“Hey mister, ya like scallops?”
Funny, eh? But not too far from what Chef Savannah Jordan used to shout from her car when Montauk Catch Club began in 2020. You have to start somewhere. And 2020 was a year for pivoting and making things happen. Along with her business partner, fisherman Parker Hollinger, the duo cooked up a way to eliminate intermediaries and go from the source off the coast of Montauk right to the people. They secure the beautiful fish of the region—delivering to consumers from the dock—and radically cut down a process that might otherwise take several days.
This makes their Catch Club a fresher, more sustainable way to enjoy
fresh seafood.
Parker fell in love with Montauk as a kid and eventually sold fish and managed the docks for Gosman’s Fish Market; Savannah has cooked at some of the most notable restaurants in Manhattan, namely Le Bernardin and Mary’s Fish Camp. The two met in 2016 while Savannah worked at Ruschmeyers, a Long Island institution. Soon they brought their talents together and were determined to share a little of old Montauk with the rest of New York.
For the last five years, Montauk Catch Club has become a beloved fixture at farmers’ markets throughout the Hudson Valley, Astoria, and in Westchester. While the couple have anchored themselves between Rosendale and Kingston along Route 32, at their new physical space, they also make weekly deliveries to Brooklyn and Manhattan.
You know the feeling: You’ve been in the sun all day, there’s still a little sand in between your toes, and all you want to do is luxuriate in the crack of a cold can of beer or the glug, glug of a crisp white and sit down to a gorgeous plate of the freshest fish. Add a few friends and somehow all’s right with the world. Savannah and Parker have turned that sensation into an all-year-round reality.
The idea for a brick-and-mortar arose once their “club” of fish enthusiasts—4,000 and growing—became a reliable customer base. Essentially, when you sign up for their news letter, you are in the club; you are part of the group that gets a first glimpse on deals and catches of the week.
Once the pair settled on the Hudson Valley, the dream of docking in one place became a reality. “So if we started a shop, and maybe I lost my mind,” Savannah laughs, “but I thought, then we need to have food; and if we’re gonna have food, then we should have booze too.” And so on. Parker adds, “We’ve found an outlet for everything.”
There’s a flow to the shop that perks up the senses: Front and center is the case of fish, 85% of which is caught right off the coast of Montauk. Next to that are prepared items like lobster salad, tuna salad, Thai curry, chowders, moqueca, dumplings, to name a few. On the left is the “wet room” where Parker breaks down all the fish, upwards of 1,000 pounds a week. And to the right is where you pull up a seat at one of the banquettes—made of local ash—or at the bar, run by Ryan White, Savannah’s husband, who has a long pedigree of somming in the City. Once you stroll past the bar, you head out to the backyard, yet another space that amplifies the nostalgia for small moments, big impact.
“When I’m here, I feel like I’m on vacation,” a customer told Savannah recently. “That really resonated with me. It’s what I want people to say. I want them to feel like they could have just walked the shore of Montauk, where the fish is being caught, but make that happen for everyone here in the woods.”
MONTAUK CATCH CLUB
2608 NY-32, Kingston, NY; @montaukcatchclub
