Shucking Good Time
Brine Seafood & Raw Bar
If you have ever driven down 12th street or Tuttle Ave by Ed Smith Stadium in February or March, then you know there are a lot of people from the Baltimore area here. Some come seasonally to root for the Orioles. Others come for baseball and stay because our sunshine and lifestyle are always winners. (Side note: Congrats to the O’s for making the post-season this year, and condolences for not advancing.)
Brothers Gary and Mike Mazan came here in 2012 for all the above. They grew up working in a family restaurant called Captain’s Café in a Baltimore suburb and eventually took it over. The Mazan brothers have an uncle who worked in food operations at Ed Smith Stadium, so they came down here to work with him. As an Orioles fan, Gary says, “It was an awesome job.” But like any great player riding the bench, the Mazans wanted more. So Gary and Mike prepared to make a major roster move and opened their own place in 2021 in Gulf Gate in Sarasota, called Brine.
Brine is primarily a seafood restaurant, with an emphasis on quality. You won’t necessarily find extravagant sauces or over-the-top presentations. What you will find is seafood, especially oysters, sourced with a level of care and dedication rarely experienced.
“Down here I didn’t really care for a lot of the seafood places,” admits co-owner and Head Chef Gary Mazan. “It just wasn’t what I was used to. Basically, what we do is we buy good stuff. It takes a lot of time to source what we do here, but we try to do it right.”
Oysters are one of the shining stars at Brine. They shuck as many as 1,400 a day, very carefully, and all by hand. All oysters are not created equal. Gary and Mike explains that oysters filter water and eat algae, and that’s how they get their varying flavors. Co-owner and General Manager Mike says a great oyster should be plump and firm, with a clean taste and a hint of salinity.
“My philosophy is the colder the water the better,” declares Gary. “A lot of our stuff is from Canada and Maine. And we like the smaller farms. The Norumbega oyster is harvested by hand by scuba divers. The West Coast stuff has more of a melon flavor, and we just started getting Kumamoto oysters from Washington State. It took us a long time to get those, and other places don’t have them, and now I have a pretty steady supply.”
On any given day, you can order oysters one at a time from a list at Brine that changes daily and includes anywhere from seven to 12 varieties. I found myself wanting to try one of everything side by side to compare and better understand the subtle differences. Mike says that is exactly what many of their regulars do.
“They take the list, like a scorecard, and take notes. People really get into it and grade them and bring their list back with them every time they come. We have probably had 300 different varieties since we have opened.”
I apologize for going on so long about oysters. Gary and Mike’s passion and knowledge transfixed me. But Brine is about so much more. How can we talk about Baltimore and Maryland without sampling a crab cake? Brine’s Maryland-style crab cake features massive chunks of jumbo lump crab with just the perfect hint of seasoning and crunch. There was so little filler it was hard to imagine how it held together.
Then I must mention the octopus, which I don’t typically love. But Brine changed my mind. Brine’s charred octopus involves a two-day process of braising, marinating, and then searing on a wood-burning grill. My mind is forever changed.
But no worries if you are not a seafood lover. “Even I get sick of seafood sometimes,” laughs Gary. “All of our steaks are prime. Personally, if I was coming here for dinner, I would definitely get the rib eye. The green peppercorn sauce with the steak is my favorite.”
As general manager, Mike is proud of their bar and beverage program. The bar is a massive U-shape with an airy, contemporary feel. Brine offers over a 100 different bourbons and ryes, plus an extensive wine list, a seasonal craft cocktail menu, and a great happy hour. And as the ultimate nod to their Maryland heritage, there are authentic Orange Crushes with fresh-squeezed juice.
“We get a lot of Marylanders here,” exclaims Gary. “Even when they come down here on vacation. You think they’d be sick of eating crab cakes and drinking Orange Crushes. But they come here. I think they want to see if we are just as good.”
Brine is more than just good. Just like the Orioles, they are winning their way into the heart of Sarasota.
