Crestline Seafood
Fresh Gulf seafood abounds at this market and eatery.
By Daniel Schumacher Photo by Cary Norton
Details
Crestline Seafood
Company
63 Church St.,
Crestline Village
(205) 637-7460
Hours: Mon.-Sat.,
10 a.m.-8 p.m.
crestlineseafood.blogspot.com
You could say that I was lured to Crestline Seafood Company this past New Year’s Day by a combination of cold, briny oysters and hot satisfying gumbo. The weight I placed on having that fi rst good 2010 meal may have bordered on obsessive, but my expectations were met in the midst of Church Street’s quaint row of stores and eateries. The fi sh market opened in February 2009 and had drifted under my radar until this year.
Customers begged for prepared food for the fi rst six months of the market’s life, and in September, after a brief foray into sushi, Crestline Seafood began off ering lunch service to its busy Mountain Brook clientele. Its owner, certifi ed public accountant Chad Adams, loves a fresh oyster with hot sauce and horseradish but never imagined he would become a fi shmonger/restaurateur. It was after returning to Mountain Brook following three years of living in Gulf Shores, surrounded by a bounty of local seafood, that Chad and his wife, Allison, decided to open the shop.
Adams maintains a network of local and authentic purveyors to keep Crestline Seafood stocked with the freshest possible fish and gourmet items. Greg Abrams Seafood provides most of Crestline Seafood’s fish, while Alabama-based Bon Secour Fisheries remains the exclusive provider of their Apalachicola oysters and wild-caught Gulf shrimp. The gumbo, along with hearty red beans and rice, hosts andouille sausage from the Poche family of Breaux Bridge, La. With a few fl icks of his wrist, oyster shucker Charles Brush can prepare a plate of Apalachicola’s finest (or Blue Point or Chincoteague, if you’re feeling fancy).
The menu now includes grilled fish, meaty shrimp po’ boys and handmade crab cakes. In homage to the space’s former life as Clumpies Ice Cream Co., Crestline Seafood offers Happy Mess ice cream alongside its selection of seafood delights.
