49 NORTH RIVERSIDE AVENUE
CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NY 10520
(914) 271-0702
OWNERS: BRIAN AND PAULA GALVIN; CHEF: BRIAN GALVIN
Ocean House was never supposed to be the great restaurant that it has become. In 2004 Brian and Paula Galvin took on a vintage diner—one that had stood squarely on North Riverside Avenue in Croton-on-Hudson since the Great Depression—with nothing but the most modest of culinary intentions. Says Chef Galvin, “Our plan was to do a basic seafood restaurant, get the freshest fish, and prepare it as simply as we could. We never in our wildest imagination thought that we’d get a 28 [out of a possible 30] in Zagat. The New York Times review came two months after we opened, and it just took off.”
To be honest, Ocean House is a hard sell on paper. While its interior has been transformed into a spare, sea-and-sky-colored dining room, from the exterior Ocean House still looks exactly like a vintage diner. Long and narrow, the pre-fab structure once rode the rails to Crotonon-Hudson from the Bixler Manufacturing Company in Norwalk, Ohio. When this diner was created (sometime between 1931 and 1937), the Bixler design was touted for its airy, houselike elegance. Unlike the streamlined, bulletlike shape of other Depression-era diners, the Bixlers bore tall, double-hung windows and ornate, gable-end facades—these were the chateaux of the pre-fab diner set. Ocean House still has its windows and an arched facade, and still seats only nineteen diners. Plus it’s a BYOB; the original diner’s single bathroom prevents Ocean House from being licensed to sell liquor.
No matter. Ocean House’s legion fans are happy to queue on the street, bottles in hand—though, most likely, they’ve left their cell phone numbers at the door and are cooling their heels in a nearby tavern. Basically folks are delighted to do whatever it takes to get a crack at Ocean House’s carefully curated array of brimming East and West Coast oysters, sparklingly fresh seafood, and warming soups that include Galvin’s seductively smoky New England clam chowder and his Portuguese fish stew, included below.
Chef Galvin, with genuine modesty, deflects the credit that is always attributed to his stunning cooking at Ocean House. “The space dictated what we were going to do,” he says. “Our business plan was to be a very mom-and-pop kind of place, but it just kind of kept rolling and turned into what we have now.”
(SERVES 4)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 bulb fennel, cored, cut in half, and sliced very thin
1 cup peeled, seeded, and chopped plum tomatoes
2 links chorizo sausage, chopped
1 cup dry vermouth
4 cups fish stock
16 washed mussels
12 washed littleneck clams
2 cups cooked white beans
Pinch of saffron
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large saucepan heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, fennel, tomato, and chorizo and sauté for 2–3 minutes. Add the vermouth and stock and cook over medium heat until the liquid simmers. Add the mussels, clams, and white beans and cook until the shellfish opens. When the clams and mussels are open, stir in the saffron and thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.