WASHINGTON POST - Drift elevates beach food with stellar seafood and service

Review by Washington Post Food Critic, Tom Seitsema

Photo credit: Long Island fluke crudo and spicy pineapple margarita at Drift in Rehoboth Beach, Del. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post)

"Just looking at the fluke crudo at a young restaurant called Drift Seafood & Raw Bar lowers the temperature on a hot summer night.

Ribbons of honeydew form a wavy sculpture over the raw lean fish, similar in flavor to flounder and arranged in a shallow pool of cucumber juice and minty shiso. The pale-green sensation soothes the eyes as it surprises the tongue, which picks up nuoc cham and lime along with the refreshing sweetness of the melon. Four of us hover over the appetizer until it disappears, anticipating what other charms chef Tom Wiswell might send our way.

Did I mention this dish is at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware? At what used to be a dive called the Seafood Shack? Just a year old this month, Drift represents an evolution in beach eating — “a sophisticated experience in a fun and relaxed atmosphere,” says Lion Gardner, one of four owners of the seafood-themed restaurant and the freshly minted, pan-Asian Bodhi Kitchen nearby, both part of the newly formed 2nd Block Hospitality Group.

A long and narrow setting isn’t ideal for a restaurant. (The site is a former camp meeting structure dating to 1890.) The owners embraced their situation by creating little zones of pleasure, starting with a slip of an indoor-outdoor bar, a nook for oysters, a dining room roughly the width of a bus and a rear patio with as much thought poured into it as anywhere else in the 65-seat restaurant. En route from front to back, diners pass a semi-open kitchen and a whirl of cooks. A margarita made using fresh-pressed pineapple juice and triple sec steeped in serrano pepper shows up with a rim of hot sauce — a liquid preview of the multipart dishes on the menu.

A native of western Maryland, Wiswell, 26, says he has been cooking since he was 16. Conveniently, his first job was at Go Fish in Rehoboth. In college, he studied psychology (“a huge asset” for his eventual restaurant career, he says) and later caught the eye of his current boss at the Station on Kings in Lewes, when Gardner was introduced to his food at a wine dinner there. “He didn’t look old enough to drink,” says Gardner, who remembers a “simple but advanced” roster of dishes that “read like a menu you’d see at a restaurant in the city.” Wiswell went on to work the fish station for a year at the admired Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia, a bullet point on his résumé he affectionately refers to as “seafood boot camp.” The pandemic returned him to the Station on Kings and, later, Harbour at Canal Square, also in Lewes.

Chef Tom Wiswell. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post)

The owners’ idea for Drift was initially casual, says Gardner, who shifted gears when they hired Wiswell, who had bigger ambitions. Yes, there would be oysters on the half shell from around the Mid-Atlantic, but some of them would be dressed with blood orange ponzu and chili crunch. And the raw bar would go on to offer such fanciful starters as bluefin tuna splashed with ginger-lime vinaigrette and presented in shiso wraps. Lobster French toast is a notion Wiswell credits to a brief stint at Kinship in Washington, which features the combination on its “indulgence” menu.

Rockfish and potato croquettes shoot blanks, a problem eradicated by a swipe through the accompanying sun-dried tomato peri-peri sauce. A superior small plate serves finger lengths of summer squash, brushed with a combination of garlic oil, preserved lemon, chile de arbol and white soy sauce before they hit the grill, after which the vegetable is splayed over red Thai curry, showered with crushed, lime-y cashews and finished with bright herbs.

Charcoal-grilled Eastview Farms summer squash. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post)

It quickly becomes clear, this is not a kitchen that takes the easy way. Diners won’t find sauces that repeat or crossover ingredients. Take a main course of seared scallops. Each sweet coin is crowned with caramelized fennel and staggered on a bed of pearl couscous flecked with Maryland crab — along with a puddle of corn puree, a dollop of peach chutney, meaty with bacon, and a dusting of espelette pepper. “I want each dish to be a unique experience,” says the chef, who oversees a staff of seven cooks, most of whom came to Drift without any training.

Fear not. Here’s the uncommon restaurant where a lot of ingredients don’t necessarily translate to the taste equivalent of a traffic jam. Halibut steamed in olive oil is teamed with mussels and delicate sea beans on a base of Carolina gold rice, prized for its nutty flavor and enhanced here with a broth fueled with lemongrass and pink peppercorns.

Chefs are crazy for schnitzel these days, and Wiswell is no exception. In keeping with the restaurant’s theme, he offers swordfish in a nubby crust that crackles with panko and delivers a bit of heat from red chili flakes. A dilly potato salad plied with capers and preserved lemon rides atop the swordfish, the texture of which the chef likens to that of the more traditional pork. If you think I’m done describing the dish, you haven’t been paying attention. There’s sauce on the plate, too, a pale-yellow lemon aioli.

New Jersey swordfish schnitzel. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post)

Don’t eat fish? Don’t worry. Drift makes pasta fresh every day. My visit coincided with a bundle of supple tagliatelle bulked up with oyster mushrooms and brightened with pesto. This being Drift, the ingredients were acknowledged like cast members on a playbill, and the dish embraced buttery breadcrumbs and a cloud of ricotta, the well of which shimmered with herbed oil. Not a strand was left standing.

Good help is hard to find, but Drift has it. “We know people who know people,” says Gardner, who previously co-owned Blue Moon in Rehoboth Beach, where he did double duty as head chef. Drinks come out fast, and servers are quick to make you feel as if you’ve chosen the perfect spot for a catch-up session with friends. “Everything we do is from scratch,” says a waiter as he drops off some focaccia served with seaweed butter. Later, he surprises us with a plate of summery tomato wedges freckled with fennel pollen and oregano.

Gardner says Drift is meant to evoke an “eclectic living room feel” — a place where “not everything fits together perfectly” and relaxation is key. Hence the antique books, oyster plates and oil paintings set in the mirror-backed alcoves of the snug dining room, which is lined with a banquette on one side and leather booths on the other. Initially, I wasn’t keen on sitting outside, our only option on a busy Friday night, but ultimately, the handsome rear courtyard, with the restaurant’s name splashed across black concrete, proved the ideal place to enjoy dinner. The open sky strengthens the beach connection, and conversation is easier than inside.

Server Rachel Russell in the dining room. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post)

Given everything that’s come before, you might expect more elaborate desserts. Instead, you make decisions about Basque burnt cheesecake and caramel corn ice cream (get them both) and conclude they are just the sort of ending you want after dinner at the beach. The desserts are better for the cheesecake’s raspberry sauce and lemon curd and the ice cream’s frosted glass.

Wiswell knows he’s cooking in a tourist destination where people expect “crab cakes, burgers and french fries,” he says. “There are a lot of great spots to go for that.”

Drift represents something loftier. Did I mention there’s fresh basil in the cheesecake’s fruit sauce?

Drift Seafood & Raw Bar

42 1/2 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del. 302-567-2744. driftrb.com. Open for indoor and outdoor dining 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Prices: appetizers $12 to $30, main courses $30 to $59. Sound check: 77 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers to entry; ADA-compliant restrooms.