Newly Notable: Nettie's Crab Shack
Tis the season to feel crabby
By Susan Dyer Reynolds

It seems fitting that the illustration on the menu and business card of Nettie’s Crab Shack is the tentacles of a giant squid – one restaurant after another has been pulled deep into the abyss of this Union Street location. From Cafe de Paris L’Entrecote to Home to Palmetto, they hit the open seas one day and disappeared the next. But at long last, a restaurant has appeared that suits the space and its customers’ tastes.

The vision of front-of-the-house veteran Annette Yang (Gordon’s House of Fine Eats, Foreign Cinema, Jack Falstaff, Spruce) and her partner, chef Brian Leitner (Gordon’s House of Fine Eats, Chez Panisse), Nettie’s serves up seafood dishes that are polished and professional, but also satisfying and to the point. The crab cakes are some of the best I’ve had in ages, made with big hunks of crab and no filler (what a concept!). The pail of steamers aren’t the soft-shell kind of my Rhode Island summers, but they are plump, tender little Manila clams served the way they should be – naked and just nestled in their own broth with a side of drawn butter. A crock of creamy clam chowder isn’t overly thick and it smacks of smoky bacon, just the way my mom used to make it.

A check of the “shore things” on the specials board produced wonderfully fresh Monterey Bay sardines with house-made chimichurri, and a generous warm Dungeness crab roll served in a proper, griddled bun. Equally generous is the oyster po’boy with crunchy, briny oysters in a soft roll. There is also a smoked Idaho trout BLT, and a prawn and arugula salad with cucumbers, Green Goddess dressing and salmon toast. Crunchy fish and chips are made with local, line-caught rock cod, which is a bit denser and not as flaky as Atlantic cod, but still tasty and definitely more sustainable.

Leitner shows his versatility switching from casual crab-shack fare to more complex entrees like a delicate arctic char with ever-underutilized Brussels sprouts and a bacon and egg sauce that adds to the creaminess of the fish, but never overwhelms the mild flavor.

There are a couple of great specials worth mention: For $28 you can get the “shore dinner” – baby lettuces, cioppino and a hot fudge sundae; and Sunday nights feature a family-style crab feed with “a big bowl of salad, steamed whole crab, paper towels, boiled potatoes, green beans, skillet cornbread, and pudding and cookies” for $38 per person.

If, as the clever menu points out, you “can’t get on the boat,” you will find a fat juicy burger with bread and butter pickles (an East Coast favorite), a fried chicken sandwich with fennel slaw, BBQ brisket on a bun with house-made chips, and a pile of rosemary flecked shoestring potatoes that seemed destined for every table on both of our visits.

For the first time in ages I got really excited about a dessert menu – it’s chock full of fun, classic sweets like little caramel apples on sticks, luscious butterscotch pudding, chocolaty Guinness bread pudding, and soft-serve vanilla and chocolate ice cream. There is also a full bar, a selection of beers in bottles and on tap, and a nice wine list that features glasses, bottles, and my favorite, large and small carafes.

Service is warm and friendly like the interior, and for anyone who has been to the building’s previous incarnations, warm is a new word where the ambiance is concerned. The charming atrium up front is still the most desirable seating, rain or shine, but it’s not the only good place to sit anymore – the addition of Adirondack chairs in seafoam green and cloud blue and wooden, hinged, flip-top tables on rustic wood floors, combine with white-washed push-open windows to make the rest of the restaurant feel like a summery J. Crew catalog. There is ample patio seating out front that has the same relaxed feel as one of my favorite Cape Cod bistros, Bubala’s by the Bay in Provincetown.

It took two restaurant pros, a poised staff, a thoughtful remodel, and a menu full of everyday favorites to bring this sunken ship back to the surface, and I predict for Nettie and crew there will be smooth sailing ahead.

Nettie’s Crab Shack: 2032 Union Street (at Buchanan), 415-409-0300, www.nettiescrabshack.com

– S. D. Reynolds