Legal Sea Foods

Checking in on an expanded empire

by Robert Nadeau

DINING OUT

Legal Sea Foods 26 Park Plaza (Park Square) (617) 426-4444 Open Mon-Thurs, 11:30 a.m.- 10 p.m.; Fri, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sat, noon-11 p.m.; Sun, noon-10 p.m. AE, DC, Disc, Visa Full bar Smoking at bar and in lounge Street-level access 255 State Street (Long Wharf) (617) 426-4444 Open Mon-Thurs, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri and Sat, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun, noon-10 p.m. AE, DC, Disc, Visa Full bar Smoking section Street-level access Logan Airport, Terminal C (617) 568-2800 Open daily, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. AE, DC, Disc, Visa Full bar No smoking Access off concourse

Legal Sea Foods began in 1968 as a lunch counter upstairs from a fish market in Cambridge. I didn't get there until 1971, so this is only my fourth decade writing about this restaurant dynasty. The original restaurant was unusual in that it served many, many species from the sea -- but only broiled or fried. You paid first and got served when things were ready, and everything was rudimentary: paper plates, no desserts.

Almost all restaurants that expand do so by diluting the original concept, but Legal Sea Foods has expanded nationally by pushing every aspect of the operation one level further than anyone else. There have been newspaper stories about problems within the family management, but none about how Legal managed to grow during periods of changing fish supplies and prices that drove many seafood restaurants out of business. Now, with fish restaurants back in vogue, it is the gold standard of comparison.

The idea of doing a quick survey of the Legal system arose after the departure of executive chef Jasper White, the hop across Columbus Avenue when the Park Square restaurant lost its lease, and the opening of a waterfront location at Long Wharf just as the Big Dig put a damper on all consumer restaurants east of Route 93.

The Long Wharf branch, which is near the Aquarium, has taken on the trappings of a modern mall restaurant. There are pagers for people who want to hang out until a table opens up, crayons for kids, and the dark wood and modern architecture of any contempo loud bar. Whole fish and oysters are displayed on ice, and line cooks toil in the open kitchen.

One change is that plates look fancier. Legal's smoked bluefish pâté ($6) is now shaped like a French liver pâté, and rolled in a nut crust to look a little like a pâté wrapped in bacon. It's the same delectably salty appetizer it always was, but the plate now includes . . . vegetables! A very decent tomato, scallions, celery, cucumber -- all as foreign to the original fish-house concept as sauces or wine.

Speaking of wine, the newest thing (to me, anyway) at the Long Wharf location is wine "flights" -- two-ounce pours of each of three very decent table wines ($6.50). I think any of the three -- a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, an Alsatian pinot blanc, and an inexpensive pouilly fumé -- would go well with fish, but the pouilly fumé was the clear winner by a kiss of oak. (At the Park Square location, they have flights of martinis made with different brands of gin or vodka.)

An important legacy of Jasper White is the wood-grilled fish and seafood, notably the scallops ($20 at Long Wharf, $15.95 elsewhere). The high temperature and the smokiness of a wood-fired grill really make a difference, and the grills have been changed to wood even at the Logan Airport outpost, which despite its somewhat restricted menu still tends to be the culinary high point of my trips. Among the potato selections, the French fries are much improved, with some skin left on and a little crunch, but they're still fish-house fries. The baked potato has lost the aluminum-foil coating of earlier years, and thus is flakier and tastier. The current side vegetable is steamed broccoli and carrots (this might be an area for the next consulting chef to work on).

Another Jasper White legacy is the chowders, of which the "lite clam chowder" (Park Square and Logan Airport only, $3.50) is a no-cream chowder inspired by Rhode Island clear-broth chowder, but with added vegetables.

"Spicy Shandong Bluefish" ($14) is now on the list of "Legal Classics." It derives from a visit by chefs from China in the early '80s, although my recollection is that it used to be made from a white fish. The gingery-sweet-sour-hot sauce is even better on bluefish, and Legal's bluefish is still uncanny, as close to your own catch as I've had anywhere. This platter comes with real Thai jasmine rice (in a pilaf with pine nuts) and stir-fried snap peas with a bit of pepper.

The same rice turns up in a bowl of gumbo ($12) at the Park Square Legal. I am not a fan of restaurant gumbo in Boston, but this one is very impressive. The seafood is apparently plopped in at the last minute so even the shrimp don't overcook, and the scallops and lumps of white fish are superb. The gluey broth has obviously been cooked a while to blend the spices and some Cajun sausage into something quite wonderful. I think the spicing is a little too peppery and somewhat thin in the midrange, where the thyme and the citric flavor of filé powder ought to be more prominent -- but for non-Louisiana gumbo it's good, and it's typical of Legal's determination to get things right. The menu at Park Square also keeps a couple of things from the late, lamented Legal C Bar, namely, the codfish fritters and "Petit's Haitian Chicken Wings," the best non-fish dish in Legal history.

The Park Square location, which is the newest, superficially resembles every other large bistro of the past decade. Up close one notices superior details: the terrazzo bar has embedded shell fragments; the ceiling is copper mesh. This location has many levels, which keeps a good illusion that it is not as large as it is. In keeping with pushing everything one level further, the aquarium behind the bar is full of zebra fish that will be used in medical research by Children's Hospital. Sitting at the bar I noted the taps: Guinness, Harpoon IPA, Samuel Adams, Bass Ale -- yup, just about the line-up in St. Peter's favorite pub in heaven. I checked myself for injuries, but decided I was still alive, and in a Legal Sea Foods.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.

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