DURHAM, N.C. — November 11, 2014 — Diners may soon spot some unfamiliar fish on restaurant menus across North Carolina, such as sheepshead, scup, ribbonfish and grunts.
That may be the result of Pate Dawson Southern Foods, a North Carolina-based food distributor, making a big push at its October food show in Durham to sell chefs from Asheville to New Bern on buying lesser-known fish.
Not only was the company serving samples of skate wing, spots and spadefish, but it also brought in Barton Seaver, a well-known chef and expert on sustainable seafood, as keynote speaker. Seaver also was the special guest at a private dinner that brought together chefs, fishermen and seafood producers.
Despite the attention local food has gotten in recent years, Joel Sullivan, a Pate Dawson manager, says: “North Carolina seafood has not really had its day yet.”
Sullivan, whose great-great-grandfather started the company in 1885 as a Goldsboro grocery store, sees a business opportunity for fishermen, fish houses, distributors and restaurants. Fishermen can sell fish that they weren’t making any money on but have been catching as they targeted other species. Fish houses can sell these species to distributors, which deliver it to restaurants that can likely pay less for them than for the more popular species.
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