Seafood towers reemerge as an indulgent option
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The Fire-Roasted Seafood Tower at Maple & Ash and the Smoking Seafood Tower at Ocean Prime
A seafood tower gliding through a busy restaurant can catch a diner’s eye and sell itself. That’s just as true today as it was decades ago. The menu item has a long history, but it also taps into many of diners’ current obsessions.
The seafood tower is an experience, an indulgence, plus it’s got protein and Instagram potential. So, it’s no surprise that restaurants are putting more seafood towers on the menu, and diners are eating them up.
Seafood towers have always been popular at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, said Ian Rough, vice president and executive corporate chef at the Columbus-based restaurant group. He pointed to the “smoking” seafood tower at Ocean Prime, one of their restaurant brands. The striking chilled tower uses dry ice to create the smoke effect.
“It’s a really great way to celebrate, share at the table. It’s interactive. Fresh seafood is always something that people are gravitating to,” he said. “But I do think it has definitely grown as of late.”
At Del Mar, the group’s Mediterranean restaurant brand, they’re serving cold and hot shellfish platters. Rough is seeing the open-fire-roasted shellfish platter, served with bread for dipping in its sauce, pick up in popularity.
At Maple & Ash, which has four locations, including Chicago and Boston, Chef Danny Grant has been serving his souped-up seafood tower for a decade. The decadent tower includes shellfish cooked in a wood-fired oven, drizzled with chili oil, garlic butter, and lemon, and, if you know to ask, a pasta back for soaking up all the juices. Their seafood tower has become a signature item; they even call their happy hour “Tower Hour.”
“Once one goes out, it’s the fajita moment for sure. They’re like, ‘What is that giant thing going around? I want one of those,’” Grant said. “It’s really photogenic.”
Looking for luxuries for less
The continued popularity of seafood towers reflects a few diner trends, Mike Kostyo, VP at Menu Matters, a food industry consulting firm, said.
“Seafood is one of the few categories that consumers rate highly on both health and craveability. Even if a consumer isn’t ordering it for a specific health benefit, like protein or omega-3s, they often feel better about ordering it because it’s lighter,” he said. “That’s particularly true on the appetizer menu, which tends to be filled with a lot of rich, cheesy dishes.”
Then there’s the “little luxury” moment that’s happening right now. “Things are very expensive for them overall, but they still don’t want to give up those little luxuries and moments of enjoyment,” he said. “Indeed, they may be going out to eat less, but those occasions when they do go out to eat are even more important, so they may splurge on some more luxurious options.”
Smaller-sized towers help diners afford those little luxuries, and both Maple & Ash and Cameron Mitchell Restaurants offer seafood towers in various sizes. “That opens up the ordering possibilities to a wider range of diners,” Kostyo said. Del Mar’s shellfish platters come in two sizes: small ($69) and large ($130). Maple & Ash towers start at $140 or $45 during “Tower Hour.”
At Maple & Ash, Grant recently revisited the makeup of his seafood towers with value-conscious diners and their preferences in mind.
“We have to now look at it through a different lens to make sure that we’re delivering value, and still the quality that’s expected and our standard,” he said. “But I don’t want to have a thing on a menu that’s priced up that only the top 5% of diners can afford. That’s not the restaurant I’m trying to create.”
Grant and Rough both say more diners are making a seafood tower their main meal, whether out of price, health or other considerations. And Grant, for one, sees nothing wrong with that.
“The seafood tower is one of my favorite things to eat,” he said. “I could go into a Maple & Ash and have a seafood tower with a pasta back and a bottle of white Burgundy, and be sent off into the evening in a really, really good spot.”
