Fishing for Your Food at New York’s Wild New Seafood Restaurant
The Manhattan dining room of Zauo has tanks stocked with trout and salmon—and “No Synchronized Swimming” signs.
Your odds of catching a big striped bass for dinner in New York City are not especially high. A pier in Brooklyn, close to the Williamsburg J.Crew, probably offers the best chance. Your next step is to find someone to clean and cook it for you.
Or you can just book a table at Zauo. Starting on Oct. 15, diners will be able to walk into the Chelsea restaurant and dip a line into a giant tank full of frisky striped bass—plus salmon, fluke, trout, and other fish. It’s a farm-to-table thesis served with a rémoulade of Japan-style kitsch. It’s dining theater at the extreme, an outsize gimmick in a town built on them. It’s also quite entertaining.