14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
FISHMONGERS
At FishMongers in Hammond, the barrel-
chested fish sandwich is where it’s at
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
t’s rather fitting that just hours
before I discovered FishMon-
gers I stood wide-eyed in dis-
belief at the absurd line assembled
in front of Bowpicker in Astoria.
As Ed, a co-owner of the near-
ly three-month-old FishMongers
would tell me, that lurching line
for fish and chips at Bowpicker
was the inspiration for FishMon-
gers. Ed said he’d grown sick of
working at the mill, adding: “I
saw the lines at Bowpicker and
said, ‘I want in on that.’”
So Ed and co-owner Ross got a
storefront in Hammond and built
a take-out counter that, with its
dark stained wood, resembles an
English pub (though, sadly, there
is no beer).
While not quite as limited
as Bowpicker’s tuna-fish-and-
chips-only menu, FishMongers’,
too, is quite concise. They sell
fish and chips, fish sandwiches,
fish tacos and a shrimp cocktail.
All, save for the shrimp cock-
tail, are beer-battered and deep
fried, boxed and served to-go.
And that’s it. Do one thing — or
rather, a few things — and get it
right.
With the fish and chips and the
sandwich, choose tuna or cod. The
tuna is denser, with more body,
grain and flavor. The cod is light-
er, flakier, more neutral. All come
in heaping, blue-collar portions at
reasonable prices. No one is going
to feel shortchanged.
For my money, the Fish
Sandwich ($11) is where it’s at.
The barrel-chested sandwich is
damn-near worth the price of ad-
mission alone, the accompanying
fries and a cup of dijon-smacked
coleslaw the cherry on top. The
crispy, beer-battered hunk of fish
I
Rating:
890 Pacific Drive
Hammond, Ore., 97121
503-861-8778
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
Monday through Sunday
Price: $ – Big portions for
around $10
Service: To-go and upbeat
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
Pescatarians only
Drinks: Bottled water, soda
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Worth returning
Very good
Excellent, best in region
Tuna fish and chips
Cod fish sandwich
is covered with a layer of melted
cheese, slathered with a thick
coat of drippy, creamy, smooth,
dill-heavy tartar sauce, and topped
with few briny pickles whose
inclusion is critical — the acid
makes it. The sandwich lands with
a satisfying thud — the fish steaks
are, at minimum, an inch thick,
often thicker. It’s somehow both
hulking and indulgent without
knocking you out. I also appreci-
ated the careful construction, as if
they were intended to be eaten by
the maker himself.
The Fish and Chips ($11 for
cod, $13 for tuna) were familiar.
But, really, as long as you nail the
crust (they do), and the fish (from
Ocean Beauty) is acceptable (it
is), what else are we really talking
about? The answer is portion, and
FishMongers piles it on: four big
pieces of fish and more fries than
you could possibly need.
It wouldn’t hurt, though, if
there were more exciting, signa-
ture dipping sauces. FishMongers’
coleslaw, though, has character
— dijon-forward, a bit of spice,
milky and not too sweet.
The Shrimp Cocktail ($8),
however, is ripe for rethinking.
Besides the fact that it’s filled
with bay shrimp rather than big
meaty prawns, the delivery vehi-
cle — a domed plastic cup made
for milkshakes — is flawed. As a
customer sitting next to me fum-
bled with it, trying to get the tiny
shrimp out of the tiny opening
she dropped some on the ground,
huffing in exasperation, “I can’t
figure out how to eat this thing!”
Even if she could, the colorful
layers of red cocktail sauce, pink
bay shrimp and green celery were
hardly enticing.
But the trio of Fish Tacos ($9)
were spot on, with slaw and gold-
en tubes of beer-battered rock-
fish cradled by lightly browned
flour tortillas. While bread-y and
no more distinct than the cod, I
appreciated the appearance of
rockfish — an abundant local
catch — on the menu.
And that’s pretty much the
long and short of it — the whole
FishMongers menu in a nutshell.
Which is exactly what first-time
restaurateurs should be doing: fo-
cusing on a few things and getting
them right.
And with Fishmongers’ prox-
imity to Fort Stevens State Park,
they may indeed cash in on their
dreams of harnessing that fish-and-
chips-seeking tourist market. But,
year-round, FishMongers’ value
may be just as important to locals.
As one customer, already a regular,
told Ed, grinning ear-to-ear with
to-go box in hand, “I hope y’all are
here for years to come.” CW