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“Why can’t you get a fish taco in a seaside community?” 

This is one of the questions that chef Shubert Ho says launched The Mar·ket, a fishmonger and casual seafood restaurant now (softly) open in Edmonds’ downtown core. Ho, who also owns beloved Edmonds’ eateries Bar Dojo and Salt & Iron with business partner Andrew Leckie, says with all three places he’s tried to fill a perceived void, for Asian flavors with the first, for steak and oysters with the second, for seafood with this newest. While he’s not entirely accurate about the fish taco thing—Anthony’s Beach Café has them on the menu—we totally get where he’s coming from. Who doesn’t want more fish tacos? He also wondered why Edmonds doesn’t have more fishmongers, and cursed the fact you couldn’t get great fish and chips right on Main Street. So he solved the problem himself.

Of Ho’s restaurants, the Mar·ket is his most casual: counter service, with only about 10 bar seats (another 14 or so on the sidewalk patio), and his first foray into the retail realm. The menu has less than a dozen items—obviously fish and chips ($15) and fish tacos ($10), but also shrimp tostadas ($10), a sushi burrito ($15), a lobster roll ($25) and some chowder Ho promises will rival the great one they serve at Salt & Iron. But the retail counter promises even more, not just local standbys like salmon and crab but “mackerel, seabass, octopus, whole branzino, all the shellfish” and more, Ho says. He said they’ll even be shucking oysters to offer out the walk-up window, making this perhaps the only place you can get a takeout dozen oysters to slurp as you’re walking down the street. (In addition to the fresh fish counter, there’s a selection of grocery items and a refrigerated section including tartar sauce, tuna salad, shrimp Caesars, pickled herring and the like.)

Chef de cuisine at the Mar·ket is Hans Korompis, who worked with Ho at Salt & Iron and at Tom Douglas restaurants before. Korompis is of Indonesian decent, but was raised in Singapore—you can see his influence in the fried softshell crab tossed with chilies and spices (and served in a paper bag, $18). Ho said they’re hoping to do daily specials like crab fried rice down the road, plus cooked-to-order fish selections from the case big enough to take home for a dinner party.

Official opening happens June 13, but you can go now—even in these first few days while they’re still catching their footing, I thought the fish and chips was particularly stellar (watch out, Nosh).

Edmonds, 508 Main St.; 425.967.5329; marketfreshfish.com