SHELL GAME | Stephen Stryjewski, Donald Link, Ryan Prewiit and Heather Lolley, the team behind the new Pêche Seafood Grill, break for oysters at the still-under-construction space. Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal


The restaurant is due to open April 20. Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

This particular meal, though, is about more than late-night camaraderie. It's the culmination of a research road trip along Florida's Gulf Coast to collect ingredients and inspiration for Pêche. The restaurant was originally conceived, not long after Katrina, as a homage to the rustic seafood joints that once lined the banks of New Orleans's Lake Pontchartrain. Now, after seven years and similar missions to South America and Spain, the glorified-seafood-shack concept has morphed into a worldly, gutsy and thoroughly modern restaurant. Two key inspirations are what Donald describes as "the primitive, soulful way of cooking" over fire in Uruguay, and the grilling wizard Victor Arguinzoniz, of Asador Etxebarri, in the Basque Country. Still, the team has never lost sight of the fabulous fresh ingredients closer to home, on the stretch of beach known as the Redneck Riviera.

Our first stop is Burris Farm Market, in Loxley, Ala., where we stock up on the muscadine wine vinegar that Donald loves, along with loaves of fresh-baked yeast bread. Lunch at the Original Point (motto: "Not Fancy But Famous"), a landmark near Perdido Key, Fla., includes such old-style Gulf Coast classics as smoked tuna dip and fried mullet backbones (yes, you eat the bones, chased immediately by lots of cold beer), as well as Royal Reds, a ruby-colored deep water shrimp virtually undiscovered until the early 1990s and so sweet and salty that folks make the three-hour drive from New Orleans just to eat them.

The team has never lost sight of the fabulous ingredients closer to home, on the stretch of beach known as the Redneck Riviera.

A half-hour away in Pensacola, the enormous market Joe Patti's specializes in all things seafood. A crew of fresh-faced female 20-somethings in matching baseball caps takes orders ("Have I asked you yet if you're having a good day?"), while 80-something Frank Patti (son of Joe), is the barker in their midst, hawking specials with a hand-held mike one minute and taking a cleaver to a tuna filet the next. After the team stocks up on Florida clams, more Royal Reds, Spanish mackerel, red snapper and scamp, a superior member of the grouper family, we head down Highway 98 toward Seaside, 75 miles away.

Peche was conceived, not long after Katrina, as a homage to the rustic seafood joints that once lined New Orleans's Lake Pontchartrain. Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

The road to Pêche, slated to open on April 20, was a lot less direct. As early as 2006, Donald went so far as to nail down a location and mock up a menu, but parking was a problem, and everybody was already busy opening restaurants, writing books and collecting awards (a James Beard for Donald, another for Stephen and a third for Donald's book "Real Cajun"). Still, they kept coming back around to seafood. So when a spot opened up in the perfect building, a one-time livery undergoing a meticulous restoration on a Warehouse District corner, they jumped. Not only did the space have great character and some weird history—Jefferson Davis was embalmed upstairs—there was room for a free-standing oyster and crudo bar as well as a wood-burning oven, modeled after the rigs used in Uruguay and built by Donald's uncle Duane Link.

Photos: Donald Link's Seafood Restaurant

Click to view slideshow Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

In the kitchen at the Seaside house, the cooks get to work while Heather and I uncork bottles of Txakolina, a dry, citrusy and slightly fizzy Basque wine she and the boys discovered on a pilgrimage to Etxebarri. At Pêche, one side of the oven will have a raging wood fire throwing off coals that will be raked to the other side beneath a low grill. On our deck, we have a cheap gas contraption instead, but Ryan manages to pull off a perfectly cooked mackerel accompanied by delicious grilled chard, and Royal Reds dressed with garlic, oil and lemon. Inside, Stephen and Donald work on a chili-glazed scamp and a clam stew that is the essence of what Donald says they hope to achieve at Pêche: "seafood in a ballsy way." Enriched with the leftover fish heads, bones and throats, it's a way for the team to cook seafood without relying on typical go-tos like pork stock or bacon to provide nuance and depth.

My favorite dish of the night is the raw seafood salad, enlivened by citrus and a dash of the farmers market muscadine vinegar, and served with grilled slices of the yeast bread that are deemed a great success. But then Ryan comes in with another accompaniment, snapper skin grilled to a perfect crisp and dusted with sea salt—an ingenious receptacle for the fish and the kind of productive playing around that all three chefs thrive on.

Lunch the next day features the time-honored combo of Budweiser and Apalachicola oysters on the half shell, and sparks a conversation between Stephen and Ryan about the possibility of making their own saltines. Even the perfectionist Donald rolls his eyes at that. Pêche is poised to be a world-class restaurant, but it's still, in part at least, an oyster bar. In New Orleans. "Guys," he says, "the crackers have to come in the cellophane packets."

Florida Clam Stew

Total Time: 11⁄2 hours Serves: 4-6

Florida Clam Stew Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal


2 tablespoons butter

½ onion, roughly chopped, plus ½ onion, finely diced

2 stalks celery, roughly chopped, plus 3 stalks, finely diced

1 jalapeño, sliced, plus 1 jalapeño, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, sliced, plus 3 cloves, minced

5 bay leaves

3 teaspoons salt, plus more, to taste

Bones from 4-pound red snapper

3 cups white wine

2 sprigs thyme, plus 1 teaspoon, chopped

2 quarts homemade or low-sodium chicken stock

8 ounces grouper cheeks

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper, plus more, to taste

¼ teaspoon cayenne

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup flour

1½ cups finely diced potatoes

2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

5 pounds clams in shell

1 baguette, sliced and toasted

What To Do

1. Make stock: Melt butter in a stock pot set over medium heat. Add roughly chopped onions, roughly chopped celery, sliced jalapeño, sliced garlic, bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook, covered, 2 minutes, making sure not to color vegetables. Add fish bones, 2 cups wine and thyme sprigs. Once wine is mostly evaporated, add chicken stock and simmer, covered, 45 minutes. Strain stock and set aside. Discard solids.

2. Make stew: Season grouper cheeks with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and cayenne, then coat with flour.

3. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a soup pot set over medium-high heat. Lay seasoned fish into pot and pan-fry until light golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove fish from pot.

4. Add diced onion, diced celery, diced jalapeño, minced garlic, chopped thyme and potatoes and cook 3 minutes. Add mustard and remaining wine and reduce until dry. Add 2 quarts fish stock and cook 10 minutes more.

5. Add reserved grouper and clams to pot. Cook, covered, until clams open, 5-10 minutes. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with baguette slices.

Grilled Mackerel With Chard

Total Time: 20 minutes Serves: 4

Grilled Mackerel With Chard Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal


4 skin-on Spanish mackerel filets (about 4 ounces each), bones removed

1 tablespoon salt, plus more, to taste

¾ teaspoon black pepper, plus more, to taste

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

8 leaves of Swiss chard, stems separated from leaves

1 tablespoon aged red wine or Sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic

What To Do

1. Season each filet with 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, then coat each filet with 1 teaspoon oil. Place filets, skin-side down, onto a grill pan set over medium-high heat. Cook, without flipping, until sides of fish start to turn white, 3-5 minutes. Remove filets from pan and transfer to a serving plate. Fish will continue to cook as it rests.

2. Toss chard stems and leaves with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place chard in a sauté pan set over medium-high heat and cook until leaves wilt and stems become tender, about 6-8 minutes.

3. Roughly chop chard leaves and cut stems into thin slices. Toss chopped leaves and stems with vinegar, remaining oil, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

4. To serve, plate mackerel skin-side up and spoon chard alongside filets.

Marinated Seafood Salad Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

Marinated Seafood Salad

Total Time: 20 minutes Serves: 4-6, as an appetizer


8 ounces red snapper filet

2 ounces cooked Gulf shrimp

1 jalapeño, finely minced

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

Zest and juice of ½ lime

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne

3 tablespoons sliced scallion

½ cup torn mint leaves

1 teaspoon sugar

1½ teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ avocado, sliced lengthwise

Good quality white bread, sliced, toasted and drizzled with olive oil

What To Do

1. Cut snapper and shrimp into small cubes and combine with remaining ingredients, except for avocado and bread, in a large bowl.

2. Spread avocado slices on a serving plate and spoon seafood mixture on top. Serve with toasted bread.