Effing seafood may seem like a fish out of water in land-locked St. Albert, but soon the seafood producer will be selling fresh coastal food from around the world right in our city.
The store is currently under construction, but once complete it will offer fish from New Zealand, Hawaii, Iceland the east coast and the west coast. It will also have live lobster and crab for purchase.
“This is something that I’ve been picturing for about eight years now,” said Rob Tryon, owner of Effing Seafood.
Tryon started the business in 2015 as a seafood distributor, providing fresh fish to chefs across Edmonton and St. Albert. He also provided a subscription box service, where people would receive fish each month right on their doorstep. Tryon also participates in farmers' markets in the region, including St. Albert.
Tryon grew up on the ocean in Effingham Inlet on Vancouver Island, which explains his love for the food and the company name.
“I used to grow oysters,” he said. “My dad was a fisherman, so I’ve grown up around seafood my whole life.”
In 2013 he started working in the oil field and fell in love with Alberta. Even though he liked working on the pipeline, he said he longed to return to catching fish.
“When I was pipelining, all the guys said as soon as I started talking about fish, or seafood or oysters, they’re like ‘you’ve got a little twinkle in your eye’.”
That’s when he decided to start Effing Seafood. He said he decided he would only offer seafood from people he knew and trusted, starting with the fishermen he worked alongside with in British Columbia.
Since then he’s developed a system: he won’t buy any product if he doesn’t know what boat went out, who was on the boat and where the fish were caught.
“Trace-ability is big for me. I’ll generally travel to where I’m going to pull products from, but I won’t take anything until I’ve been there,” he said.
The shop in St. Albert will be the first place he’s opened a store-front. He said he plans on partnering with other local businesses to offer a different shopping experience.
In the store people will be able to purchase other foods from other local businesses. St. Albert’s XIX Nineteen will be one of the partnering restaurants.
Andrew Fung, chef at XIX Nineteen, will be making lobster bisque that will be sold at Effing Seafood once it’s opened.
“It’s for people who maybe don’t want to go to a restaurant after work and sit down for three hours. They can go to the store and pick it up,” Fung said.
At the store Fung will be providing recipes that are on the XIX Nineteen menu for people to build their own soup at home.
Fung said he’s happy the seafood store is coming to St. Albert.
“It’s exciting to have him here,” he said.
XIX Nineteen has been getting seafood from Tryon since 2015. Fung said it’s the freshest seafood he’s ever received.
It doesn’t matter where in the world the fish is caught, it’s never delivered frozen. As soon as the seafood is off the boat it’s processed, loaded into a plane and sent to Edmonton.
“Most of the time restaurants are getting their product within 48 hours of coming out of the water,” he said.
Some of the fish he gets are swordfish, rock fish, lingcod, haddock, ono, spearfish, blue marlin and ahi tuna to name a few.
Tryon also distributes fish to Privada in St. Albert, as well as to the restaurant at the Enjoy Centre.
Effing Seafood, which is located in Riel Park, is expected to be open in the next few months. For more information visit: http://www.effingseafoods.com/
