First Bite: Coastal Flats swims back across the river
When patrons of Great American Restaurants talk, Jon Norton, chief executive of the Virginia-based dining collection, listens.
Encouraged by the many Marylanders he says he saw at Coastal Flats, his seafood concept in Tysons Corner, and buoyed by their requests for something similar closer to where they live, Norton came up with a Coastal Flats for Gaithersburg in September.
The latest addition to Great American Restaurants — a mini-empire that includes Artie’s, Caryle, Mike’s American and multiple Sweetwater Taverns — now makes three spots featuring seafood. (Fairfax has a Coastal Flats, too.)
Of the newcomer, Norton says, “It’s exciting to cross the river again.”
Again? Turns out Great American Restaurants had a stake in Maryland decades ago, with an outpost in Rockville of its now-defunct Fritzbe's brand.
Part of the Downtown Crown retail development, the latest Coastal Flats (“flip flops optional,” reads the mantra) is every bit the sprawl that its siblings are. The restaurant opens with a colorful school of outsize painted metal fish floating above the host desk, plus some wavy glass dividers. The beach theme continues with a 275-seat dining room, its back wall painted with a mural of the Key West of yesteryear.
Fans of the company will be on familiar terms with the menu, sprinkled with hits from the GAR repertoire, among them spiky crab-and-shrimp fritters, hickory-smoked beef ribs and white chocolate bread pudding. Unique to Coastal Flats are a miso-glazed sea bass with sticky rice and an onion-sharpened ceviche mounded with scallops and shrimp. Quickly blanched and finished with lime juice, the latter dish is escorted by tortilla chips for scooping. The seafood salad isn’t the sparkler you’ll find at Oyamel or even Tico in the District, but it’s still tasty. The lobster roll — mostly seafood with hints of mayonnaise and lemon juice — is the classic I recall from this restaurant’s kin in Northern Virginia.
Making the strongest impression during my recent fishing expedition was another GAR signature: salmon that gets its flavor from a marinade of orange juice, ginger, garlic and soy sauce followed by a cold smoke and a brief sit on a hot grill. Crushed cauliflower makes a great sidekick to the entree.
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Good food at a fair price isn’t the only explanation for why, even on a Monday night, Coastal Flats is packed. Navigating the sea of tables and booths are servers whose good cheer is matched by their seeming ability to read minds. Why, yes, I’d love another gin gimlet to wash back those seafood fritters.
135 Crown Park Ave., Gaithersburg. 301-869-8800. greatamericanrestaurants.com/coastalflats/gaithersburg. Dinner entrees, $14 to $33.
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