Mitch Tonks - ROCKFISH
Rockfish Restaurants has recently opened its 7th restaurant in Weymouth, extending its foot- print further across the south coast of England. An 8th restaurant is planned for Poole, opening in 2020. By The Dart caught up with Mitch Tonks to discuss how the Rockfish brand, which opened first in Dartmouth in 2010, has proved so successful.
With two openings planned over the next 12 months, where next for Rockfish? After Poole we will be looking to open in the town of Sidmouth. We have identified a wonderful venue called the Drill Hall, which overlooks the sea and is located next door to the sailing club, the local trawler agents and the RNLI. It’s exactly the type of property we look for at Rockfish. After this we will continue eastwards looking at fishing towns and other unique coastal locations.
Was this expansion originally planned when the first restaurant opened up in Dartmouth? No! The original plan was to just to run the Seahorse and Rockfish restaurants in Dartmouth and spend our time just cooking but we realised that Rockfish was a great solution for people wanting to eat seafood. As the business grew in- creasingly popular, so we thought why we don’t do another. By chance, I was walking past the building where we are now in Plymouth which was then empty. It struck me as just the place, being next to the Aquarium and the fish market, for anot er Rockfish venue. So we did just that. It was quick- ly successful and that then gave us the bug to do more.
What has contributed to the success of the Rockfish brand? I think there are many attributes that come together to make it so popular; our guests like it for different reasons. Firstly, everyone is welcome at Rockfish; families, dogs, foodies, seafood lovers. There is something for everyone and, of course, people who want to eat gluten free. The
one thing that unites all our guests is the love of seafood and that is what we focus on by sourcing the best, sourcing it sustainably and cooking the best way to suit the species. Over the years we have seen things change - at the beginning, cod was all that people wanted. Now we sell more of the local fish that we write on the tablecloths whether it’s from our own boat or from the Brixham market each day.
How have you ‘tweaked’ the formula as you open more restaurants? Have you discovered things you didn’t know back in 2010 when the Rockfish story began?
Rockfish is a constant evolution for us as we try to make it better all the time. In the beginning, we were just frying fish and trying to do it the best we could. We then realised that people couldn’t eat fried fish all the time so we started grilling it as well. Then, we started using a plancha to cook our fish, which is a flat grill that gets super hot and is, by far, the best way of cooking seafood. We then added chargrills for the oily fish and shellfish. We continued to innovate the menu and made a commitment to being glu- ten free and certified by the Coeliac UK association which meant changing all our cooking ranges with separate pans for gluten free. We continue to improve and develop the menu all the time but still keeping the Rockfish favourites e.g. we are working on a seafood stew for the winter. Where we buy fish from is at the core of whether we can use a species. We are committed to only use species from MSC fisheries and small scale fisheries like our local fleet. A few years ago, we set up our own facility in Brixham so we could buy fish straight from the market and process it ourselves. Since then, we have progressed this further by recently collaborating with a local fisherman to launch the first Rockfish boat which lands its fish directly to us. In the future, we will look to grow the fleet and work with marine farmers to ensure that guests at Rockfish eat fish caught and bought by us.
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