Battered but unbowed - Financial Times ft.com, Nicholas Lander, 24 May 2008

May 24 2008

Mitchell Tonks has been filleting, cooking and selling fish while inspiring amateurs with his cookery courses for the past 14 years.

So it came as no surprise that when I caught up with him at his latest restaurant, The Seahorse in the historic naval port of Dartmouth in Devon, that his hands smelt of fish and he said: 'I’ll be with you in a few minutes, I’ve just got some turbot to cut up.'

Tonks’s great contribution to British fish lovers has been the creation of Fish Works: bright, clean fish shops with restaurants attached. These initially spread very successfully across southern England but the past couple of years has not been kind to Fish Works, its investors or Tonks; indeed, what happened could be seen as a classic case of how not to expand a distinctive business. Tonks says: 'I took a battering that left me pretty weary.'

Yet despite this setback, Tonks has bounced back with customary vigour and created a gem of a restaurant. Its location is a great asset, tucked away on the front of this still elegant town facing the River Dart so that every time the front door opens there is a strong blast of sea air. Crucially for a fish chef, the restaurant is only a few miles from Brixham, Britain’s biggest commercial fishing port. Brixham is also Tonks’s home and he commutes every morning by sail boat, sleeping on board whenever the dinner service in Dartmouth finishes too late.

Tonks has created a room that will make everyone feel comfortable. In the open kitchen, Tonks shows off his new toy, a large grill/oven made by Josper in Barcelona. “I initially wanted a wood-burning oven,” Tonks explains, 'but there were too many difficulties with the planners and in the end this has proved far superior. The bars glow white hot and then when you close the door it roasts the fish at the same time. It’s a wonderful way to cook the Brixham red mullet, a fish that’s just coming into season.'

The Seahorse is a family affair with Tonks, his wife, his two partners and their wives, all working there, which seems to add to the charm of the place. Dartmouth itself provides the crab meat served with mayonnaise as well as the lobsters that were delivered as I was eating there. The local squid, served in its own black ink, has a rich, creamy flavour as do the clams, mussels and prawns served with spaghetti, one of Tonks’s personal favourites. Then there are Brixham soles; scallops from Lyme Bay; and whiting, fried and served with chips and tartare sauce, from nearby Torbay. Such local emphasis has obviously worked with Dartmouth’s residents who have constituted most of The Seahorse’s customers since it opened on April 11. Tonks says: 'We need to take £6,400 a week to break even and we’ve been beating that comfortably, I’m pleased to say.'

Tonks remains a director of Fish Works, a company that originated in his first shop in Bath at a cost of £7,500 and grew at one stage to have a market capitalisation of more than £12m on AIM (the London Stock Exchange’s junior market) before its share price fell from a high of 38p to 6p. With hindsight, he saw the cause of its downfall. 'We raised a lot of money but based our future earnings on the opening of new sites. However, once these failed to open on time, something that’s actually quite common with restaurants, we simply could not meet our profit forecasts and we had to issue a first and then a second profits warning. We paid the price.'

New investors and new management stepped in and the first of the new Fish Works has opened in London’s Swallow Street off Piccadilly.

This whole experience seems to have taken its toll and has left Tonks somewhat more subdued than I remembered him. But, happily, he is no less excited about cooking fish. Before I set off he tells me about his next fish restaurant, which will rise out of the redevelopment of Brixham harbour in 2010. 'It’s going to be fantastic', he says, 'because it will be based on what I’ve seen in Australia where the fishermen share in the profitability of what the restaurant actually sells. After all, they’re really the ones who do all the hard work.'

Top Marks for Mitch Tonks - Reviewer

Jan 07 2008

The Swan Inn in Little Haven was the setting for lunch with a difference on Wednesday. Seafood expert and award-winning restaurateur Mitch Tonks hosted a tutored tasting of fish and shellfish at the restaurant as part of Pembrokeshire Fish Week .... to read more... www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk

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