November 1, 2013 — In some ways, little has changed since Fulton departed Manhattan for the Bronx more than eight years ago: It’s still crazy busy, it’s still equal parts reputable and rude and it’s still a gritty gig — it’s still New York.
In other respects, the ones that truly count in today’s sanitized foodservice world, the new place is nothing like the decrepit digs on South Street in Lower Manhattan, where fresh fish and food safety were rarely uttered in the same breath. Instead of rainwater dripping onto boxes from the viaduct above and summer temperatures wreaking havoc on a highly perishable inventory (same goes for the dead of winter) in the open-air market, the climate-controlled facility designed for in-and-out ease is a godsend — or at least it depends on who you ask.
Just about all of the New York restaurants that Roberto Nuñez buys fresh seafood for want the same thing: genuine American red snapper (Lutjanes campechanus). He’s skeptical about finding any, though, because the guys at Fulton Fish Market haven’t had much to offer lately. It’s getting close to 2 a.m. on a late-September Thursday, as good a day as any to buy fish, he reveals. It may be several hours before dawn in the farthest reaches of the Bronx, but it’s time to go to work, because the market opened for business within the hour. This is no job, and no place, for timid types.
As he drives his van through the gated, modernized seafood hub, passing a dozen or more trucks unloading fish, Nuñez — who local traders call both Roberto and Robert, depending on how well they know him — senses he’ll have a wide array of options once inside. There’s talk of some spectacular Spanish mackerel about, and he’s already pondering the snapper substitutes he’ll undoubtedly have to make, while reviewing a shopping list on a piece of scrap paper he jotted down from chefs’ voicemails, text messages and emails.
He buys some of their seafood for them over the phone like anybody else, but there’s nothing like actually seeing and touching the product before purchase. Aside from New England’s display auctions that allow for early-morning lot inspections before online bids begin, the New Fulton Fish Market Cooperative here on Hunt’s Point in the Bronx is one of the last places in the world where you can truly buy with your eyes, wholesale. You want that fish? You got it. New York is known for window-shopping, but this place takes the hake.
He’s fashionably late, but it’s a good time to arrive, Nuñez says, because all the vendors should be set up and ready to deal. Now if he can only find some red snapper.
Read the full story at Seafood Business