Fishing Around with Our Sustainable Partners
When we get the chance to discover and experience the teams and stories behind the ingredients we use, we’re all in. We don lab coats. We put on hairnets. We walk across acres of wheat fields. And we happily trek to a fish processing plant.
This week, our Co-Owner, Dan Simons, VP of Marketing & Communications, Meaghan O’Shea, and in-house photographer, Ken Fletcher, spent an informative day with the folks at our seafood supplier, Congressional Seafood. We got to witness firsthand their commitment to traceable, sustainably wild-caught, or sustainably farmed seafood.
The Congressional team, including President & Owner, Stanley Pearlman, Executive Vice President, Tim Sughrue, and Vice President & Director of Operations, Jonathan Pearlman, were a wealth of knowledge and fascinated us with one fish in particular: the Chesapeake Wild Blue Cat.
Introduced into nearby rivers as a recreational fish in the 1970s, Chesapeake Wild Blue Cats are now known as the Chesapeake Bay’s biggest threat and are the most invasive species living in the bay. Since they feast on the Chesapeake’s supply of rockfish, blue crabs, clams, oysters, shrimp, and more, the Chesapeake Wild Blue Cat is growing in numbers while diminishing our other, once abundant, seafood varieties.
For Farmers Restaurant Group, everything matters, that is why we’re always working to do more good and less harm for our land and waterways. We’ve teamed up with Congressional to work to help #EatTheEnemy and to, as Tim Sughrue said recently, “create a market for this fish, which happens to taste fantastic.”
Our guests couldn’t agree more. Our Chesapeake Wild Blue Cat entrées have become a big fan favorite for us. What makes this white, flaky, mild fish taste so good? First, they are wild, not farm raised, which many of our guests have never experienced. And, as the top predator in the bay, eating those blue crab and rockfish and more, they are uniquely delicious.
Come on into our restaurants currently serving Chesapeake Wild Blue Cat, Farmers Fishers Bakers DC and Founding Farmers, and taste for yourself. Not only will you be eating well, but you will also be doing your part to save the bay.