Lir Seafood: It’s a whole new kettle of fish for seafood lovers

According to the 2024 Norwegian Seafood Council’s (NSC) Top Seafood Consumer Trends report, there is a shift happening in global seafood consumption.

Of course, Ireland has a very different culture and attitude toward seafood than most other countries, but the trends discussed in this report also largely apply to Irish consumer behaviour.

For example, it shares that consumers are feeling the pinch financially, but are not willing to compromise on quality. They want options like fresh, top-quality seafood delivered directly to their doors. They want high-protein, low-fat snacks and supplements, like marine collagen and Omega-3 fish oils. They want luxury at-home dining experiences with high-end, ready-made seafood focused meals.

Interestingly, the report also pointed out the emergence of online ‘fishfluencers’ – social media influencers who help drive seafood sales by sharing seafood preparation techniques and health benefits.

We definitely have some “fishfluencers” in Ireland. At the annual Irish Food Writing Awards last November, the winner of the ‘Irish Food on Instagram or TikTok’ award was Sebastian Skillings, known as The Hungry Fishmonger on Instagram. Sebastian shares recipes, techniques and seafood knowledge with his online following.

Fishfluencer

Aishling Moore could be considered another Irish ‘fishfluencer’. A seafood-focused chef cooking in Goldie Restaurant in Cork, she released her first cookbook Whole Catch this past year to rave reviews. She shares unfussy but unique recipes which use all parts of the fish, like buttermilk fried hake tails.

Despite these influences – and the fact that Ireland is an island nation surrounded by some of the healthiest fishing grounds in Europe – aside from the ubiquitous fish and chips, this country has not traditionally been a seafood-loving nation.

Curiosity around seafood, and why Irish people weren’t eating more of it, is what drove Rebekah and Stevie McCarry to develop their business model in Coleraine, Co Derry, which includes Lir restaurant, Native Seafood + Scran and The Pool in nearby Portstewart.

“From working in other kitchens, the only fish I had ever seen was pre-portioned, or just the loins,” Stevie tells Irish Country Living.

“When we started taking fresh, whole fish in, we would take the sides off, but then you’d be going, ‘well – what about the cheeks? What about the head meat or the belly? What about the organs?’”

In early 2020, he and Rebekah purchased the old yacht club at the marina; envisioning a restaurant which would focus on nose-to-fin-to-tail cooking and taking in whatever the local day boats would catch. Their plans changed drastically when the COVID-19 lockdowns occurred.

With young children at home and – suddenly – no income, Rebekah and Stevie were forced to innovate. Instead of serving prepared seafood in a sit-down restaurant, they started a fishmonger business; advertising their daily catches on social media streams like Instagram.

They started delivering the seafood screamingly fresh and wrapped simply in brown paper within their locality. “The ocean is already full of plastic – there’s no way we’d be wrapping the fish in it,” explains Rebekah. Soon enough, business was booming.

Squid shawarma

When lockdown ended, they were once again able to serve prepared food, but also continued selling fresh fish. At the time, they had a very small kitchen and decided to focus on street food style seafood dishes. This meant innovating once again – creating unique, but not completely foreign, dishes like dogfish sausage rolls and squid shawarma.

“We had to build up a trust with our customer base,” Rebekah explains. “We had to make the fish approachable to those coming in off the street, and with the kitchen being as small as it was, it made sense to start with street food.

“We would replace common meat dishes with fish. People would come in and ask, ‘what’s the fish most similar to chicken?’ Monkfish has a similar texture to chicken, so we would do a Kentucky Fried monkfish burger.”

Once they had built a customer base, the duo felt comfortable to work with less-frequently used parts of the fish for menu items. Over the next two years, they operated Native Seafood + Scran at the marina and also opened The Pool, where they served coffee, local pastries and fresh seafood.

In 2023, they were able to complete the renovations on the former yacht club building to create Lir, their sit-down restaurant with a full-sized kitchen. Having the space to experiment has helped them continue to innovate; finding ways to use every part of a fish and going further with their zero-waste ethos.

Over the past few years, they have received multiple awards and earned rave reviews from food critics within Ireland and the UK. Most importantly, though, they have the support of their local community, who come to dine in their droves.

“A lot of the gastronomy we do here is a mix between super old school – like stuff going back thousands of years – and modern techniques,” Stevie says.

“For example, we take fresh mackerel organs, salt them and make a garum out of them. Garum is a sauce dating back to the Roman empire. It’s our equivalent to an Asian-style fish sauce. One teaspoon of this sauce can change an entire dish. But the cool thing is, we were able to take something which is normally just absolute waste and we’ve been able to do something with it.”

Wild-caught fish

Rebekah and Stevie use only wild-caught, never frozen, fish. They buy whatever comes in each day, which means they end up with a lot of bycatch. Bycatch are the types of fish which get accidentally caught while trying to catch other types of fish.

“Targeting specific fish is impossible,” Stevie says. “Rather than us holding out and waiting for them to catch the ‘popular’ fish, we go the other way and take whatever they catch.”

The team at Lir are constantly experimenting in the kitchen; trialling fish sausages, fish stock and fish charcuterie (think monkfish chorizo). Recipes are adapted to allow them to use every part of the fish. The waste – if any – is used as fertiliser on local farms where their vegetables are grown.

“At the minute, I have a fish ham and a fish ‘Nduja in the works,” Stevie says. “I like the idea of preserving fish in a way where, the longer it sits, the more it develops.”

Besides serving up sustainable seafood, Stevie and Rebekah feel strongly about educating consumers around the benefits of supporting local fishing industries. They visit schools to talk about seafood and include information on sustainability and their ethos on the Lir menu.

“I’m not a seasoned fisherman, so [in the beginning] we could see how our customers might approach seafood,” Stevie says.

“We were learning new things all the time, which was always a conversation starter. When we started giving people information, [we found] that they

wanted it.”

Read more

‘Every dish I cook has a story to tell’

Meet the chef: ten questions with Aishling Moore