Dive In To The Unknown At Aphotic, San Francisco’s Newest Refined Seafood Concept

With its unwavering commitment to sustainably and ethically sourced seafood, Aphotic isn’t your typical seafood restaurant. Aphotic is Chef Peter Hemsley’s new restaurant taking over the same space as his former concept, Palette. Chef Hemsley’s goals with Aphotic includes raising the bar as high as possible when it comes to seafood sourcing. Everything served at the restaurant can be 100% traced down to the time and harvest of the seafood.

“My hope is that we can convince guests that there is a great value to sourcing seafood in the way the we do, directly from accessible fishermen and aquaculture farmers,”explains Chef Hemsley.

“Maybe we can even convince them to change their buying habits, too. Americans buy 85% of their fish from international waters; an extraordinary statistic considering the US’s access to open ocean on both coastlines. Consumers should be more demanding about where their seafood comes from, with a preference for local.”

Alongside designer David Middleton, Chef Hemsley created a moody, dramatic new space featuring low lighting, pitch-black walled and dark touches that play up the overall theme of the name Aphotic, meaning “without light”in Greek.

Bringing down the deep sea experience to the human level at the table, there’s an overarching subliminal starting point for a seafood-focused design. The arched roofs of Aphotic is a carryover from a 1940s warehouse design which features curved Douglas Fir naves resembling the bottom of a capsized 1700s ship. From custom walnut woodwork to bronze touches, each aspect of the restaurants design is intentional.

The inspired 10-course tasting menu offers an array of unique, impactful dishes highlighting both luxurious and more common, yet undervalued, seafood treasures that include Mt. Lassen Trout and Roe; Bodaga Bay Rockfish and Aphotic Garum; Tsar Nicoulai Caviar and Monterey Spot Prawn; Monterey Abalone, Swordfish Bacon and Dashi; Dungeness Crab Curry Hollandaise; Whiteleg Prawn Risotto and San Diego Uni; Pacific Skate and Green Garlic; and finally, a one-of-a-kind Tomales Bay Oyster Ice Cream.

We chatted with Chef Peter Hemsley on direct sourcing and its challenges, seafood innovations and more, as well as Trevin Hutchins, Beverage Director, on his chosen pairings for the seafood-centric meal. Here’s what they had to say.

Talk about the name Aphotic. What does it mean and why did you choose it for your new concept?

Aphotic is from the Greek ἀ- + φῶς, meaning ‘without light.’ The reference comes from the strata of the ocean where light stops penetrating, about 1,000 meters or 3,300 feet. This is actually fairly conventional territory as far as commercial fishery goes, but the symbology of the ‘dark’ worked with the mood of our restaurant.

Aphotic is a seafood focused space with a very moody and somber design, and a very serious approach to legitimate sourcing. My common dialogue with fisherman is often shaped by asking them what they see out there in their work, and what they find in the deep that they don’t conventionally bring to the market. So, Aphotic takes on a philosophical meaning, as we are quite engaged in bringing to light that which is in the ‘dark.’

What is the inspiration for this fish-focused menu? What was the process like to produce the first menu for the opening of Aphotic?

As a chef based in San Francisco, my personal preference is working with fish and seafood. I’m originally from the Midwest, so I think my curiosity for things that come from the deep is perhaps drawn from the fact that I recognize the bounty of this resource more excitedly than those who grew up close to the ocean.

In opening Aphotic, we went directly to our fishermen and aquaculture farmers and asked them to work with us in a partnership. This means that we get the best product, have our own ecosystem of resources that inform us of availability and freshness, but also limits us to some degree in what we can serve.

We do not serve any seafood that we cannot trace with 100% accuracy down to the boat, fisherman, and time or harvest. In periods of bad weather, for example, we are limited, as fishermen are, to access to the water. In response to the highly sensitive availability, we employ preservation techniques like dry aging fish to carry its longevity and develop its flavor, salted preserves like cured fish (anchovies, salt ling cod, and fish charcuterie), as well as freezing fish in its prime after butchery.

Do you have any personal favorite dishes?

My personal favorite dish on the menu is the seared Pacific Longnose Skate. It’s a simple preparation, but I value this dish because we’re one of the few fine dining restaurants in the area that is serving this excellent and abundant fish; it is not only delicious, but highly abundant in the Pacific, and overlooked but the conventional market.

How did you come up with the oyster ice cream?

I didn’t; I challenged the pastry team, led by Deirdre Rieutort, to think unconventionally about what can be used for pastry. She took our excess shucked oysters and made a beautifully subtle ice cream that balances the salinity of the oyster with a milky sweetness that checks our common perception of the placement of an oyster in a meal. The pastry team uses seaweed, candied fish scales, fish sauce caramel, caviar, and urchin in other dishes of this kind.

Talk about the frustrations you’ve had with sourcing and how Aphotic plans to source directly from aquaculture practitioners. 

The frustrations with sourcing were early on in the process when I didn’t know any fishermen, and our access to aquaculture products were usually gated by middlemen. Aphotic is now 100% direct from all of its partners, the boon of about a year of work, and now fishermen and other aquaculture farmers come to us. We have over demand from these groups on the best of days, because they all want to work with a partner that sees eye to eye with them on an ethical level, although we only have so many guests to feed. We are working on plans to expand our offerings in other outlets, like outdoor markets or a more casual offering with simpler preparations.

What are you working on in terms of new dishes (I saw the dry aging fish what are you planning on doing with those?) 

We are trying like hell to figure out what to do with fish offal. We have been successful in marinating fish livers, like rock cod liver and skate liver, in a soy ginger garlic marinade, and grilling them on a skewer over the hearth grill. That is actually really quite delicious, so we are picking our moment to offer it out to our guests.

Talk about the beverage program and how it pairs with the fish-forward menu.

Trevin Hutchins, Beverage Director: A restaurant bar program should always complement the culinary vision. It’s a ‘food first’ approach to cocktail making. At the bar, sourcing is a huge part of that. We work with foragers in the Bay Area to source a lot of the botanicals we use in our cocktails. We also have a craft distillers license so many of these botanicals are made into spirits. We currently have a library of over 80 house distilled botanical spirits and we make a gin from dulse seaweed we get from Monterey Bay Seaweeds. It’s been a great challenge to work with fish and oceanic ingredients on our menu.

The Black Sea Old Fashioned, for instance, uses fish sauce Demerara syrup with black lemon bitters and Metamodernatity Bourbon from Matchbook Distilling. The bourbon has this wild black sesame finish that’s bolstered by the salted caramel umami notes of the fish sauce syrup. Exclusively at the bar, we also offer a Cocktail Tasting Menu of eight cocktails inspired by different bodies of water from around the world. It’s our way of storytelling.

Why is service ware important in fine dining? Tell us more about the items you use at Aphotic and your process in acquiring them.

Guests eat with their eyes first, so tablewares are important for setting the tone of the meal. The tables at Aphotic are set with the charger, a porcelain series with graphic black splashes from partner Black Wing Clay, complemented by a subtle gray napkin with brass ring mold echoing the brass metal touches around the space. There’s also delicate Japanese and European glass wares throughout. These touch points are all calibrated with intention and detail. As a team, we considered the menu and the flow of the meal as the guest.

We have a left-handed bread board for the left-handed guests, custom made by Marc Bauer from Made for a Museum, and lacquerware spoons for the dashi and abalone broth dish because we noticed that metal spoons were too heavy and made the delicate lacquerware bowl topple if a guests paused in eating and laid the spoon atop the bowl. For me personally, cutlery, glass, serviceware, and linen is one of the most important aspects to ensure that guests have an excellent experience. We spent weeks ensuring our serviceware works with the meal, sourcing from Japan, Europe, and custom made locally.