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Long stalled work resumes on planned shaken-seafood place in Roslindale - which could open with a license to serve beer and wine

Workers were busy inside the former Jerusalem Trading on Poplar Street in Roslindale Square yesterday, doing the work required to turn the old home-furnishings stuff store into a restaurant that will serve Cajun seafood in a bag - after resolving whatever ISD issues had stopped work there for several months.

On July 11, meanwhile, the owners of the proposed 90-seat Shaking Seafood go before the Boston Licensing Board for permission to buy the beer-and-wine license of a defunct restaurant in the North End's North Square.

Shaking Seafood, first announced last September, had sought to get the neighborhood liquor license given up by Chris Douglass for his never opened restaurant in the Roslindale Square substation, but the licensing board gave the license to a Thai place on Mission Hill instead.

In the shaken-seafood concept, diners pick a type of seafood and spices to flavor it, then the server puts everything in a bag and shakes it, after which the diner is given the bag.

The news comes as Redd's in Rozzie, around the corner on Washington Street, gets ready to shut down later this month.

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Comments

I welcome any new restaurant to Roslindale but... this concept seems very weird. Is this a thing elsewhere which is being transplanted here? Better than stirred fish I guess...

I hope it does well.

What I'd like to see in the square would be something like Noodle Barn in JP. Village Fish is great for Korean and Japanese but something more Southeast Asian would be nice.

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This will not be the first shaken-seafood place in the Boston area.

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SO they hand me the bag with my seasoned fish, and then what? Do I leave and cook it at home or do they take the bag back and fry it up in the pan?

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Cajun style, although in Boston recently there seems to be an Asian twist added.

It is messy, but it's basically boiled seafood with spices added afterward.

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we got our first one here with Brothers Crawfish in Dorchester eight years ago. But the trend has really taken off in the past couple of years, with several local mini-chains springing up (Shaking Crab, Holly Crab, Loui Loui).

I tend to focus more on fine-dining places, so I reviewed the new Bootleg Special in the South End for The Improper recently. It's much fancier and pricier than most (Bootleg does the saucing in the kitchen, no plastic bags at the table), and has fewer Southeast Asian flavors, but has booze.

I prefer the cheaper places, though the seafood quality varies. When it's fresh (nothing frozen), it can be really delicious, if you don't mind that kind of hands-on eating.

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Here's a video done at one of the originator's of the concept, the Boiling Crab.

@ParkWayne, technically, it is Southeast Asian fusion. Vietnamese Cajun is what it is specifically.

It's mostly boiled/steamed shellfish shaken in a bag w/ your choice of buttery sauces. And it's delicious! Though messy.

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Very different than anything else in our part of town.

I hope they kept a few ceramic lions from Jerusalem Trading though.

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I'd like to see this business fail quickly! I think it most likely will in this location. The oceans are already overfished, polluted, abused in all kinds of ways. The idea of taking these critters and shaking them around in a bag seems to me like just another callous injustice practiced upon them and I can't imagine that's going to have high appeal as part of a dining experience.

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And is it any worse than people who are currently ripping apart dead (cooked) lobsters and crabs to eat them?

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I'm really more annoyed at the idea of adding another conveyor belt from the oceans to our mouths. This particular form is just weird to me.

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especially against this particular form of eating seafood?

Or are you saying that it's okay to plunder the seas for our nourishment and pleasure, but only if it's prepared and presented in ways with which you are familiar?

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There is always some sort of sausage too as an option. And everyone loves sausage.

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Imported, farm-raised seafood is much cheaper than wild-caught seafood, so many restaurants choose to use it, and it's hard to know exactly what you're being served.

There's no shortage of YouTube videos showing the disgusting practices of seafood farms. Here's a well-made video which tells quite a bit about the industry:

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Who took the jam out of your doughnut?

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But you never know. I would put the over under at 3 years and will take the under. Restaurants like this are all about high volume and I just can’t envision enough foot traffic to make the margins work. I am even doubtful Shanti will survive ( too many evenings with only a few patrons) and they actually have really good food! Maybe a spot like this would make it in trendy places like JP or spots with lots of students with disposable income, but this spot in rozzie?? Nah...

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