- These are the stairs that keep us fit. (chuckles)
When you have a raw bar that's as busy as Lure,
you have no idea how much ice we go through.
Sometimes we go through like,
and God forbid the ice machine breaks down,
we go through so many pounds of ice, it's crazy.
Believe it or not, a big challenge is getting that ice,
making sure that we have enough ice.
(funky music) (Preston grunting)
But this is just setting up the display,
so we just wanna get as much ice up there as possible.
We want it to look nice and sexy.
It just kind of adds to the whole decor of the restaurant.
It like, you know, helps to reinforce the concept.
It's old school but it still works.
Last night we kinda got torn up. We had tons of people.
There was like, oyster towers flying outta here
so we had to get a couple more oysters.
We got about 300 East coast. These are bad boys.
Just wanna make sure we don't run out for the night.
When the dishwashers come in in the morning,
this is one of the first jobs that they like to knock out,
sort through 'em, the East coast and West coast,
make sure all the ones are separated.
They give 'em a good rinse.
Put them into the Lexans
and get 'em in the oyster bin for us.
This is where we store all of our oysters.
The raw bar cooks will pull
from this bin to fill the refrigerator drawers out there
and that's where we service the raw bar.
This is basically the raw bar station.
So all the raw bar comes off of here, like maybe six
or eight different kinds of oysters at any given time.
We have shrimp cocktail, crab legs, seafood salad,
scallop crudo comes off of here.
Our towers come off of here,
our small towers and our grande tower.
(upbeat violin music)
Nice!
(laughs) Get your ass over here.
What's up?
This is sous chef Bruno,
executive sous chef of Lure Fish Bar.
He's gonna help me break down fish along with the butcher.
It usually takes three of us to try to get fish
'cause we do so much volume, we're gonna start
to break down the tuna.
Now this is our tuna.
Tuna loin number one comes from the Gulf.
Super nice color today. Look at that.
We probably go through about a hundred to 150 pounds
of tuna a week with all
of the different applications that we have.
And we're charging a lot of money.
We really wanna take care of our guests,
so tons of work goes in ahead of time to make sure
that we're a hundred percent prepared for service.
So this is the tuna that we're gonna use for the kitchen,
for all the different preparations that we use
that come out of the main kitchen.
And then we have a separate tuna that's outside that comes
for the sushi and we can go take a look at that.
This is our chef Akira. He's our main sushi chef.
So this is the type of tuna that we use for sushi.
The color's a little bit better.
He's wrapping the tuna here so
that we can just have it prepared for service.
We do so much volume
so we gotta make sure that we have enough ready
and so this is the best way to kind of store it.
(upbeat violin music continues)
This is gonna be for our sesame-crusted tuna salad.
I'm gonna crust the tuna.
So we get the tuna just kinda nice
and sopping wet with soy sauce,
then we go right into the sesame seeds.
You have dishes like the sesame-crusted tuna.
You have a dish like that that people really, really enjoy
and you wanna make sure
that you give the people what they want.
You know, sesame-crusted tuna is not a dish
that people have not heard of before. (chuckles)
Fun fact is, this is one of the dishes that I made
for my tasting when I first took this job,
and it's still in the menu 10 years later.
There's definitely a feeling of like, once a chef has a dish
that he knocks outta the park and it's a 10,
you kinda get bored with it
and then they don't wanna make it anymore. (laughs)
I had problems with customers,
I almost had a mutiny for taking the sea urchin bucatini
off the menu.
There was like a firing squad ready to come get me.
(upbeat music)
This is exactly how it looked when I made it
for my tasting before I took the job.
(upbeat music continues)
We're gonna start to do the rice now.
We go through so much rice.
We decided to really try to stick
with the traditional way to make rice.
I'm gonna add the vinegar.
We use the paddle, so there's like a technique to doing it.
The vinegar gets evenly over all the rice.
You can smell that aroma from here, right?
As soon as the vinegar hits the rice,
it's like, psh, right in your face.
Sushi's probably about 35 to 40%
of all the food that we do here,
so lots and lots and lots for lunch and then for dinner.
Before I took over Lure, I had no idea how to roll sushi.
Now I'm pretty good.
(steady music)
So it's about 11:30.
We're getting ready to open up for lunch service.
It's time to taste the oysters for lunch,
make sure all the oysters are super fresh.
The oysters are a huge part of our program here.
It's very important
that we serve the best oysters in the city.
We're known for our oysters.
So I spend about 30 minutes a day eating oysters.
Yeah, I eat about 20 oysters a day, oysters for breakfast.
And I do this twice a day.
I kinda just go through all the oysters.
I pick a couple at random.
The way that we keep the quality
up here is by tasting, everybody tasting.
If you don't taste, you'll never know.
And so we taste everything all the time.
This is beausoleil.
That right there is like the perfect oyster.
You see all the liquor, the full size of the oyster.
It's like my favorite.
So sometimes it happens, when you're stuck in the oyster,
sometimes the shells will be a little bit brittle
and the shells will crack.
So I don't like to serve these oysters
because I like the shell to be completely intact.
So we just set the actual oyster aside.
We get rid of the shell and then we'll use the oyster
for like a crispy oyster on top of a deviled egg.
This is our West coast guy here. This is Pebble Beach.
I like being completely honest with people saying like,
the chef tastes oysters every day to make sure
that they're getting the best quality ever.
We're gonna start with soft-shell crabs today.
It's probably gonna be our special for the day, yeah?
These are coming in from South Carolina.
We use them for a bunch of different applications here.
A lot of 'em are -- spider roll for sushi is a big one.
So when it actually comes to figuring out the sushi menu,
I like to consult with Akira, the sushi chef.
I got four coming, two tempura, two beer batter.
Figure if we taste one, see what we think,
maybe we can incorporate the beer batter into it.
I don't know. We'll try it, yeah?
Akira always like to do things in the same kinda fashion,
like say almost traditional Japanese.
We're gonna try and change it up a little bit,
see what we can do.
We're gonna drop the crab
into the tempura batter and then crisp it up.
So now we're gonna try the soft-shell crabs and beer batter.
I'm pretty sure Akira's gonna hate it,
but we'll see what happens.
It'll be fun to get someone
outside their comfort zone a little bit.
As far as the actual dish creation goes,
a lot of times it just starts with me.
I'm like, "I'm bored with this, I'm gonna change something."
Ultimately it comes from me and the sushi chef.
Okay, so there's two here.
I'm not gonna tell you which one is which.
- [Akira] Oh, okay.
- [Preston] You try this one first, then this one.
- Okay.
(tense music)
Mm, Very good.
- That's delicious.
- Hm, I like it.
- You like it, huh?
- I like the miso. - Yeah!
That's the beer batter.
- This is better.
- It's better? (laughs) All right!
Normally when we make this,
it's just a regular tempura batter,
a little bit of spicy mayo.
I think the tempura batter's crispy
and I think the beer batter's a little bit more crunchy.
And then we're gonna take that crunch,
we're gonna add some chiles, see where we're at.
Avocado, cucumber, spicy mayo.
So then this will be our special for tonight.
It's gonna be our beer battered spider roll.
We'll use a Japanese rice beer to make the tempura batter.
It's a little bit more crunchy versus being crispy.
Definitely get a little bit of beer flavor.
I think it's gonna go well, you know, with the eel sauce.
The hint of spiciness from the spicy mayo,
freshness from the cucumber, smoothness,
creaminess from the avocado.
That's why he's the best. It's bomb.
Good job, bro. Way to nail it.
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, how are you? Nice to see you all.
So we're going to be serving our spider roll this evening
but we made it a little bit different today.
- [Waiter] Yeah.
- We made it with a beer batter.
This one is a little bit different
than our classic spider roll
because it's a little bit more crunchy instead of crispy.
I think everyone's gonna really enjoy it.
I wasn't sure Akira was gonna like it, but he did.
And we're ready to roll.
I got one here for you guys all to try.
Please give it a try.
- All right.
- Have a nice service.
- [Speaker] Go.
- Hey!
So like one of the last things that we do right
before service is we like to cook up the shrimp cocktail.
We cook shrimp cocktail almost every day.
We keep it as fresh as we possibly can.
The biggest secret is to not overcook the shrimp
and proper ordering.
You know, if we order too little, we run out.
If we order too much, you know, we risk spoilage.
That's the last thing we want. Nobody wants to hear that.
We got a nice flavorful liquid going on here.
Court boullion, it's got bay leaves,
peppercorns, soup vegetables.
This is like one of the super important parts
of the shrimp cocktail making process
'cause what we're really looking for is internal seasoning
but we want the shrimp to be seasoned from the inside out.
Once the liquid comes to a boil,
we double check for seasoning
then we pretty much turn it right off
and let the shrimp just kinda poach.
Tasting for succulence, tasting for seasoning,
make sure we seasoned it right.
We know right away.
That's pretty much the last step
for cooking it for the raw bar
and getting set up for the mise en place.
Those shrimp will get cooled
then they'll go right into the raw bar.
These guys are in the back now,
just getting set up for service.
It looks like it's gonna be a big one.
We got about like 300, 350
so we'll see what happens. (laughs)
We're putting together our grand platter right now
but you get a sense of how much ice we actually have to use
'cause this is one level
and this platter's gonna end up being three levels,
all filled with ice and this is just one platter.
So the amount of ice we use is insane.
We go through, like I said, maybe a hundred,
150 pounds of ice a day.
We have our clams here, our little necks.
We have our Blue Point oysters.
These are like the local oysters that we use.
These are Pebble Beach is what we're using for West coast.
So we make sure the East platter has East coast
and West coast oysters.
We're gonna add a couple beausoleils to this one
'cause it's my favorite oyster.
This would be the first layer of our tower.
For our second tier,
we have about four different little dishes on side.
This is our tuna tartar.
This is our kanpachi sashimi with a little bit of like,
a fresh wasabi leaf vinaigrette.
This is our scallop crudo
with toasted black sesame and chive.
Then we have our seafood salad.
This is like, one of my favorites,
my favorite seafood salad.
I love it.
(customers chatting indistinctly)
That will be the second layer.
This will be the final top layer level of the grand plateau.
It's more about like the chilled lobster
and the shrimp cocktail.
We add our sauces. Here's our cocktail sauce.
Here's our dijonnaise sauce, lemons.
You can eat it however you wanna eat it.
You can eat it from the top down,
you can eat it from the bottom, you can start in the middle.
There's no wrong answer. This is our third layer here.
So this is our grand plateau.
This is definitely one
of the most popular things that people order here.
They come here, it's like eating like a king. They love it.
Like walking through the dining room,
you see the heads turn.
You know, people think that, you know,
it's kinda funny to send people a raw bar
because you're not really doing anything to the oysters.
You're just kinda opening up the oysters.
But I definitely think
that the platter has a touch of my culinary hand.
The sea urchin sauce that we have here,
the way that we like to make the court boullion
to cook the shrimp,
all different culinary techniques that I've kind of acquired
over my career.
Well I definitely think that this is one
of the signature offerings here at Lure Fishbar.
(upbeat music)
So it's like 3:00 now.
We're pretty much done with lunch service.
We're gonna just really start to get prepped for dinner.
We had a nice run on oysters for lunch,
so we're gonna replace all the oysters
in the drawers for dinner.
Usually kinda try to pack 'em in
for dinner just to make sure we don't have
to make too many trips going back and forth.
Right behind!
It's about 4:00. The line's pretty much set up.
We're gonna head over and taste the oysters again,
make sure that they're pretty good.
(Preston laughing)
No, my doctor doesn't know I eat this many oysters.
All right guys, it's about 5:20.
Dinner service has officially started.
It's getting ready to get wild.
Just gonna start with one
of our whole fish we got ordered in, daurade.
I mean as far as services go in other restaurants,
it is a dance.
It's a fast shuffle
and I think that we manage it very, very well.
Plate with the salmon, I put the greens down first.
Grilled fish goes down, artichokes over top of the fish
and finish the dish with a little bit
of agrodolce and garnish with a lemon,
a little bit of sea salt, finish with a little bit of herbs.
This is the whole fish dish for the spring season.
It's got everything that you ever want,
artichokes, charred lemon adds a great flavor.
It's delicious.
So this is the rice station. This is Carmen and Jose.
They make the most crispy rice in the whole city.
So this is our crispy rice.
This one is uni. We sell a lot of this too. (chuckles)
We run the kitchen in Spanish.
Okay guys listen up, new call. (speaks in Spanish)
Fire two crab cake, fire two shrimp
then border fire two edamame, please!
And you have to be able to make money.
It's a very important part of being a chef,
being able to understand your financial responsibilities.
You know, your staff is here for jobs.
They're here for their families.
They have to provide for their families.
And so you have a responsibility to them to make sure
that you are putting the best product, you know,
forward that you can.
You gotta make sure the sushi
and the main kitchen food is, the timing goes out
so it all goes out together.
And so we're doing food for the lobby
of the Mercer Hotel as well
and room service and our outside dining area. (chuckles)
So it's quite a bit.
I dunno if I would say running three separate restaurants.
The sushi bar, absolutely.
The sushi bar could be its own restaurant.
It definitely gets challenging because what happens is,
the sushi tickets are really, really long.
It's really just about communication,
being able to communicate between the stations.
Sometimes it's a matter of the chef just kinda running back
and forth out of the door.
Hey M-6, can I go? M-6?
Okay guys, let's go. M-6, that's the burger, yeah?
Lower medium, shellfish allergy. Sushi is ready.
Once everything's working, it's a beautiful,
organized confusion and it's like an orchestra.
(upbeat violin music)
Make that hot. Yeah make it hot.
- [Chef] Yes, chef.
(Preston speaking in Spanish) (upbeat violin music)
- Guys, how's sushi on table 31? Is this 31?
Fantastic. Very good, very good, very good.
And this is the to-go order? Very good, thank you.
Lemme see this dress combo.
When this dress combo comes up, lemme see it, okay?
(upbeat violin music continues)
One of the big showstoppers here
in the restaurant obviously is our grand plateau.
Once it walks into the dining room,
it starts turning heads right away.
Once those platters start rolling out, people get excited,
they start ordering 'em
and those guys start shucking oysters,
like you've never seen.
(upbeat violin music continues)
(Preston laughing)
If you approach making food delicious,
it becomes interesting on its own.