Thursday, June 26, 7:00 p.m.
Members $95, guests $120

Often referred to as “coastal seafood without the coast,” The Oceanaire Seafood Room restaurants boast ultra-fresh seafood in a stylish setting. The Oceanaire company’s commitment to fresh seafood, flown in daily, is communicated through a number of elements, including air freight bills on display and an eye-catching menu printed daily that’s based entirely on market availability. But nothing conveys the message more than what comes out of the kitchen.

Minnesota Monthly’s Dennis Cass called The Oceanaire Seafood Room in Minneapolis “heaven on a half-shell” for its “straight-up seafood” that doesn’t rely on cheap tricks, such as seagulls, life preservers, and all the other nautical trappings that often come with the territory. Instead, the Oceanaire’s decor is sleek and gorgeous, part 1940s supper club, part 1920s luxury liner, and a touch of Rat Pack swank. “The secret to Oceanaire,” writes D Magazine’s Nancy Nichols of the Dallas outpost, “is in its simple elegance.” That secret was revealed to Tom Sietsema of The Washington Post in the Oceanaire fisherman’s platter he ate in the D.C. Oceanaire Seafood Room, “a marvel in simplicity,” and the crabcake, “fat with lump crab, crisp on the surface and gently creamy inside, bound with little more than good sense.” Even with the plethora of seafood eateries that already dot the city, Seattle Magazine named Oceanaire’s Seattle outpost to its Best New Restaurants list for, among other items, a “stellar” shellfish platter. It seems that wherever The Oceanaire Seafood Rooms cast their nets, the catch draws kudos.

It all began in Minneapolis, about as far from the ocean as you can get. The founders of The Oceanaire, veteran business professionals who’ve launched some of the Twin Cities’ most successful restaurants (including Manny’s Steakhouse, Figlio, and Pronto), envisioned an upscale seafood restaurant with a clubby, steakhouse feel. They enlisted Wade Wiestling, a Pronto alumnus, to devise a menu and set the standard. As The Oceanaire’s executive corporate chef, Wiestling served as the executive chef and general manager of the original restaurant. These days, he oversees the kitchen operations at all four Oceanaire Seafood Room restaurants, and Rick Kimmes has taken his place behind the stoves at the Minneapolis outpost. Kimmes, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s Hotel and Management program and the CIA, worked in the kitchens of the Greenwich Country Club and the Round Hill Country Club before returning to his Minnesota home and joining the staff at Pronto. He signed on with Oceanaire in 1999, and was named executive chef a year later.

As a student of Baltimore International College’s School of Culinary Arts, Rob Klink spent time in Ireland working with the Irish National culinary team to help them prepare for the Culinary Olympics. Upon graduation and his return to the States, Klink honed his skills at a number of Baltimore-area restaurants, including Corks, Boccaccio’s, and Savannah. At Oceanaire’s D.C. outpost, Klink’s knack for seafood reels in the customers.

In the other Washington, Kevin Davis is responsible for the Seattle Oceanaire Seafood Room. A native of food-loving New Orleans, Davis boasts some heavy-hitting culinary experience, including a stint with famed Florida chef Mark Militello, an apprenticeship with Jacques Chibois at Restaurant La Bastide Saint-Antoine in the south of France, and a post at Arnaud’s. Before joining Oceanaire, Davis worked with Jan Birnbaum at the Hotel Monaco in Seattle, where he was Sazerac’s executive chef.

Go due southeast to the Lone Star State, and you’ll find Brian Dietz, a graduate of the California Culinary Academy, running the ship in Dallas. Dietz apprenticed with Dean Fearing at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, then honed his skills at Checkers in L.A.’s Wyndham Hotel and the Four Oaks Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Dietz perfected his craft at Nicholini’s Seafood Grill and Café Pacific, both in Dallas, then snagged the top post at Newport’s Seafood before hooking up with the Oceanaire group.

Don’t let this dinner be the one that got away.