Quick Take
Restaurateur Sarah Orr, owner of Margaritaville in Capitola and Stokes Adobe in Monterey, will open Pete’s Fish House on the corner of the Esplanade in Capitola Village in August. She’s working with local chefs Anthony Kresge and Desmond Schneider to create a menu that highlights fresh oysters, crudo, chilled seafood and other coastal cuisine, alongside second-story views of Monterey Bay.
Following the closure of the Capitola Bar & Grill in January, Pete’s Fish House, a seafood restaurant from local restaurateur Sarah Orr, will open in the second story space above the Esplanade in Capitola Village in August.
Orr also owns Margaritaville on the first floor of the building and Stoke’s Adobe in Monterey, and recently acquired the historic Snack Shack at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. She named Pete’s Fish House after her late father and mentor. “We had a shared love of seafood, in particular raw oysters and clams, and, as my sister says, ‘anything you can scrape off the ocean floor,’” Orr told Lookout via email.
Orr is working with chef Anthony Kresge as a consultant and chef Desmond Schneider, who will lead the kitchen. Together, they are crafting a menu that will feature Hog Island oysters from the San Francisco Bay Area, crudo and other chilled seafood. They’ll also offer coastal dishes including a soft-shell crab sandwich, fritto misto and clam linguini, as well as a hamburger, steak and other fish-free options for non-pescatarian diners. But, “the focus is on seafood,” Orr said.
The menu is still being finalized, but gelato, a “sophisticated” beer and wine list, and a bellini cocktail, made with peach purée and prosecco, are also on the list, Orr said.
Pete’s Fish House will be the only modern seafood restaurant in the coastal Capitola Village in recent memory, joining a new wave of seasonal and sustainable seafood restaurants opening in Santa Cruz County that includes Hook & Line in Santa Cruz, Dos Pescados in Seascape Village and Venus Spirits Cocktails & Kitchen Beachside in Rio Del Mar.
Pete’s will prioritize seafood from the West Coast and Pacific Ocean, and use locally grown ingredients as much as possible, Kresge said. With second-story views of Monterey Bay and the village’s iconic candy-colored beach bungalows, he hopes to evoke the ambiance of dining on the riviera. “I think Santa Cruz is becoming more of a food destination than it was 10 or 15 years ago,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that we pay attention to what people want, but we also want to bring them a little bit of adventure.”
Kresge has led numerous projects in Capitola Village. His craft sandwich shop Reef Dog Deli, which closed last year, was located just around the corner from Pete’s Fish House. In 2016, he started and was the executive chef at Sotola, a farm-to-table restaurant, in the same Capitola Village restaurant space as Pete’s. In fact, he built out the original kitchen, he said.
Before that, he was head chef at the iconic Shadowbrook restaurant for three years. Kresge has also consulted on numerous area restaurants, including Vinocruz Wine Bar & Restaurant in Soquel and Seabright Deli in Santa Cruz.
Schneider is also well-known in the area for precise, ingredient-driven fare with personality. He is the chef of Pizza Bones, a wood-fired pizza pop-up, and revived the menu of Seabright Social in the former Seabright Brewery. Before that, he was the chef de cuisine at Alderwood in Santa Cruz.
Pete’s Fish House will be open for dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. every day except Tuesday, with a daily happy hour, or “Pearl Hour,” from 4 to 5:30 p.m. featuring specials on oysters, wine, beer and other small bites. A soft opening with a limited menu is scheduled for Aug. 19. Before the opening, guests can get a sneak peak on National Oyster Day on Aug. 5 at an oyster-focused pop-up from noon to 8 p.m.
231 Esplanade, Suite 102, Capitola; petesfishhouse.com.
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