Bristol Bay Sockeye Restaurant Week in Boulder, Colorado is raising the national visibility of Bristol Bay's salmon fisheries.
In Boulder, Colorado, 17 restaurants are participating in Bristol Bay Sockeye Restaurant Week. The non-profit Chef’s Collaborative is hosting this event to celebrate and support American seafood and fishing communities. The program director, Alisha Fowler says that this developed out of a partnership with the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.
"We started partnering with the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association several years ago," says Fowler, "and this year we partnered to help drive awareness about the year-round availability of salmon. So the Sockeye Restaurant Week was placed in October, which is National Seafood Month. We chose Colorado as an area of interest to the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, a place that is tens of thousands of miles away from Bristol Bay, but where this wild, American seafood is available year-round.
Kyle Mendenhall is the chef at Arcana, one restaurants serving up Bristol Bay salmon this week. He says that he is excited to expose patrons of his restaurant to Sockeye caught in Bristol Bay.
"You know what I'm partially trying to do in the sort of small blip of work that I do with Bristol Bay and whatnot is to just try to help Americans know that we have this incredible, well-managed resource available to us, and the only way to really take advantage of it is to get out there and eat it," Mendenhall explains.
Fowler estimates that between 50 and 75 thousand people will enjoy some Sockeye in Boulder this week, and she hopes that restaurant-goers will then be on the lookout for wild caught salmon in grocery stores.
Restaurant week in Boulder continues through Sunday, October 30th.
Contact the author: avery@kdlg.org
