Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, and Barceloneta Unite for Five-Day Seafood Festival

The Pubbelly Boys are at it again. The 20th Street Seafood Festival, celebrating stone crab season, launches today with three restaurants and four acclaimed chefs uniting for five nights on the same block.

Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, and Barceloneta will debut specially designed menus through Sunday. Each is crafted by Pubbelly Restaurant Group's Jose Mendin, Barceloneta's Juliana Gonzalez, Pubbelly Sushi's Yuki Ieto, and Pubelly pastry chef Maria Orantes. They highlight the ocean’s delicacies with Asian and Latin twists. None of the featured dishes has been seen before at any of the eateries, which are all located on 20th Street in South Beach.

"We've been talking about doing something like this for a while now," Mendin says. "Now that we have the three restaurants in really close space, we thought it would be good to take the chefs and do something together."

The festival begins with tapas-style menus. Offerings include blue crab toast made with pumpkin romesco, hazelnuts, and cacao; calamari fritti with brown-butter aioli, capers, almonds, and Old Bay seasoning; and lobster salpicon tacos.

Thursday is stone crab night, with all three eateries offering dishes such as stone crab dumplings, stone crab al ajillo, and stone crab fettuccine. Chilled, steamed, and tempura-style stone crab will be available too.
On Friday and Saturday, expect a chef's tasting menu with a bevy of seafood dishes. Offerings include clam chowder croquetas drizzled with oyster aioli; fried snapper curry with red curry, ginger, dutch potatoes, and peppers; thai seafood sausage with green curry and papaya salad; salmon ceviche; arroz de coco y langosta de la Florida, with calasparra coconut rice and spiny lobster; and mar y montana, with braised veal cheeks, langoustine, parmentier, and globe carrots.

The festival ends Sunday with various seafood-centric brunch offerings at the three eateries.

"It's nice to do little things that inspire us and our clientele," Mendin says. "It's really about doing things so we don't get bored too. But the whole idea with this event is to showcase the start of stone crab season."

All dinners take place from 6 to 11:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday menus are prix-fixe and cost $60 per person. Reservations can be made for Pubbelly and Barceloneta. Walk-ins are welcome too. For more information, visit pubbellyboys.com or barcelonetarestaurant.com. 

Follow Clarissa Buch on Twitter.