I barely had scooched in my chair after being seated on El Capitan’s patio when Sara, our server, set down a tray. It held a homey blue tin cup filled with shrimp broth, a matching tin spoon, a thick slice of grilled bread and a lime wedge. The gesture and presentation combined to elicit a wellspring of emotion — gratitude, above all.
We have become accustomed to complimentary (and sometimes endless) baskets of chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants. We nosh mindlessly as we wait for the entree. By the time it comes, we’re already full and our palates dulled.
However, the rouge-hued seafood soup was a revitalizing start to a Mexican meal. On a cool evening, it warmed my insides. The spoon invited me to savor it slowly, rather than grab the handle and gulp. Holding only liquid, this zesty seafood potlikker, of sorts, prepared my palate for the fish and seafood dishes that are El Capitan’s specialty.
At a time when some restaurants have limited menus — due to supply-chain disruptions and staffing shortages — the kitchen crew at El Capitan was making a bonus scratch soup as a welcome gesture for guests.
Open since late May, El Capitan is the latest project from Alfredo Negrete (Mariscos Mazatlan, Tacos 1989). Negrete was born in Austin, Texas, and raised in the seafood mecca of Mazatlan.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
“The menu is traditional Mexican seafood, but I’m trying to modernize it a bit for this market,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August. “Everything we have here is wild caught, and fresh from our purveyors.”
The menu is a fun read for seafood lovers. Eight of the 10 snacks, or botanas, feature fish and seafood — from octopus treated like pork cracklings to shrimp-stuffed empanadas to quesadillas filled with fish stew.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
There’s a sizable selection of ceviche and its cousin dish, aguachile. The muchacho alegre ceviche featured lime juice-cured shrimp with mango, tomato, cucumber, onion and jicama. The generous portion was piled on a serving plate and capped with a fan of avocado slices. Light, bright, crunchy, tasty.
The pina rellena is an attention-grabbing creation of seafood (shrimp, octopus and crab), peppers, mushrooms and pineapple in a creamy, cheesy sauce, all mounded inside the shell of a pineapple, then broiled to a bubbly finish.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
But, the dish that really turned my taste buds was the filete del capi, grilled sea bass smothered by an adobo sauce teeming with shrimp. The fish was flaky, the shrimp plump, the tomato sauce nuanced with guajillo and chiles de arbol, garlic and onion.
I appreciate the focused menu. Aside from a few entrees that feature chicken and steak, El Capitan invites customers to explore creatures of the water every which way. The product is fresh, the flavors vibrant. And, it all starts with that little tin cup of shrimp broth.
El Capitan. Noon-9 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays-Thursdays; noon-10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. Closed Tuesdays through October. 8540 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. 678-620-3977, elcapitanseafoodga.com.
Chinese cuisine the way we remember it
Where El Capitan takes us to Mexico’s Pacific coast, newly opened Big Boss transports us back to a time when mainstream Chinese American fare mostly was limited to crab Rangoon, egg drop soup, General Tso’s chicken and fried rice.
Located near the busy Midtown intersection of 10th and Spring streets, the restaurant is run by Atlanta chef-restaurateur Guy Wong, bringing new life to his mother’s restaurant, Chinese Buddha, which closed during the pandemic.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
The Big Boss here is Wong’s mother, who continues to run the kitchen. Pork-filled, steamed pot stickers; fried egg rolls, hefty with chicken; shrimp fried rice; and an oil-slicked house lo mein, loaded with all the proteins (pork, beef, shrimp, chicken), arrived with lightning speed. They tasted just like I remember them from the 1970s — in the best way.
Big Boss is a time capsule — from the dated calendars on the wall to the fish tank near the entrance to the blown-up portrait of the Wong family posing with Mick Jagger. Yet, the space is outfitted for COVID-19 times, with a sleek, minimalist order counter and a clean self-serve station with tidy packets of soy, mustard and duck sauce, and paper-wrapped chopsticks. White Rabbit rolled candies replace the quintessential fortune cookie as an exit gift.
Intended to be fun, casual, filling, quick and nostalgic, Big Boss accomplishes all of that. It also has single-serving sake and beer, plus a covered patio opening soon. Big Boss is so Atlanta — and so 2021.
Big Boss. 5-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 5-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. 100 10th St., Atlanta. 404-855-5889, bigbosschinese.com.
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