Want the fish supplied to area restaurants? Find it at a West Sacramento home
The freshest catch isn’t at your local fishmonger. It’s in the hinterlands of West Sacramento.
Anthony Ferrari grew up the son of a fisherman. After college, he actually played professional baseball for a few years, having been recruited by the Montreal Expos and then moving on to the Italian national team. But the fish reeled him back.
“I’ve always wanted to sell retail. People would talk to me like, ‘oh, it doesn’t work, you lose fishing time.’ And one day, I said, ‘screw it. I’m going to try it anyway,’” he said.
He got online, filed the necessary paperwork to launch his business, and began selling out of the back of his truck in front of his home at 4250 S. River Road. Ferrari Fisheries was born.
“People were looking at me like all funny, driving by. Some lady stopped, and she’s like, what is this?” Ferrari said. “She bought two black cod, then she told a couple of her friends, and it just started spreading.”
Initially Ferrari took people’s numbers and would text them individually when he brought in his catch. As the list grew to 300 people, that became untenable. They built a website so customers could sign up to be notified by text or email when the next catch will come in.
As the list grew, Ferrari went from selling off his truck’s tailgate to tents, ultimately building a permanent structure to withstand the winds that sweep across the fields of Yolo County. Today, the alert list is approaching 7,000 customers, nearly entirely all by word of mouth.
When I visited on Jan. 14, Ferrari was selling black cod and rock cod, also known as red snapper. He sells the whole fish for $7 per pound, and filets as a courtesy. Customers can choose to take the heads and bones from the fileted fish; some jockey for the bones the other customers don’t want.
His wife, Terri, is a gynecological surgeon with Sutter Health. She comes by to help when the crowds queue up. The real catch? She hates fish, but she’s willing to do whatever it takes to help grow the business.
Terri Ferrari jokes that she is repulsed by the smell of the fish, but “it’s the smell of money.”
Anthony Ferrari doesn’t think of himself as particularly social, but as he deftly breaks down the fish, he’s affable and conversational. His movements are swift and natural. He’s done this a lot.
Max, the farm cat, hovers around seeking affection and — of course — fish. Ferrari tries to offer him liver, but Max demands pieces of filets.
Being that it’s midday Wednesday, business is comparatively light, but there’s still always a line of at least a half dozen people. When he sells on the weekends, it can extend to more than 100.
Jeremy Clovis has bought from Ferrari several times. He lives nearby, and discovered the business driving by it. On this day, he purchased black cod, with which he planned to make miso-marinated black cod, a recipe made famous by Michelin-starred New York restaurant Nobu.
Ferrari fishes off the coast of Fort Bragg, using boats from his father’s fleet. He mainly focuses on black cod and rock cod because he knows spots where they are abundant. Occasionally he will also go for ling cod.
He’ll take his catch first to San Francisco and then to Sacramento, where he sells to restaurants. He reserves about 10% to sell direct to consumers.
To satisfy customer demand, he will buy other fish from fisherman friends, bringing in halibut, tuna and Dungeness crab. Now that the season is open in California, he hopes to have crab in for Super Bowl weekend.
The Ferraris are conscious of sustainability. Discarded guts and unwanted bones get composted. The runoff from the cutting table gets used to water their fruit trees, which are robust.
Ferrari’s fish routinely crops up on menus all over town. Even if it’s not explicitly named, if you see black cod, rock cod or red snapper on the menu, you can likely assume it’s his.
What I’m Eating
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
I know, Christmas was last month. But after the holidays comes the return of the dish I look forward most: The Waterboy’s pot pie.
I first fell in love with it five years ago. It popped up in my Instagram, a pot pie like I’ve never seen before. There it was, burnished pastry walls standing proud, filling peering out from its open-faced top. I was obsessed.
We went for lunch the next day. I was not disappointed.
Each year, Chef Rick Mahan has tinkered with the form. The freestanding tower slumped to a galette, then rolled over into an empanada-like creation. This year, he’s going back to the galette style, now with a jaunty pastry cap perched on top.
The filling evolves as well. Aside from the familiar chicken, he’s done rabbit, lamb and beef bourguignon. I’ve enjoyed a few of these permutations, but for my money nothing beats the classic chicken.
The pastry is sturdy but crisp and flaky, not tough. Inside, the filling is creamy and rich without being gloopy. It is the platonic ideal of pot pie, to me. I will surely have it a few more times before it disappears.
The pot pie is only available at lunch. At $32, it’s not inexpensive, but I manage to get two meals out of it, especially as our table split an order of the spiced lamb meatballs ($21). Four petite orbs waded in a pool of butternut squash polenta with garlicky greens, splashed with romesco sauce.
I’ve eaten at The Waterboy countless times, enjoying it equally for lunch or dinner. I like the airy, fern bar-like, ladies-who-lunch vibe. The service is always warm and the food carefully crafted.
The Waterboy will turn 30 this year, a testament to its significance in our local dining scene. Chef Mahan is considered an architect of what we now enjoy as the farm-to-fork movement. I hope it lasts another 30 years.
The Waterboy
Address: 2000 Capitol Ave., midtown
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 5-9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Phone: 916-498-9891
Website: waterboyrestaurant.com
Vegetarian options: Ample
Noise level: Moderate at lunch; can get a little boisterous at dinner
Openings & Closings
On Friday, Jan. 23. longtime Sacramento sushi chef Lou Valente rebooted his restaurant, Lou’s Sushi, eight years after he exited the first incarnation of the business and more than three years after leaving his subsequent restaurant, Southpaw Sushi. The new Lou’s Sushi occupies the space of the former Holy Spirits on 20th Street in the MARRS Building, where Valente had been doing periodic sushi popups.
The El Dorado Hills branch of Bella Bru Cafe, the popular collective of European-inflected cafes, will close at the end of the month. A post on its social media said the “decision was not made lightly,” and that it had “reached a point where closing the business was the right decision.” The original Carmichael restaurant and the branch in Natomas will remain open.
Organizers of the Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival announced that it has been postponed indefinitely. Jessica Palmer of Seedless Events LLC, which runs the festival, said the decision was made to allow more time to ensure the festival meets expectations. While there is no clear timeline for a relaunch of the festival, Palmer intends to keep it at Southside Park, where it has been since its inception in 2017.
