Dempster Sea Ranch = the suck?

A few years ago, the Sea Ranch opened a branch in Evanston. The selection was varied, the seafood was of good quality, and the prices were reasonable. As someone who eats a lot of fish, I was very excited.

However, as someone who is a miserable pessimist with bitterly uncharitable views toward his fellow humans, I decided it couldn't last. After all, Chicagoans don't eat a lot of fish. Maybe Evanstonians were different (many of them transplanted from more fish-friendly locales), but as I said, I tend to expect the worst. Could it really last?

It could and it did. For the next several years, the Sea Ranch became my regular source for fish. Both selection and quality remained consistently good. I was close to admitting that life may, in fact, have some redeeming facet.

Cut to a few months ago. Not having visited for a while, I came in to find things had changed. The staff was new. The side sushi bar was hopping. And the fresh fish selections had been reduced to THREE (one of them tilapia), with the bulk of the fish case being devoted to displays of plastic toy fish. Thinking I'd caught them at a bad time (maybe all of Evanston had just made a run on black cod), I decided to come back another day. It's been the same scene every single time I've returned -- pallets of tilapia stacked up in defiance of God, some soggy salmon, and one or, if you're lucky, two other kinds of not terribly impressive-looking fish. All dwarfed by that goddamn plastic fish, like some kind of cruel joke.

I should point out that the (small) sashimi-grade pieces still look good. I'm guessing that the place has changed hands and they've chosen to concentrate on the sushi business. Good luck to them and hello to Dirk's....



(Anyone either know the real story or want to tell me I'm nuts and it's as good as ever?)