June 11, 2024 – It’s there on the plate. Who else does sea scallops with caper-raisin-walnut relish, or smoked trout ceviche tostaditas topped with electric-purple slaw, cashew pesto and salsa brava?
It’s there in the staff development that has sprinkled delish dust in so many hospitality directions beyond the restaurant’s doors.
It’s there at the top of the Passionfish menu: “sustainably sourced seafood and realistically priced wines,” emphasis on creative sourcing in both categories.
It’s there in the international eco leadership, art on the walls, and the crab salad tower that I’d serve aliens as they try to decide whether Pacific Grove is worth saving.
And, yes, that it—a spirit of thoughtfulness, fair pricing and community but also familial playfulness—appears in those places because it’s there in Ted and Cindy Walter, Passionfish’s hands-on, clear-voiced, big-hearted owner-operators for a quarter century on.
Ted and Cindy Walter opened Passionfish in the 1990s.
That makes it challenging to digest news that, after 27 years, they’re selling Passionfish to focus on grandkid wrangling, beekeeping, rescue cat herding, horseback riding, gardening and, notably, attending to Ted’s terrifying—and mysterious—idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which was diagnosed in 2015, when the non-smokers were hiking in the Italian Dolomites.
A seasoned staff led by general manager Jannae Lizza will provide a ton of connective comfort for longtime subscribers, but you can’t restock visionaries like the Walters at the seafood market.
If there’s any silver lining to Ted’s recovery Olympics, it might be that the mission to keep him alive empowered the restaurant to work swimmingly with the Walters focusing on his survival.
Much has been made of Passionfish’s sustainable seafood leadership.
Raising my hand here. This news comes while “Commemorating 25 Years of Seafood Watch Involves Major Progress But Isn’t All Celebration,” with the Walters involved in a central way, hits newsstands.
But I feel more should be made of their old-school hospitality instincts and employee development.
Industry authority Glen Hammer ranks among the few who can put their impact in proper perspective.
“What Ted and Cindy do, it’s an extension of both their personalities,” he says. “Always has been—how they price their wine list, the consistency of their food, how they and their team make it feel like their home—it has all the ingredients that make for a great restaurant.”
Albacore tuna with artichoke-basil caponata and sumac (Photo: Mark C. Anderson)
Mother-son duo Meral Alpay and Rasit Berk Guvenc are the new owners (assuming escrow closes in coming weeks).
Marel was chef-owner of Turkish spots Tuba (in San Francisco) and now-closed New Kapadokia (Redwood City), before moving to Pacific Grove.
Near Asilomar she and her husband run Fishwife Pacific Grove, though she emphasizes Passionfish represents a separate project with an identity they want to keep very distinct.
With Passionfish she notes the highest priority is continuity—across service crew, production staff, vendors and price points.
“We are committed to continuing the business culture and creativity offered by the Walters,” she says. “As Pacific Grove locals for the past seven years, we feel blessed to be able to own such an award-winning jewel of a restaurant…we hope to meet Passionfish guests soon and extend the same hospitality Ted and Cindy extended.”
Former P.G. Chamber of Commerce chief Mo Ammar lends his endorsement, most vividly by eating at Fishwife semi-monthly.
“I am so happy that a local couple has bought the restaurant,” he says. “They are committed to maintaining all the elements of operation that were created by the Walters. Passionfish is in great hands.”
The menu at Passionfish includes a quote from actor Robert Redford, saying: “I think the environment should be in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”
Meanwhile, whatever emotions superfans like me are dealing with, they are minnows to Cindy’s gray whale pod of processing.
“I go from excitement to fear to sadness to relief—and tears—almost daily,” she says. “Honestly I haven’t experienced this gamut of emotions since Ted was handed a terminal diagnosis.”
For his part, Ted’s doing incredibly well after being given a handful of years to live, through lung transplants that put the whole immune system on hold, and bouts with the body’s accompanying “chronic rejection” of outside organs.
Edible reached the pair while they were at UCSF Lung Transplant Program headquarters for the latest wave of treatments and tests.
He says he’s pleased and humbled by Passionfish’s success, nodding to strong staff support thanks to an ability to attract and retain talented people—with leadership from Lizza and longtime sous chef Artemio Perez, who have been there from the beginning—and the young people who went on to become winemakers, chefs, brewmasters and restaurant owners.
Plus the community that came along for the adventure.
“I’m really proud of how many people love and support the restaurant,” he says, “how much we impacted their buying decision through our sustainability messaging, and how many people we made happy.”
He also observes he took joy from the simple fundamentals that informed the menu and helped draw a generation of mindful eaters.
“The thing I will miss the most is the creativity of new dishes, hunting the farmers markets for seasonal produce that would inspire new dishes,” he says
The operative word there would be inspire.
In a wider sense as well, as Cindy points out.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if Passionfish continued another 27 years and raised more wine makers, brew masters, chefs and somms?”
The rhetorical question doesn’t need an answer, particularly for a woman who hopes we all think way further ahead.
But here comes one.
Hell yes.
Also, how about 27 plus 27, and on indefinitely, fishing to the horizon one pole-and-line caught Pacific albacore at a time.