New York's Best New Spot for Whole Fish!

Theodora, a Mediterranean and Mexican hotspot, serves fantastic Contramar-style trout; it's even more delicious after a passionfruit edible by NY Finca

Jun 17, 2024

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Happy Heat Wave Week!

Ideally, you’re reading this from Montauk, Antibes, or someplace else where the gin and tonics are as strong as the ocean breeze.

I’m not in any of those places.

I’m sweating in out in Park Slope, where my daily alarm is the parade of construction trucks making their way to Gowanus for new luxury construction. A nice cold shellfish platter would be the correct antidote to all of this nonsense, but I can only write about chilled clams on the half shell so often.

So today, I’m going sing the praises of grilled whole fish — head, tail, everything.

That’s what I’ve been splurging on at Theodora in Fort Greene, a deeply sexy Mediterranean spot decked out with drippy candles, wicker chairs, tiny booths in curvy nooks, a fiery grill, fancy shot glasses, and other design elements appropriate for a romantic spy thriller on the Balearic.

It’s also one of the best places to eat whole fish in New York City.

I’d cross state lines for the branzino alone. That’s not something I say too frequently about such a polite fish, too often a safe entree at a quiet downtown bistro.

Here, the kitchen does something more challenging. The chefs age the branzino for two days. Then they salt it, stuff with it with lemon and garlic, let it age for a few more days, (why not), and throw it into a Catalunyan oven that billows hardwood smoke. Twenty-five minutes later, the fish turns bronze in color. And it looks like something you’d find hanging outside a dacha in the Siberian taiga.

So…not an everyday branzino, but rather one that’s as luxurious as Jamon Iberico.

The flavors sung extra loudly, I’m happy to report, after a sturdy maracuya gummy from NY Finca, a small Latin American edibles company I’ll say more about below.

But first, a warning about the fish. You are responsible for butchering it yourself.

“Get in there, take out the rosemary, and then cut off the tail and head,” a waiter says. She pauses for a minute, and followes up with this statement: “Then rip out the spine.” How very Mortal Kombat.

The dry-aging helps the backbone come out with ease. It also firms up the flesh and paves the way for skin so crispy it invites metaphor after metaphor.

Start with the tail. The skin here is shatter-y, like with fresh baklava. As you move further north, the exterior takes on the chewy gelatins of good Colombian chicharrón. Up near the cheeks — they smell like burning palo santo — the skin is golden and translucent. It flaunts the heady char of creme brulee, and under that you’ll find a trove of soft, collagen-rich meat.

Yet still, my favorite part is just a few inches above the tail, where the skin pulls off in the shape of a lightly fried tortilla. Inside that, you’ll taste aquatic fat as silky and sweet as the “sugar cookie” bark on brisket.

Never in my life have I spent so much time daydreaming about the deliciousness of piscine anatomy. Let’s call it “whole fish barbecue.”

Unifying the Mediterranean with Mexico via smoke!

Theodora is the work of Tomer Blechman, an Israeli-born chef who also runs Miss Ada, a popular skewer spot a few blocks away. But it’s also the work of co-owner Gerardo Estevez, a Mexico City native, and chef de cusine Vitor Mendez, a Brazillian-born chef who spent some time at Brooklyn Fare.

Together, they’ve created a menu that doesn’t shy away from cross-cultural collisions.

The kitchen tops charred cucumbers with nutty salsa macha. It pairs head-on shrimp with a fiery habanero sauce. It forges Italian ‘nduja not out of pork, but rather monkfish liver — a substitution whose tidal aroma you’ll detect after a single bite.

And Blechman serves whole butterflied trout in the (loose) style of all those Instagrams you’ve seen from Contramar in CDMX.

But what unites all these wonderful experiments? Smoke.

Theodora uses an open Mangal grill for octopus, swordfish, and other items that don’t need too many extra aromatics. But for preparations designed to convey a deeper aroma of wood, the kitchen relies on a very serious Catalan Josper Oven.

Perhaps that doesn’t impress you much. More and more New York restaurants are relying on wood-burning ovens to give their meats and veggies a kiss of extra flavor. They’re generally a cool and ambitious class of venues, but at quite a few of them, the impact of the ovens can be extraordinarily subtle. Or even undetectable.

Theodora takes a more assertive approach. The scent of burning pine, cherry wood, and hickory announces itself the moment you walk in. It is prominent yet pleasant, a whisper stronger than a whiff of perfume from someone you love. Blechman wants patrons to actually “taste the flavors that are coming from this oven,” he tells me during a phone interview.

They will taste those flavors. Pita sports a light tang, as if the bread hung out with a rack of ribs for thirty minutes. Salmon crudo, kissed with charcoal, showcases deeper notes of fresh kindling. And the whole branzino boasts especially vivid levels of smoke, as if the folks from Hometown BBQ swung by for an impromptu collaboration.

The Pairing: NY Finca’s Latin American edibles!

I really liked all three of my meals at Theodora, and I’ll have more to say about the full menu below — especially the Contramar-style trout.

Two of those dinners, however, were…extra tasty, thanks to the appetite-stimulating effects of some really good NY Finca edibles (they also kept my mind focused on all the wonderful smoke).

NY Finca is a small but growing brand, run by Edmond Shabo, the 31-year-old son of Mexican and Lebanese immigrants. His Cuban-born wife is an owner as well.

The company’s first batch of edibles — available in piña, guayaba, and maracuya — comes from marijuana grown on the family’s own Christmas tree and hay farm in Central New York (Shabo tells me his paternal grandfather used to cultivate wheat on Syria’s long border with Iraq).

This is not the typical career profile for the increasingly corporate world of edibles.

The guayaba gummies — or guava, as some folks call the fruit — pack delicate tropical perfumes; I also detected sweet bubble gum. And the maracuya variety mimics the taste of actual passionfruit with spot-on clarity; it’s the type of sweet-tart flavor precision you’d expect at some fancy white-tablecloth spot.

Edibles, as I’ve written, can taste too much like mass-produced candies — created by middle-aged guys whiteboarding it out in a suburban office park — and not enough like something rooted in a particular culinary or cultural tradition.

NY Finca, like Rose and Sundae School, is a fine exception in this regard. And indeed, Shabo tells me that members of the Latin American community find it “really refreshing” to try cannabis edibles made from flavors “they’ve known their entire lives.”

About an hour after I pop one of Finca’s little cubes, the world starts to slow down in a very pleasant way.

Behind the paywall: How to ace the menu at Theodora

Why you should order the $45 Mexico City-style trout
Notes on the stunning salmon and hiramasa crudo
Reviews of the wonderful breads (pita, laffa) and hummus!
Bonus: How to get in, and how to book the $180 tasting
Bonus: A full guide on what edibles to try from NY Finca

The superb Contramar-style trout

Theodora could’ve racked up a steady class of destination diners on the merits of the branzino alone. But it also serves a more affordable chile-laced fish that’s just as outstanding.