It’s unlikely one would simply stumble upon Minneapolis’ seafood hub. Wedged between Hiawatha and Minnehaha Avenues in Cedar-Riverside in a sprawling industrial area, you have to know it to find it. Yet, nestled among an Islamic center and a Somali restaurant, there it is — a grouping of United Noodles (an Asian market and grocery store), a Hawaiian restaurant, and Coastal Seafoods, one of the city’s most inconspicuous yet delightful restaurants — all encased in a sprawling parking lot.
In the 1980s a banker turned fishmonger Suzanne Weinstein opened Coastal Seafoods as a wholesale seafood business in Minneapolis, following it up with an outpost in St. Paul a few years later. Over time Coastal Seafoods expanded to add a market component as well. The retail sides of the stores are stocked with delights that span Thai charcoal, charcuterie supplies, Kewpie mayonnaise, local ice cream, and many, many sauces, oils, and other common and obscure seafood accouterments.
Plus, of course, there’s a well-curated selection of high-quality fish and seafood — all with an eye towards sustainability — that includes an array of East Coast and West Coast oysters, crab cakes, lobster tails, and more. But in the last few years, they expanded yet again to include a small, seafood slinging restaurant dubbed the Dive, tucked within each Coastal Seafoods location, which is what my seafood-loving husband and I came for.
After easily snagging one of many, many parking spaces in Coastal Seafoods’ large lot complete with a patio composed of wooden picnic tables, we walked into the Minneapolis location’s small but mighty retail and restaurant space. The first thing we saw was a dad ordering from the seafood counter along the back wall with his daughter outfitted in a bright pink sundress riding on his shoulders…