Joe Patti's Fish Market

 

photo by Stephanie Sikorski, a Joe Patti customer and photographer. Photo copied from Joe Patti's website, http://joepattis.com/, without permission.

I'd heard that the fish market of choice in Pensacola is downtown, a destination sort of place. Joe Patti's Fish Market and two streets over, the Joe Patti's seafood restaurant. So, late Thursday afternoon, after quaffing a couple of beers at the downtown Pensacola Brewery, we went searching for Joe Patti's Fish Market. A huge building, the size of a supermarket but taller, beside a canal off the Gulf, with shrimp trawlers tied up at the pier. I had not planned to buy fish, but we went inside to see. Oh. My. Gosh. It took a few moments for me to catch my breath. The place is HUGE, and LOTS of employees with smiles on their faces scooping up great quantities of all kinds of seafood for customers pointing and directing. An older man sat behind the very long counter, microphone in hand, constantly calling numbers and names, directing the staff in their jobs. I collected myself, and slowly walked the length of the counter, looking at all the offerings. Each item was labeled with name, price, place of origin and any other info I might want. There was every kind of fish I've ever heard of for sale, much of it local. The board behind the counter gave six or eight ways to ask for my fish to be dressed. The shrimp options made my head spin! Tuna of various colors and prices, big football sized chunks. In the back room, through the wide doorway, I could see a fish the size of a big man being tossed on the cutting table, men in white rubber boots and white rubber aprons contemplating the task on the table. Past the shrimp section, the squid and octopus, then oysters, crabs, lobsters and other shell fish. Crab meat picked out, and labeled from either Alabama or Florida: Alabama crab meat is steamed; Florida crab meat is boiled. Or is it the other way? Great stacks of everything, and great crowds of very serious shoppers, some with large coolers to fill. I walked back to the beginning of the counter, and slowly looked at the entire line again. Wow. I vaguely realized I must buy fish today, and that I needed a number for the man to call. A woman shouted out my number to the man with the microphone when I pulled number 26, and a few seconds later, the man with the microphone called, "Number 26! Darlin', is that you? Susan, get this woman some fish!". So, I bought a little piece of Amber Jack filet, and a little piece of trigger fish (file fish). When Stuart and I were scuba diving, sometimes we'd spear a trigger fish, which is a white fish, not too strong flavored. Think I'll make ceviche from part of this, I have some lemons in the fridge...

I'll come back every week, prepared the next time! By the way: they ship.