Sea change

The Detroit Seafood Market is formerly Frank Taylor's Detroit Fish Market (and before that Intermezzo, and before that a warehouse), a lovely space with a menu of hits and misses. Live music on weekends and the Paradise Valley Lounge, with its "imperial bar" — where scores of cases of Patron tequila are consumed — are designed to appeal to folks looking for pleasures beyond just the culinary.

Attracting a clientele that varies with what shows are on downtown, the menu runs the gamut from fish-and-chips and catfish with coleslaw to scallops and lobster. It's now owned by Taylor's former silent partner Kenny Akinwale, for 20 years a V.P. at Aramark, purveyor of foodstuffs to many a stadium, hospital and school cafeteria.

The market staff is noticeably attentive. A basket of warm soft rolls with excellent herb butter is brought right away. A manager bused our table on a busy Saturday night, checked on us many times, answered questions about the music and even sat down with us in our curvy high-backed booth. I wasn't thrilled with a waiter, who, when asked his entrée suggestions, reeled off all the most expensive items on the menu. But another night, a waiter's unsolicited suggestion brought a tantalizing glass of grapefruit-tinged Sauvignon Blanc from Whitehaven in New Zealand.

On Fridays and Saturdays the market features live piano music — often by Alina Morr of Straight Ahead — and Sunday brunch usually includes a saxophonist. The high ceiling boasts a mural of fish flying through the clouds.

One of our favorite dishes was an appetizer of ahi tuna, served rare as ordered, with a hot jalapeno aioli to cut the rich fish. It came with an excellent cool slaw flavored with sesame and poppy seeds. Ahi was also good as a generous entrée with a citrusy Thai chili sauce. (Sadly, last year ahi, or yellowfin, joined bluefin tuna on Greenpeace's list of fish that "have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.")

Another appetizer provoked debate: Was the "sinful sogginess" of the calamari made up for by its pleasant spicy Italian coating (tomatoes, onions, red peppers)? Whether or not, we scarfed it all. A shrimp bisque got lower marks: starchy, somewhat salty, not too shrimpy.

Chef Leonardo Vulagi's highly anticipated signature starter, lobster mac and cheese at $11.95 for two, we found disappointing — good enough for mild mac and cheese, but where was the lobster? It's an oxymoronic-sounding dish that, according to a Bon Appetit recipe I later found, includes cognac, shrimp, crab and a lot of work.

A large chilled shellfish salad was a winner and a bargain at $11.95, with fresh-tasting crab and shrimp and greens in a lemon-basil vinaigrette.

Some entrées from the long list of 40 were ho-hum. A very creamy shrimp fettuccine was like taking a milk bath — just creamy. Crabcakes had the right tender interior and crisp shell but didn't make it into the crabcake pantheon; their Dijon sauce lacked character.

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