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There is a niche for all kinds of restaurants in Sarasota, even if I happen not to like the style of cuisine. Case in point has always been the Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar. Sure, it juts out over the water and looks like it was constructed from leftover dock wood and a post-hurricane beach souvenir stand, all of which makes it a fine tourist draw. But I’ve never understood the appeal of the food. The place serves generic fish-shack fare that feels more Cape Cod than Gulf Coast, with piles of deep-fried clam strips and oysters, buckets of peel-and-eat shrimp, and fish fillets stuffed with breadcrumbs and apathy.

Obviously, though, there are a lot of people who disagree with me. Like Ricky Orduno, employee and manager of Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar for decades, and now the proprietor of a new restaurant at the corner of Webber and Beneva. After so long in the same place, he was ready to try something new. Enter childhood friend Bianca Gomez, owner of two Bianca’s Mexican Stores and a sit-down Mexican restaurant, who was looking to get out of the full-service restaurant business. Orduno made an offer Gomez couldn’t refuse, and pitched the restaurant concept he knew best.

Blue Marlin opened a month ago in the former home of Bianca’s Restaurant, with little change to the interior space besides the addition of strategically placed faux fishing nets tangled with plastic sea creatures and a few other maritime touches that are familiar to anyone who’s been in a fish house in the past 50 years. It’s so evocative, you could peg most of the menu at a glance based on décor. Even without the visual clues, knowing Orduno’s background is another big hint.

Although not an exact replica of the Phillippi formula (at least partially due to Blue Marlin’s landlocked location), the food is decidedly similar. Stuffed shrimp and fish? Check. Deep-fried marine life? Check. Shellfish sautéed in butter, fish charred or blackened, French fries and red potatoes for sides with hush puppies and cole slaw on every plate? Homemade mustard aioli and bright cocktail sauce? Check, check and double-check.

Sounds familiar, but there are subtle differences.

Blue Marlin’s crab cakes are more for people who like fry than claw meat, the interiors devoid of chunky crab, but the patties are still moist and flavorful, with a deeply crunchy crust. The restaurant’s skill at the fryer is what saves a dish like that, and what adds value to items like crackling soft-shell crab coated in deeply browned cornmeal, or steamy links of tender grouper encased in a puffy batter. It all could use a little more salt, but the technique is not only sound, it’s profound. High-end restaurants could learn a thing or two from Blue Marlin’s fry guy.

And let’s give the grill station some credit too, especially when it comes to the restaurant’s simple preparations of fish. Order a slab of mahi and it comes with picture-perfect cross-hatched grillmarks that look like they were painted on by a food stylist. Those deeply caramelized lines also add smoky depth to the mild flesh and simple, concise cooking. Get it blackened if you want some excitement, although Blue Marlin’s touch is light enough that the grill and mahi still dominate the taste.

Branch out into the sautéed items and you’ll start to realize the limitations of inexpensive fish shack cuisine — $12.95 may get you a hefty plate of grub but the scallops and shrimp won’t be big and beautiful. Salt, butter and a little garlic are less forgiving than a hot grill or burbling fry oil. Same with baked seafood stuffed with more of the same filling in the crab cakes. Encased in baked fillet o’ fish, the stuffing is mealy and bland. Surrounded by crunchy breading, you’re apt to ignore deficiencies.

The cole slaw is simple and right, the cocktail sauce is tinged with horseradish and the thick and creamy mayo-mustard dip goes with just about everything. The only odd note to a meal at Blue Marlin are hush puppies that have the fine crust I expect, but disintegrate into a crumbly mass of oddly flavored dough once the outer layer is pierced. They’ll have to give the fry guy better material than that.

Yeah, it’s not my favorite cuisine, not by a longshot, but like a crossover country tune that gets pop station play, Blue Marlin might just seduce me into coming back. It’s the kind of homey, inexpensive and simple fare that make for accessible eating any night of the week.

Blue Marlin Cafe

3 stars

3589 Webber St., Sarasota, 923-5356

Photo by Christina Ostrye

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