It was a long and grueling day sitting in courtroom after courtroom trying to be as diligent as possible while working on a beat for my news writing class.
After watching an hour melt away during some social security fraud case, it took only a smack of a gavel and a droning ‘court is in recess’ for me to thrust myself through the doors of the Federal courthouse.
Maybe it was the weirdly pseudo art deco designs in the room, maybe it was because the stenographer was giving me the stink eye for wearing five-inch platforms to a white-collar crime plea bargain on a Friday morning. Either way, I hadn’t eaten breakfast, it was 3 p.m. and I needed something in my belly.
At the front desk where I claimed my cell phone and camera the clerk had taken hostage, the officer manning the schedule saw my hunger anxiety and asked me if I liked seafood.
‘Uh, yes,’ my eye ticked in response.
He advised me to head to the Legal Seafood Test Kitchen, located just down the street at 225 Northern Avenue. He promised there would be a bounty of fresh, local mollusks and shellfish for a more reasonable price than the flagship restaurant.
The Test Kitchen is a small but comfortable space, leather accents and wood tables create a chic atmosphere right across from the waterfront. The chef, Justin Hamilton, keeps the menu almost identical to that of the Legal Seafoods’ chain standard, however each week or so there is a new concept added to test the waters and see how the dish is received.
The options were a shrimp sandwich on focaccia for $12 or an early dinner of crab stuffed sole for $14. I opted out of the concept and went with Island Creek oysters to start, $2.25 a piece, a standard price.
They came with a house made mignonette sauce and horseradish-topped cocktail sauce, but neither was necessary because of the briny freshness that each oozed.
The menu had some good options ‘-‘- fish and chips for a whopping $14.95, grilled calamari for $9.95 and a mix-and-match option where you choose among different fish, choose a sauce and a side, for $14.95 to $22.50, depending on the protein.
Dismayed that the prices weren’t as low as I had anticipated, if anything they averaged to be a few dollars less than anything on the standard Legal menu, I chose the trio of seafood tacos.
The tacos included lobster and pico de gallo, shrimp and salsa verde and crabmeat with avocado; all were edible but bland. Although the three featured have different flavor profiles and were paired with relatively unique salads/sauces, there was a minimal different in taste among the three, and for $16.95, I considered scribbling the check and getting one of those plastic sandwiches at the courthouse caf’eacute;.
If you find yourself in the Seaport District and are woozy with indecision, be sure to forgo the big-name chain, even if they try to hide behind a barely deflated price point and exciting concept.
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