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Blue Water Seafood Company and Wine Market has been featured the local newspaper four times since we opened. Click the article name below to be directed to the article. * Friday with the Fishes * Dining review: Blue Water Seafood shines with fresh flavor * Fresh Fish and Seafood, Of Course! * Seafood That Won't Leave Ya Blue Friday with the Fishes By Lindsay Lancaster - Times-News Staff Writer Published Friday, August 10, 2007 BlueRidgeNow.com - Times-News Online (click for original article) "See, sniff, swirl, swallow and summarize," says Keith Dalbec, wine-monger for Bluewater Seafood Company in Hendersonville, describing an easy way to taste wine. These are the S's to keep in mind when wine tasting -- especially during the restaurant's Friday with the Fishes, where you can taste wines and raise money for local charities at the same time. "We provide light hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting, and we ask for a suggested minimum donation," says Bluewater's owner David Griffin. The next event will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and will support Hands On! A Child's Gallery, a nonprofit working to open its doors as soon as possible. For your donation, you'll get a one-ounce sample of each of the six to seven wines at the event. Wine will also be sold by the glass, with part of the proceeds from those sales going to the nonprofit Hands On! A Child's Gallery group. When you approach one of the wine stands, Dalbec or one of the wine distributors will be on hand to pour the wines and tell you a little about each one. The wines available for the tasting are good value wines at a decent price, Griffin says. At the first Friday with the Fishes, six different reds and whites were available for tasting. Bluewater tries to keep the price range of the wines around $8 to $18 per bottle -- a price they hope would enable most folks to be able to enjoy the wine on a daily basis if they so desire. Bluewater will offer special pricing on bottles during the night of the events, with a 10 percent discount off of a case or a 5 percent discount off of a half case. The hors d'oeuvres include items like seafood salad, boiled shrimp, smoked salmon and fish patés. Informal event The informal events take place inside a tent on the grounds of Bluewater Seafood Company, 532 Kanuga St., Hendersonville, and are designed to allow folks to mingle around. At the next Friday with the Fishes, Hands On! will be selling raffle tickets for $10 to win an original watercolor painting Fog in the Cove, donated by world-renowned local artist Sterling Edwards. The 32-by-25-inch framed painting has been valued at $1,200. The drawing for the painting will take place at a later date. Other items such as wines and a lobster steamer pot, will be also be raffled off at the event. Bluewater Seafood Company has 250 wines in stock and plans to increase that number. One unique aspect of Bluewater, "We serve any wine in the store at the retail price," Dalbec says. Most restaurants mark up their wine from retail cost. If customers don't finish the wine during their dining experience, the seafood company allows customers to cork the bottle and put it in their trunk to take it home. Although the event hasn't yet had musical entertainment, it is a possibility for the future. David Griffin chose to hold these events to help "any organization that's providing help to the less fortunate, and anybody that's having a positive impact on the community," he says. Bluewater Seafood Company decided to start Friday with the Fishes after the Dalbec saw a similar event while he was in Charleston, S.C. "It was good for the community and it was good for the business," Dalbec says. "I just think good wine and good food brings people together." Not to mention, restaurant owners David and Tracy Griffin are the kind of people who believe in supporting the community, Dalbec says. Do well by doing good Citing a fairly popular business quote, Dalbec says businesses should do well by doing good. To determine the charity or organization that receives the proceeds from the event, Griffin and Dalbec consider which organization is in the most need at the time. Hands On! is the organization most in need right now, and the children's museum is working to open the doors of the facility to the public as soon as possible. The first Friday with the Fishes event supported Mainstay, an organization that works to eliminate physical, mental and emotional abuse in personal relationships in Henderson County. Mainstay needed the support to make building renovations. "We were able to raise some money and I think people had a good time while they were supporting a good cause," Griffin says. Hands On! A Child's Gallery is making steps toward opening its doors as soon as possible. As of Aug. 11, the gallery takes reservations for groups of 12 or more, for birthday parties or field trips. If you are interested in booking a group, call 697-8333. The grand opening will be announced at a later date. Friday with the Fishes events will be held into November or December or as long as the weather permits, but there is no set schedule as of yet. The suggested minimum donation to attend the event is $10, all of which goes to the agency the restaurant is supporting. Bluewater requests that people who are coming R.S.V.P. To do so, call 697-0503, or call the agency that Bluewater is sponsoring through the event. If you know a non-profit organization that may benefit from a Friday with the Fishes event, contact Bluewater Seafood Company through e-mail via www.bluewaterseafood.net. Back To Top Dining review: Blue Water Seafood shines with fresh flavor by By Robby Nelms, CITIZEN-TIMES CORRESPONDENT published July 26, 2006 12:15 am Featured in the Ashville Citizen-Times (click for original article) HENDERSONVILLE- Surrounded by mountains and streams, where do you go for fresh, delicious seafood? The supermarket? How about a trip to the beach? Neither. Just take a short trip to Hendersonville, and Blue Water Seafood, for all of your deep-sea delicacies. Having just moved to Western North Carolina from the coast, it seems almost blasphemous to even think that a house in Hendersonville could possibly have better-looking and tasting seafood than the North Carolina coast. But I'm happy to say that it is true - and there's nothing blasphemous about that. Walking up to the market/restaurant is done with a little trepidation. Could there really be a worthwhile seafood experience waiting in what appears to be a converted living room? Well, all fears are dispelled before the door even shuts behind us. Flanking the door are coolers displaying varying sizes of shrimp resting on ice, and on the other side, a good number of wines and gourmet provisions. Lobster tanks and more trays of ice, containing whole red snapper, flounder, tuna and a few other filleted varieties of fish are right there for the eye to see. This is important. What other restaurants show you the product before it makes it to the table? The proprietors obviously are proud of what they are selling and serving, and they aren't ashamed to show it. On top of that, there is no fishy smell at all. Standing there, admiring all that surrounded us, we realized that we had not even started the dining process. Asked to seat ourselves, we just wandered around in amazement at this display of freshness. The eyes of the snappers were not cloudy, signifying they weren't too long out of the water. Much more perusing, and we might have missed dining - Blue Water closes at 6 p.m., so get there before 5 p.m. if you'd like to dine in-house. The sign reads that they only can seat 25 at a time, so anticipate close quarters. Our server kindly allowed us time to look around at the fish and the accompanying wine room and was extremely attentive once we snapped out of our haze of amazement. Unlike a good chunk of service provided in Asheville, the server at Blue Water allowed the minutes to tick away toward closing time before our order was even given. Absolutely refreshing. For starters, the clam chowder was in order - it was incredible and matched perfectly with a glass of Arancio Grillo featured for $4 a glass. Truly a feast for all the senses. The unassuming plastic spoon stood at attention without any assistance directly in the middle of the overflowing bowl. Carrot, potato, butter and tasty tender clams danced on the palate. A silver spoon and fine china couldn't have made this dish any better. Before the bowl could be licked in a completely unprofessional manner, the fried scallops and cod were on the way. As the paper baskets hit the table, my guest commented on the size of the cod - assuming that the batter was a bit thick. Wrong. The cod itself was actually that thick - the thin beer batter barely enveloped the flaky white goodness inside. In my basket lay a stack of golden brown, succulently sweet scallops. No pretension at all. The food speaks for itself in this venue. My only complaint lies with my side dish, although my guest's sweet potatoes were delicious. Spinach or any other green shouldn't be dressed and refrigerated before serving, but this isn't a salad bar - it's a seafood market that serves its wares with confidence. I might be banned from any of the coastal restaurants I used to frequent for these comments, but I live in the mountains now - and regardless of that, Blue Water is where the good seafood really is. It isn't in the supermarkets or a pompous seaside restaurant. Great seafood resides in a house in Hendersonville, and Blue Water Seafood is well worth a visit. If you go... What: Blue Water Seafood, 532 Kanuga St., Hendersonville, 679-0503, www.bluewaterseafood.net Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Ambiance: Very relaxed and clean. Customers trickle in for the market seafood, as well as dining indoors or on the outdoor porch. Price range: $8 to $15 for entrees Service: Counter service is for market purchases, but an extremely attentive server tends to your dining needs. Signature dish: Whatever is the freshest, including daily specials. Vegetarian options: Salads without the seafood. Smoking policy: Nonsmoking Handicap accessible: Yes Sanitation grade: 94 The upshot: The seafood comes fried, steamed, roasted and even poached. And with salads, crab cakes and various seafood quiches, there is something here for all seafood lovers, even those wary of the deep fryer. Back To Top Fresh fish and seafood, of course! April 14, 2004 By Kitty Turner Times-News Staff Writer Featured in the Hendersonville Times (click for original article)  Fresh seafood delivered daily, made-on-the-premises lunch specials, a homemade sauce that will give fish or seafood the perfect finishing touch, and a choice of wine -- all these are available at the new home of Blue Water Seafood Company. The store has moved around the "busy bend" of Kanuga Road and across the railroad tracks from its old location next to Hot Dog World.
"We wanted to expand and this property was available -- but it needed a lot of work," explained Tracy Griffin who owns the shop with her husband, David. "The whole family pitched in and helped." Tracy's brother, architect Chad Roberson and his company, the Roberson Group, LLC Design and Construction, worked with David to restore the house at 532 Kanuga on the corner of Davis Street with help from Tracy and Chad's dad, Rick. Mom Alice and sister-in-law Tiffiny pitched in with Tracy to design the interior. "We finished just in time to open April 6," Tracy said. "I was overwhelmed when florist trucks started pulling up with bouquets from our customers -- what a nice thing to do!" The Blue Water Seafood Company stocks fish and seafood from all over the country, including Boston, Alaska and the North Carolina coast. "We have daily deliveries Monday through Saturday and only order enough for each day," Tracy said. "We're almost always sold out by the end of the day." Customers who want to pick up their fish on their way home call ahead to reserve their order, which will always be ready and waiting for them. With the new wine shop and a selection of gourmet items, everything for a great dinner is available on the premises. "I love to cook," Tracy said. "So one of the things we'll be doing here that we couldn't do before is have a homemade sauce available every day so the customer can buy their fish, take it home and broil it or bake it and put the sauce on and they're done!" Fishy business Tracy and David Griffin bought the Blue Water Seafood Company last June from its previous owners. Tracy was originally from Asheville but she and David had been living in Charlotte where David was a police officer. "I'd worked in a seafood store when I was younger and when we decided to move back to the mountains this opportunity became available," she said. "We really love it. Our customers are so interesting and I'm able to give them individual attention, talk to them about recipes and cooking methods -- and now with the expanded space we can carry so much more merchandise." Tracy guarantees the freshness of the fish and seafood. "If the customer is dissatisfied for any reason they only have to tell us and we'll take care of it," she said. "Our customers come first." The new wine cellar will give customer's a one-stop shopping opportunity with a wide choice of wines available for reasonable prices. "David's in charge of the wine cellar and we're going to be stocking 60 to 70 varieties," Tracy said. "We'll have at least 200 bottles to start, both in the rack and chilled, with prices ranging from $10 to $20 or so." In the wine room Tracy has set up a small table and chairs next to a shelf of cookbooks so customers can sit and browse through the recipes and write them down when they find something they want to try. Not your usual seafood Blue Water Seafood Company is able to carry some items that are unusual for this area. "We are able to get steamer clams and other New England delicacies in season," Tracy said. "Smelt for example. When we have them they just fly out of here, because there are so many transplanted New Englanders around." Because Tracy loves to cook, she's going to be offering lunch specials also. "We bought this wonderful, and expensive, stove now that we have the space," she said, with a laugh. "Also a fryer so we'll be doing fish and chips, fish sandwiches, seafood sandwiches, po boys, soups, chowders -- customers can call to find out what the daily specials are." With plenty of parking off Davis Street, the new premises of Blue Water Seafood Company offer an easy-in, easy-out alternative to the sometimes difficult access at the old location. "Parking is probably the best thing about the new location," Tracy said. "That was always so difficult before. We're excited about the move and all the extras we can offer our customers -- and we're hoping to have a lot more." Blue Water Seafood Company is at 532 Kanuga St., Hendersonville, at the corner of Davis Street on the left coming from the "busy bend." It's in a large white house with a porch. Parking is off Davis Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 697-0503. Back To Top Seafood that won't leave ya blue July 10, 2004 Stephen M. Black On Borrowed Time Featured in the Hendersonville Times (click for original article) What is my criteria for recommending a restaurant? Simple. The food has to be consistently good. There is nothing more embarrassing than having a delicious dish served up on Monday and when you take friends out to eat on Tuesday, it tastes like meadow muffins. Seafood and pork barbecue. What do they have in common? If done right they will both make you slap your mamma 'cause there ain't nothin' better. In today's column I will tell you of one of my favorite seafood places. In next week's column I will feature Pigout Barbecue in the Brooklyn Village Shopping Center on Spartanburg Highway. Blue Water Seafood Company, take a bow! Avast ye mateys! Run the anchor up the mizzen mast, belay the first mate, keel haul the bowsprit, and everybody meet for rum in the back of the boat. Ahoy and abaft! I love all that old gnarly nautical talk. It is easy to recognize that I am an old salt. I've sailed the -- seven? eight? -- seas and I know my seafood. OK. So I get queasy when I get in a boat, and really sick when they put it in the water. Still, I know good seafood. Since that first bite of my fried Talapia on a bakery roll, I've become a regular customer of owners David and Tracy Griffin. Everything they serve is consistently delicious. I thought I was back in Maine when I sank my teeth into Blue Water Seafood's lobster roll. What a menu! A wonderful selection from the fryer. Or from the steamer. Just look at a portion of the menu. Fryer (sandwiches): Talapia, Cajun catfish, flounder, walleye, crab cake, softshell crab, or fish and chips, shrimp and chips, rainbow trout, cod, grouper, scallops, oysters. From the steamer, oysters steamed or raw (I once swallowed a raw oyster on a dare. I was drunk at the time. I've never been that drunk since.); clams; Alaskan snow and king crab; lobsters. They have steamer pots to go (your choice of seafood steamed with potatoes, onions, corn). You name it, they have it. Oh, and soup of the day. Blue Water Seafood Company used to be next to Hot Dog World. David and Tracy became the new owners and they moved into a remodeled house at 532 Kanuga Street. David was a police officer in Charlotte. I'm sure Tracy's stress level is lower knowing David is in the kitchen instead of on a midnight street. In case you want to prepare your own seafood, you can choose from a beautiful selection of fresh (delivered daily) fish, shrimp, oysters and mussels plus seafood salads and seasonings. I'm telling you true, try Blue Water Seafood Company. You will be glad you did. David and Tracy are simply good people who want only the best for their customers. That's a good combination. Directions: From Church Street turn right on to Kanuga, go around Busy Bend and cross Kanuga railroad tracks. Blue Water Seafood Company will be the third house on the left. And by the way, Tracy recently had her hair cut shorter. It looks great and be sure to compliment her loud enough for David to hear you back in the kitchen. As with most husbands he liked Tracy's hair long, so give him some encouragement. Bon Voyage! Pieces of eight and unfurl the Jolly Roger! Times-News community columnist Stephen Black, a free-lance writer, lives in Henderson County. Back To Top |
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