MECHANICVILLE — The newest restaurant in Mechanicville opens its doors today, with Moby Rick’s Seafood, a restaurant and fish market, kicking off a “soft opening” today and tomorrow, Jan. 6 and 7.
Owner Rick Lofstad said the location is “huge,” noting that it has a catering hall with a capacity of 100 people among other amenities.
“It’s huge,” said Lofstad. “That’s a 3,500-square-foot full restaurant.”
Located at 251 North Main Street in Mechanicville, it is the second current Moby Rick’s location, with another on Congress Street in Saratoga Springs. Lofstad also owns Pura Vida Fisheries, where he sells fish at “25 farmer’s markets a week.”
Lofstad said he will be able to make prepared foods at the Mechanicville location and bring some to Saratoga to be sold.
“We have been making soups, sauces, sides. Crab cakes, fish cakes, meals ready to go,” said Lofstad. “For example, we’re making a smoked salmon quiche, where people can take a slice home or take a full pie home. We’ll make baked dinners, where it’s like a take-and-bake. You just throw it in the oven and off you go.
“Those are the kind of things that we’ll now be able to make in Mechanicville and offer over there (in Saratoga).”
Lofstad also said he plans to open a tasting room, where customers can experiment with unfamiliar fish.
“The ocean is full of fish, but not fish that people know,” Lofstad said. “So now I have a tasting room. I go to a brewery, they have a tasting room with four or five different beers. A vineyard, they have different wines. But I’m a fisherman, so I have my own tasting room.”
The Mechanicville restaurant will have a limited menu during the soft opening, with Lofstad saying he will take things “slow and steady.”
“I have a good team of experienced restaurant workers, so we’re going to go slow and steady,” said Lofstad. “Unfold as we go along.”
In addition to the new location, Moby Rick’s is also opening an online business, with Lofstad saying they will be able to deliver in the area. He said many people travel from the Adirondacks to pick up products during the summer.
“We do get many customers that make the trip all the way down to Saratoga to pick up product and take it up to their camps,” Lofstad said. “The online business will be able to offer me to deliver it to them.”
Lofstad said he hopes the Mechanicville location can be “a place where local people can experiment and enjoy new things.”
“The fish I’ve been mostly catching, people up here don’t really look for, like mackerel, blue fish, porgies, and sea bass,” said Lofstad.
Lofstad said he gets fish “from all over the world,” and also catches some himself. Lofstad said he owns three boats and that his family owns four additional boats in Long Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
He also noted that the fish come directly from the sea to his locations, saying “it’s just as fresh as anybody’s getting on the coast.”
He said he also hopes to begin offering brunch at the location, naming smoked salmon, a seafood quiche, and shrimp and grits as possible offerings.
“And maybe a Bloody Mary or a mimosa,” said Lofstad. “Something a little bit different.”
