Oceanaire or pickled herring, who knew?

Door is locked when I arrive at Oceanaire, 40 Court Street, Boston a few minutes before 6 pm. I go to the entrance to the office building thinking there's an interior entrance. Nope. I get directed to the locked door. Luckily a couple comes up and tries the door. It's locked. Older gentleman comes out and opens it. No "Sorry, don't know how that happened." No "Welcome to Oceannaire." So I'm thinking this could turn out not so good but I was wrong. Everyone else who worked here was personable, knowledgable, everything you'd hope for from the service industry.

Here's how it got better. After a discussion with the bartender, Joe, I decided on a Bombay martini with olives. That's a picture of a fish on the glass not some new

-fangled addition to the traditional cocktail. He started shaking before I remembered to tell him stirred. I mentioned this as he placed the drink before me on a long stainless steel topped bar with a seafood cook station at the end. I have to agree with him though that I do like the little ice shards on the top on the drink. Drink was $11.50; I think my friend's vodka one was slightly less.

While I'm waiting for me friend, I learn that Joe, who's worked there for about a year, just closed on a condo today. So if you stop in, and I highly recommend that you do, congratulate him.

We check back with the hostess station and arrange for our drinks to be brought to the table.

Water is poured immediately, bread served. Amuse bouche arrives - a large tortilla chip with a mix of seafood. And the lovely plate pictured below. Some veggies and a dish of something really wonderful. It's fish. It's a little tangy. What is it? We ask for more and get it. It's pickled herring. My friend and I agree that we would not have tasted it if we knew what is was before hand. Yech, right?

There is a decent selection for all three courses (3 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 3 desserts). We both get clam chowder. It is not that heavy, overly starchy kind but a smooth light cream. You can taste the clam broth and there is a decent amount of clams and potatoes in the chowder.

My friend gets the trout which comes with a medley of green beans and maybe dried cranberries. The taste she offers me is delicious. The fish is not as mushy as I have found catfish to be. I choose the yellowtail flounder stuffed with crab, shrimp and brie. The fish is wonderful. What I am not so crazy about is the pool of butter that it's in. It had a slightly off taste but didn't appear to effect the taste of the fish (more like the butter sauce was placed on the dish and then the fish put on top as opposed to the fish being cooked in the butter sauce). No vegetables on my dish but both come with nice mashed potatoes. I'm guessing had either cream cheese or sour cream and chives mixed in.

Key lime pie and NY cheesecake were both delicious. The key lime pie was a little loose but that didn't effect the flavor.

We're still yammering away about the pickled herring when the female, I'm guessing, manager comes over to inquire how everything was. We inquire about the PH, she spots the chef and says she'll see if he can come over. Dan Enos, the Executive Chef and Operating Partner, stops by, gives us his PH distributor's name and talks with us for about 10 minutes about all kinds of things. He later sends over a pint container of PH for each of us.

In our bill we get a postcard advertising "The Down Turns Up" promotion. They'll be offering bottles of red and white wine for $20.10 and on Sunday - Thursday from 5-7, they'll be offering 3-curses for $20.10. How sweet is that?

Martini from Sagra

This Hendricks Gin Martini with cucumber martini was procured at Sagra in Davis Square Somerville. This place has been through a couple of incarnations in recent years; current one has been open for a year or so. Slight confusion upon arrival when we told the hostess we were just going to sit in the bar. No two seats together so we get a table. Waitress comes over and, when she discovered that we had no menus, went off to get them. She came back and told us the table was reserved. Tables in bar (up a few steps from the dining room) are part of the dining room. Back to the hostess who points out the one table in the bar that is not reserved and say it's fine. Just then two people get up to leave the bar (almost always my preferred place to sit because you can chat up the bartender) and we say we'll sit there.

Bartender provides all kind of menus - drinks, wine, bar menu, regular menu. Guess what? Asking for unblended rye works! They have none and have a limited menu of bourbons so I get the martini. My friend gets a glass of wine and some croquettes (makes me want to make chicken croquettes). These were meatless, fried (but not greasy) triangles of a cheese/breadcrumb mix. Not bad but not anything to rave about either. I think total bill was around $24.

Bargain hunters, there's a special flight of martinis and a flight of wine - 3 four ounce drinks each for $10. Martinis are made from vodka and are their choice but the bartender said he could do something with gin too.

Black Pepper Martini

I've been wanting to try this recipe from chowhound.com for a while. I first saw it before all the comments were made and, to be honest, had I read those first, I probably wouldn't have made it. I don't like sweet drinks but I liked this enough to make another one tonight (what else am I supposed o do with all the sweet syrup?). It's not as sweet and it has a little more bit.

Here's the recipe

http://www.chow.com/recipes/13430