Choptank - Reviewed

 Address: 308-310 Bleecker St., at Grove St.

Phone: (212)675-2009 

Cuisine: Chesapeake seafood

Vibe: Refined neighborhood joint 

Occasion: Oyster binge; Casual date; Group dinner.

Hours: Seven days a week. Dinner, Sun-Wed, 5:30p.m.-12a.m., Thu-Sat, 5:30p.m.-2a.m.

Don't Miss Dish: Arctic Char; Fried chicken; Bay leaf sorbet. 

Average Price: Appetizers, $10 ; Entrees, $20; Dessert, $7.

Reservations: Reservations recommended.

Capsule: Fine fish shack fare & terrific fried chicken in the West Village  

You used to have to wait patiently for summer to arrive to get your  fix of crab chowder, peel 'n eat shrimp, and Old Bay seasoned fries.  Not anymore.   It may be February and freezing, but fish shack fare is in fashion right now.   Choptank, located in the West Village, is the latest in a string of newcomers.   If you wanted a lobster roll a few years ago, you had Pearl Oyster Bar, Grand Central, & Mary's Fish Camp.  That's it.  Now, there's plenty of respectable lobster rolls, including Ed's, Luke's, Mermaid Inn, & Ditch Plains. 

Choptank doesn't have a lobster roll on the menu.  It's New York's first Maryland fish shack.  That translates to crab chowder, crab claws, and Chesapeake Bay oysters.   The kitchen also turns out an excellent crab cake with lots of fresh crabmeat and and almost no breading.   Maryland is famous for its blue crab.  When blue crab season begins in June, Choptank will also have lots of blue crab and an outdoor patio to enjoy it on.  Choptank is a little less laidback, more of an urbane fish shack, minus the plastic bibs,  and handiwipes.  The dining room is outfitted with dark wood floors and tables, white marble bartops, and light fixtures cloaked in burlap fish netting.  There's a large oyster bar with plenty of seats if you want to spend the evening sampling oysters and tables in the main dining room.  There's a concise, but good selection of West and East coast oysters  (My favorites were the Chesapeake Bay variety.)

One of the best things on the menu is actually the fried chicken.   The first time I had the chef's fried chicken was at Bussaco in Park Slope, Brooklyn.   There, Matthew Schaefer served it with waffles and an apple-onion butter.   Here, he serves it alongside an intriguing black pepper honey and sauteed collard greens.  Schaefer, who trained at Le Bernardin, also brought over his fancy version of crab chowder, which tastes like a creamy crab consomme bacon and chives.   Other than that, this is a new menu for the chef and it isn't just seafood.   There's a house burger, bistro steak, Polish sausage and a pretzel, and bone marrow with winter lettuces and onion marmalade. 

My favorite dish is the braised octopus with paprika and potatoes.   It's not easy to make good octopus because you often have to make sacrifices.  You either take a crispy exterior for a dry interior or vice versa, but this one manages to crispy, yet moist, tossed with a pepper confit with a nice kick.   I like the roasted wild mushrooms glossed with a warm, egg yolk and an excellent arctic char, cooked medium rare, and poised over lentils with bacon.