Bristol Bay Salmon
“We’re about local but we’re also about what’s delicious, and we’re about supporting communities”
The Bristol Bay Salmon Sandwich features lightly smoked and cured sockeye, scallion caper cream cheese, sweet onion, and fresh tomato on a toasted Seeded Baguette.
Q. Describe the Bristol Bay Salmon Sandwich.
It is the lunch version of that lox and cream cheese bagel that you love in the morning. It’s a hearty sandwich, on our baguette, and it’s savory from the smoky salmon, creamy from the cream cheese, and a little bit of green onion and capers. And because it’s still local tomato season, we add a fat slice of fresh tomato.
Q. What do you like about this sandwich?
Pretty much everything. It’s on one of my favorite breads, which is our seeded baguette. It celebrates tomato season, which we always want to do. The salmon is delicious, and I also really like working with Iliamna Fish Co. They’re a cool group of folks doing really good things, I get to work with them and chat with them and get that personal delivery of fish, and the salmon just completes all of that.
Robb Hengerer, Portland kitchen manager
Q. Tell me about the salmon.
It’s sockeye, which is a much deeper red. It’s much more colorful than chinook or other types of salmon, more robust and flavorful. It’s more nutritious, too, higher in good fat content, higher in antioxidants, and overall, a delicious fish. Once it’s here, we cure it and then lightly smoke it to make the sandwich.
Q. When does it arrive?
We get it in late summer after the season ends - this year it was Aug. 29th. It comes flash frozen from Alaska, in the back of a truck that the fishermen personally drive and deliver to us.
Q. Why salmon from Bristol Bay? Isn’t Grand Central all about local?
We’re about local but we’re also about what’s delicious, and we’re about supporting communities. Iliamna Fish Co – we’ve worked with them a long time. They live in Portland, they’re from Alaska, their families are from Alaska. They’re native fisherman. Also, Bristol Bay has been a controversial area of Alaska. There has been a fight to save it from the Pebble Mine, and Pebble Mine permits, and bringing awareness to that is important to us as well. From an economic standpoint, we’re supporting a family business that is operating in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, so I think it’s a good use of our purchasing power
Q. How was fishing season this year?
It was great. Bristol Bay is a closely monitored water shed that’s a model for sustainability around the world. Salmon returned this summer in record numbers. The word from climate scientists is that the warming water is contributing to the return of salmon in such large numbers, but it’s a window of opportunity. As the water continues to warm, it will ultimately be detrimental to the salmon in Bristol Bay.
Wild sockeye fillets from Bristol Bay are flash frozen and delivered by the fishermen who caught it weeks earlier in Alaska.