Seafood business took Allen to the White House

n After a lifetime in the business, restauranteer retired to Bella Vista.

Lynn Atkins/The Weekly Vista Del Allen shows off a photograph of two of his former employees grilling fish on the White House lawn. He brought his charcoal grill from his seafood restaurant in California to feed President Ronald Reagan and all of congress at an annual cook out in Washington, D.C.

Lynn Atkins/The Weekly Vista Del Allen shows off a photograph of two of his former employees grilling fish on the White House lawn. He brought his charcoal grill from his seafood restaurant in California to feed President Ronald Reagan and all of congress at an annual cook out in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Two stories stand out from Del Allen's long career in restaurants: the time he served a president and the time he refused.

Allen moved to Bella Vista in 2008 after developing a chain of seafood restaurants on the West Coast, then selling them to Red Lobster. Now he's retired and seldom cooks seafood. He just can't get the quality of fresh fish he enjoyed when he was buying for 30 restaurants.

He grew up in the restaurant business in southern California, beginning at the bottom in a bowling alley snack bar. He worked his way up through coffee shops, including an airport coffee shop in what is now the John Wayne Airport in Orange County. He served a lot of celebrities there.

As a young man, he managed a seafood restaurant in Newport Beach -- the Crab Cooker. It's still serving seafood. That was where he refused to serve Richard Nixon. It wasn't a political decision though. The Secret Service wanted the restaurant to close on a Saturday night so Nixon could eat there and Allen knew he couldn't disappoint his regular customers. The owner of the Crab Cooker was out of town, so it was up to the young manager to make the decision. When the owner returned, he said Allen had done the right thing. But people talked about it for a long time, he said.

Allen learned so much about seafood at the Crab Cooker that it became his career.

In 1975 he bought a former smorgasbord-style restaurant and turned it into his first Seafood Grill. His menu included up to 15 types of fish, as well as salads, pasta and a few steaks. All his fish was cooked on a grill over mesquite charcoal. Even catfish can be grilled, he said, although they did agree to cook catfish Cajun style when requested.

His secret, he said, is to cook fish 90 percent on the grill, then let it finish cooking on the way to the table. He used a minimum of seasonings -- mostly lemon pepper or Lowery's seasoned salt. Good seafood doesn't need a lot of seasoning, he said.

Fish has to be very fresh so he learned how to choose fresh fish over the years. It shouldn't smell fishy, he explained. A fresh fish should smell like the ocean. He bought his fish whole and his staff filleted them in the kitchen, using needle-nose pliers to pull out the tiny bones when necessary.

A lot of his fish came from Alaska and Sen. Ted Stephens of Alaska was a customer. He told Allen about the annual White House barbecue that always featured red meat. Stephens said he wanted his peers in Washington, D.C., to try some barbecued fish.

So Allen packed up his grill and several employees and they flew to the nation's capital and grilled fish on the White House lawn for President Ronald Reagan. They actually served 1,200 people that day including most of Congress, their spouses and guests.

"It was one of the highlights of my life," he said. He has the photos of himself in his chef's uniform shaking hands with Reagan.

When he sold his 30 restaurants to Red Lobster, he kept one and continued to grill fresh fish for several years. His whole family worked at that restaurant at different times, including grandchildren. None of them stayed in the business though and he didn't encourage them to do that. Chain restaurants are taking over, he said.

As retirement approached he remembered visiting his father in Springdale and driving by all the Bella Vista golf courses. He's not a golfer, but he knew he would love the area. He moved to Bella Vista with his wife and considered opening yet another restaurant, but she objected. Instead, Allen stays busy working out at Riordan Hall and running a vending machine business and remembering his seafood restaurants.

General News on 10/11/2017