burgers, a white fish sandwich and more. “We’ll probably start with a pared-down menu, just a few of those offerings, and then expand as we grow,” she said.

Dahl Moore developed the recipe for the teriyaki salmon bowl during a fishing expedition on her family’s boat. “I’m the cook on our fishing boat – I have been since I was 13 or 14 years old,” she said. “It was a cool way to utilize the salmon that we were catching and it ended up being a huge hit.”

At first, Wheelhouse Fish Co. will open for lunch and dinner on Friday through Sunday, and Dahl Moore said that she may add extra days from there as circumstances allow. She said a mid-February launch is the most realistic target right now, although if all the details fall into place she has the option to open sooner.

If you’d like a preview of what Wheelhouse Fish Co. has in store for its space at Urban Eats, Dahl Moore will be serving a few menu items at U City Farmers Market on Saturday, Jan. 27.