WHERE: 2035 Harrison St., Hollywood 33020
PHONE: (954) 300-1007
WEBSITE: https://jandcoyster.com/
1. BOOSTING THE SCENE:
Harrison Street was the cutting-edge restaurant scene in Hollywood a couple of decades ago before Hollywood Boulevard, one block north, started taking off. Now, Venezuelan-born restaurateur Cesar Cifuentes is helping elevate Harrison with Oaxaka, a Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant that interconnects with the newly opened J&C Oyster. Oaxaka (a name derived from Oaxaca in Mexico and Osaka in Japan) started out as a food stall at the Yellow Green Farmers Market. He’s planning an Italian restaurant next. Cifuentes knows Harrison Street well, since his CMA company (digital signage, audio/video, software development and system automation) is right across the street from the restaurants. Cifuentes’ timing seems right since downtown Hollywood has been activated by ArtsPark at Young Circle and has an ongoing spurt of residential development.
2. PEDIGREED CHEFS:
Executive Chef Raheem Sealey started cooking in the kitchen with his grandmother as a child in St. Croix and moved to Miami to enroll at Le Cordon Bleu. He worked with Chef Michael Lewis at Michael’s Genuine, becoming sous chef. He became executive chef at KYU, a highly acclaimed Asian-inspired restaurant in Wynwood. He cofounded Drinking Pig BBQ and met Cifuentes during a pop-up in Wynwood. Co-Chef Monika Dominguez was mentored by Sealey at Zuma and KYU. She has also worked at Chug’s Diner and Dale Street Food.
3. COCKTAIL TIME:
J&C has eight signature cocktails. I opted for the Yuzu Margarita. Yuzu is a citrus fruit combined with Patrón tequila, curacao and lime. It was a refreshing take on a margarita without the often-common cloying sweetness. There’s a Tom Collins with a tarragon twist and the Singani Enzoni, with Singani 63, lemon and white grapes. Singani is distilled from grapes high in the Bolivian Andes. There’s a nice selection of sake plus plenty of reds, whites, roses and bubblies to choose from.
4. CHEF-DRIVEN
Our pleasant server Daisy described J&C as a chef-driven seafood concept restaurant. A lot of Asian techniques and ingredients are utilized. All the dishes are intended to be shared, so they are served at the center of the table. She recommends placing the entire order and just letting the food flow. We did that and had a relaxing, but exciting gastronomic adventure.
5. DIVING IN:
We started with a combination of super fresh raw oysters from the East and West Coasts. The accompanying nam prik mignonette sauce, a Thai spicy chili sauce, was a nice accompaniment. Yes, we’ll have mussels, too. It was hard to stop dunking the sourdough toast in the broth flavored with xo butter, togarashi (Japanese 7 Spice), scallions and lime. The king crab had huge chunks of crab with more yuzu in a mayo dip, and the Thai Crab Curry is a culinary delight. The Chilean Sea Bass filet was flaky tender with miso, ginger and a vinaigrette herb salad. Despite the seafood emphasis, there were some outstanding meat dishes, starting with the steak tartare with truffle mayo and milk bread. The Korean-style togarashi brined chicken is a must-have, so crispy and flavorful with a house-made barbecue sauce, chili butter and palate-cleansing pickles.
SHORT TAKES
- There’s still plenty of other dishes for us to try next time, such as the lobster risotto, oxtail, lobster roll and soft-shell crab rolls.
- With the abundance of seafood, consider constructing a made-to-order platter with items such as crab salad, shrimp, oysters, king crab and lobster. There’s also a caviar service.
- J&C Oyster is currently open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, with a fantastic Happy Hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the bar.
