THE GIST If you can pull it out of local waters with a net or a hook, it’s on the menu at Salt. Pristine clams on the half shell and just-shucked oysters glistening in their pearly shells are everywhere in the dockside indoor/outdoor dining rooms. The covered main dining area is part of the marina and somehow offers views and fresh sea air without rain, wind or sunburn.
THE VIBE Park next to a gorgeous 36-foot trailered sailboat waiting for launch and walk the planks to the heart of this charming boatyard with 80 slips for crafts, from fishing boats to Hinckleys. A few dockside tables allow for boat-side and pup-friendly eating. Inside, the 10-seat bar is a great place to meet someone for that drink that turns into dinner. There are a few tables inside, but the best seats are in the covered open-air outdoor dining room, where grandparents grab time with their hamburger-eating grandchildren, groups of friends lift glasses of rosé to toast summer, and couples out for date night feed each other oysters on the half, with views of yachts in Menantic Creek slips and Shell Beach in the distance.
THE FOOD With chef Nick Dean leading the kitchen this season, and veteran Pamela Wood as kitchen manager, Salt has stuck to a tight menu and winning formula of raw bar, lots of local fish and shellfish, sushi (always four different options, plus a special roll) and crowd-pleasers like chowder, burgers and lobster rolls done memorably well.
Blue Crab Sushi
Matthew Klaus, who has led Salt’s sushi program for the past four seasons, created the blue crab roll: chunks of flaky crab meat wrapped in a seaweed-lined layer of glutinous, seasoned rice and rolled in sesame seeds. Nutty-sweet and refreshing, try it with a dab of wasabi for a bracing coda.
Crispy Rice
Spicy tuna is slathered on a bar of sushi rice, then coated and fried with a sriracha, sesame oil, shichimi and mayo sauce drizzled on top—another flavor-explosion bite developed by sushi chef Klaus that was so popular it made the regular menu.
Lobster Cobb Salad
Whoever had the idea to take the humble Cobb salad and elevate it to the heavens with generous lumps of lobster claw and tail meat deserves to be lauded, but Salt’s version of a Green Goddess dressing—a sauce of avocado and lemony tarragon—is the real gamechanger in this Cobb. Co-owner Keith Bavaro says it’s the most-ordered dish on the menu, and with good reason.
Green Curry
A magic brew of coconut, curry paste and lemongrass with drops of bright basil oil, plus a cake of sushi rice like a little raft in the middle, topped with striped bass and seared bok choy nestled on each side. When the bass aren’t biting, other locally sourced white meaty fish, like tilefish, make most excellent and ever-fresh substitutes.
Salt at the Island Boatyard
63 S. Menantic Road, Shelter Island, 631-749-5535
Hours Open daily, Sunday through Thursday, noon to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.
saltshelterisland.com
@saltshelterisland
