Bethany's newest restaurants & the man behind them By Christina Weaver (originally published in the June issue of The Bystander) First there was the Red Fin, on Route 1 just north of Bethany Beach. It was a restaurant serving great seafood in a simplistic setting with a fabulous view of the sunset over the bay. Each time you went, you felt as if you belonged because of the personal attention of the staff, led by the front house manager, Bryony Zeigler, and the back house manager, part owner and chef, Matt Haley. Then, suddenly, almost overnight in October 2003, they weren’t there; there had been a split between Haley, Zeigler, and Haley’s former business partner. “Mr. Haley doesn’t work here anymore,” I was told when asked after him upon arriving for dinner in late October. “And I’m not allowed to talk about it,” the server added. I went back a couple of times, but the restaurant wasn’t the same. Then I started to read snippets of information in the newspaper about what had happened and the acrimonious lawsuit that resulted in the restaurant having to be sold at auction. The notices about the auction were everywhere, and the hottest topic of conversation in Bethany was what would happen to the restaurant. Who would buy it? Would it stay a restaurant? Would another big developer come and turn the site into more expensive homes for the super-rich weekenders? Then the news broke: Haley and Co. had outbid his former friend and business partner—the restaurant would be back, the way it always was…but better. And Haley and Zeigler are indeed back, and not just at the newly named Bluecoast. Within the same week, this May, they opened another new restaurant about two miles away in Ocean View called Northeast Seafood Kitchen. Yes, that’s two new restaurants, in addition to Fish On in Lewes, which they had started up during the hiatus. Ziegler is back to managing Bluecoast and has designed and helped kick-start Northeast. And Haley now has the luxury of confidence in his three chefs whom he has worked with watched the progress of since the start of Red Fin, so he can stay a little more on the sidelines. Bluecoast offers a formal ambiance and has the best view, whereas Northeast has the relaxed elegance of a bistro and the opportunity for al fresco dining in the summer. Yet it is always the chef that differentiates any restaurant. Although Bluecoast and Northeast are in close proximity and both serve seafood using the very best local products, the individualized touch, personal preferences and culinary backgrounds of Jeff Potts and Jason Dietterick make the dining experience in each uniquely satisfying. Potts worked at Red Fin while going to Del Tech. He then studied at the the Cordon Bleu Academy in Paris for a couple of years, taking advantage of working in the kitchens of some of France’s best chefs. “I’d just walk in and ask if I could watch and they would put me to work. It was an amazing experience,” he explained. “From that I got interested in pastry making and got to work with Chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Napa Valley. From there I went to the Della Fattoria in Senoma County to learn how to bake bread on wood-fired ovens. Then I got a call from Matt, telling me about this opportunity at Bluecoast and here I am.” “You can’t get better experience than that,” observed Haley. The menu at Bluecoast is seafood with touches of global influences, notable especially in the scrumptious sauces that reflect Potts’ international experience. Some of the menu’s early favorites include such appetizers as flash-fried, buttermilk-soaked calamari with anchovy mayo and puttanesca, and fried baby lobster tails with spicy mayo and soy dipping sauce. For an entrée, the seafood Newberg prepared with fricassee of lobster, scallops and shrimp, glazed celeriac, celery branch and wild mushrooms is on its way to becoming a classic. And you can’t beat Anna’s bread pudding, a favorite from Red Fin days, for dessert. “I think people will come back and be pleased that the restaurant seems to be as they remember, and then they’ll eat and be wowed by the difference,” said Potts. Northeast Seafood Kitchen features, as the name implies, cuisine that has its roots in the kitchens of New England. “But,” as front house manager Jay Allen explained, “it’s not traditional. Jason blows people away with his focus on a very few simple flavors on a plate that interact perfectly with each other.” Jason Dietterich was trained at the Restaurant School of Philadelphia and loves working with herbs. He came to the beach on a whim a few years ago, was introduced to Haley, and became his sous chef at Fish On. With just two months’ notice, Haley asked Dietterich and Allen to assume responsibility for his new restaurant. When you look at one of Dietterick’s creations, you begin to understand the full meaning of the term “culinary art.” “There is an old expression that you eat first with your eyes. I want people’s dining experience to start when they see the arrangement of color, height, placement and texture on their plate,” Dietterich said. “And when they eat, I guarantee they’ll return.” From the reaction of the restaurant’s first diners, he is right. All summer long Northeast will be serving Sunday brunch in addition to its regular dinner menu. Think eggs Benedict with fried soft-shell crabs, or omelets with smoked mackerel, fire-roasted asparagus or country ham, or pan-roasted mussels in wheat ale, aged chorizo and tomato, or French toast with fresh berry thyme syrup. Of course, this brunch will be with full service, not a help-yourself at a hotplate buffet. Talking about Haley, Dietterick commented, “It’s unbelievable how quickly Matt works. He attributes it to the people he works with but it’s because he motivates us all the time to be 100 percent perfect.” Perhaps that is because Haley had ten years of his life to meditate on his future. As a young man he was an extremely successful businessman. Unfortunately, the business was drugs, and Haley was both a consumer and a purveyor of his product. When he walked out of prison all those years ago, he was given a roll of bus tokens, fifty dollars and advice from a vocational tech specialist. Recalling his love of food and experience in the family kitchen necessitated by his mother’s lack of time and interest in cooking, Haley spent the money on chef’s knives and made himself a list of goals. He still has that list, as well as the business he wanted to own and a house at the beach with a hammock from which he could sip lemonade. Matt Haley is a tough man who has succeeded by building loyalty among those with whom he works and setting the example he learned the hard way. He has been clean and sober for thirteen years and uses the mistakes of his youth to work with treatment centers and shelters to help other people in trouble. But there was one moment when tears came into his eyes as he talked to me about his life and his restaurants. It was when he spoke of the pride and excitement he saw in Dietterick’s and Allen’s faces after Northeast’s first and very successful night open. “When both restaurants closed for the evening, we all went over to Northeast and celebrated.” Haley said. “It is so great to be part of the achievement of others.” Northeast Seafood Kitchen is off Route 26 in Ocean View (just west of Bethany Beach) in the same shopping center as Blockbuster Video. The phone number is (302) 537-1785. Bluecoast is on Route 1 just north of Bethany Beach. The number is 302-539-7111.