The Fin Bar, at The Contented Sole, is open from 5-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.
The Contented Sole recently debuted a new dining experience, offering customers a rotating menu featuring fresh seafood and produce presented in unique ways.
Fin Bar, at The Contented Sole, is something husband-and-wife proprietors Warren Busteed and Beth Polhemus, with chef Florin Ungureanu, have wanted to offer the area for quite some time.
“We have a very talented kitchen crew with talent that was not completely being exploited, and we wanted to let them play a bit,” Polhemus said.
“And we also wanted to offer different cuisine in a more intimate setting,” Busteed said.
Over the spring, the couple transformed a storage space into a 12-seat dining room. The room features a custom 4-inch wooden bar made with timber from Jefferson.
“It was underutilized space, and now it’s providing this great opportunity,” Ungureanu said.
The rotating menu features local seafood and produce prepared in “unique and playful ways,” Ungureanu said. Current offerings include a salmon belly crudo, crispy Brussels sprouts, and a fish ceviche.
Some of the dishes on the menu of the Fin Bar, in The Contented Sole. From left: smoked whitefish brandade, housemade pickles, and scallop crudo.
As Ungureanu enjoys “taking modern spins on good New England food,” the menu also has a brown butter lobster roll with caramelized onion.
“We’re really experimenting and putting our passion into this,” Ungureanu said. “We’re offering things no one in the area is really doing.”
Fin Bar mostly has small plates in the $10-$15 range, with some entrees available for a slightly higher price.
The menu is “not confined to one type of food,” Busteed said. “It’s a melting pot of flavors and tastes.”
In addition to the food menu, Fin Bar features a boutique list of wines not commonly found at The Contented Sole. “We wanted to offer something a little bit more special that pairs well with the food,” Busteed said.
All dishes are served on pottery handcrafted by Sarah Begin, adding an additional level of individuality to each meal, Ungureanu said.
Fin Bar had a soft opening in late June and received rave reviews, Busteed and Ungureanu said. The first customers asked if they could reserve seats in the restaurant for the entire season.
Fin Bar is open from 5-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. The restaurant takes reservations for the first seating at 5 p.m., but the rest of the evening is first-come, first-serve.
While The Contented Sole typically closes around Labor Day, Busteed said he hopes to keep Fin Bar open into October.
For more information, go to thecontentedsole.com or find the business on Facebook.
