- November 23, 2024
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Walt’s Fish Market has been filling Sarasota bellies with fresh fish for more than 100 years, and there’s one dish on the menu that never falls out of favor.
Brett Wallin, the fourth-generation owner of Walt’s, says that the Captain’s Platter, a delectable mix of red snapper filet, lobster tail and sea scallops, is hands down his most popular dish.
Most of the time, in fact, he doesn’t see people eating it; he sees debris they’ve left behind.
“When I’m walking around and talking to people,” he says, “The only reason I know they ordered the platter is because only the shell of the lobster is left. Everything else is gone.”
The star of this dish is the super-fresh seafood brought in by Wallin’s purveyors, and all three elements are prepared simply with butter and house seasoning. Wallin says that the lobster tail, the snapper filet and the scallops are all grilled, and they’re accompanied by garlic parsley potatoes and carrots roasted in honey and garlic.
“This is a white tablecloth dinner at a fish house,” he says. “I love all walks of life. I want everybody from the garbage man to the mayor to eat at my restaurant. That's kind of what we have here. You can have a $40 dinner. And then the husband could have a shrimp dish for 13 bucks. We see that all the time.”
Wallin’s great grandfather, Claus Wallin, began fishing the Sarasota waters a century ago, and his son Walt Sr. later took over from him.
Walt's son — Brett Wallin’s dad, Tom Wallin — began working in the fish market from an early age, and he later opened the current location of Walt’s Fish Market on Tamiami Trail.
Tom Wallin took over the business from Walt in 1981, and decades later, he would pass it down to his son Brett.
Brett Wallin started in the family business as a teenager, and he says he loved it from the start.
“I’d take my 30-foot Whaler to school and tie it onto the tree and then go to school," he says. "I’d come to school wet, smelling like fish because I was spearfishing before. The teachers would call my dad and say, ‘Your kid smells like fish.’
"And he’d say to them, ‘What do you think we do for a living?’”
Wallin says that sometimes the fish comes directly from the boat to the market, and you won’t just see it in the market’s display case. Sometimes, if you’re there at the right time, you might even see a truck roll up with about 600 pounds of snapper.
“My dad always said, ‘If you start with the fresh ingredients, you don’t have to worry about all the sauces,” says Wallin. “You’re starting with fresh product. It’s right there. That’s what I’m going to sell my grandmother, my mom and all of my favorite customers.”
You won’t have to pay for another Walt’s calling card.
Right when you sit down, you’ll get a taste of their smoked fish dip, which is a reminder of simpler times gone by.
Wallin says that smoked mullet was one of the first things the Wallins ever sold at Walt’s, because they were able to preserve the fish longer by smoking it. And he says that he enjoys giving customers a taste before they even open the menu or their wallet.
“It’s just neat to be able to do that. Even during COVID or inflation,” he says.
"It’s a very expensive thing for me to do, but I’m going to continue doing it. I’ll never take it away.”
