Two Chefs, Same Mission
Chefs Dan Karpinski, left, and Curtis Massad of the Harbor Fish Market & Grille in Baileys Harbor.
Whether it’s the New England Lobster Boil or the Lobster Roll (shown here), lobster helps to give Harbor Fish Market & Grille its New England flavor. Contributed photo
VETERAN KARPINSKI, NEWCOMER MASSAD BLEND TALENTS AT HARBOR FISH MARKET AND GRILLE
The Wednesday special this fall at the Harbor Fish Market & Grille (HFMG) in Baileys Harbor is camel burgers. Why camel and not something more, fishy?
“We’re game for game,” said HFMG Chef Dan Karpinski, “whether it walks, swims or flies.”
Not to worry, Karpinski and new-in-2018 chef Curtis Massad stay true to HFMG’s seafood roots and menu, with a few modern twists of their own.
Massad, 26, graduated from Gibraltar High School in 2010 with a full music scholarship to attend the college of his choice (UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts) and play the tuba. That path lasted a year before playing music started feeling like a chore. He moved on to study political science and Arabic for another year. But the restaurant world called him back.
“I’ve been working in Door County kitchens since I was 10 years old – The Sandpiper, Blue Horse Café, English Inn, Drink Coffee. So I decided to go to culinary school and attended the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Milwaukee.
I had extensive training in fish cookery.”
After culinary school, Curtis spent eight years in Milwaukee working at the Hofbrauhaus, a German restaurant. He started at HFMG in March 2018, cooking alongside Karpinski.
“Dan is the experience chef, I’m the techie chef,” Massad said, alluding to his introductions of new or different cooking techniques, such as sous vide – sealing food in a vacuum-sealed bag and cooking the food in temperature-controlled water.
“I’m not reinventing the wheel, just putting chrome on it.” – Chef Curtis Massad
Harbor Fish Market & Grille offers a classic Baileys Harbor setting. Contributed photo
“I’ve been expanding the existing flavor profiles of our menu items, matching different ingredients with our customers’ menu favorites,” Massad added. “I’m learning how to play to the varied tastes of the customers who come to our restaurant. The people who come to Door County know what they like. So I work to create something unique around those tastes, to keep the menu fresh. For our stuffed chicken entrée, I added a cherry beurre blanc sauce.
I’m not reinventing the wheel, just putting chrome on it.”
Karpinski, 47, has 12 years embedded into Harbor Fish Market & Grille. He still scours old and new cookbooks for ideas and tweaks to make to HFMG’s recipes. Born in Detroit and raised in Shawano, he’s lived in Door County for 18 years. He self-describes as getting his culinary training the old-fashioned way, from the school of hard knocks.
“I’ve been working in kitchens since I was 16 years old,” Karpinski said, with a wizened smirk from his 31 years in the industry. He has the quiet sarcastic wit that comes from a lifetime of burns, high-pressure stress and interactions with restaurant-industry workers. “Why did I choose this life? Working in a restaurant was my first official job. It looked like fun.”
'Why did I choose this life? Working in a restaurant was my first official job. It looked like fun.' – Chef Dan Karpinski
Karpinski came to Door County for the diverse restaurant opportunities. He started working as a line cook at the English Inn and was there for one year under former owners Pete and Dorothy Kortes. He then moved to Carlos Banditos (former pizzeria in Fish Creek owned by HFMG’s owner Carl Berndt, currently housing Fish Creek Grill) for a couple years before Carl decided Dan would be a better fit at HFMG. Dan worked with former Chef Kara Walker during her 14 years at HFMG before she decided to move to Florida in 2017.
“Dan knows exactly how to manage the people who come through here,” Massad said of one of his co-chef’s strengths, “from the American college students to the international workers and year-round locals. He’s a great asset.”
Managing employees is one aspect of chef life Massad can learn via observation. Karpinski is ensuring he and Massad stay true to HFMG’s mission of offering a fine dining experience with a Door County price tag.
“We regularly offer specials with Texas-raised Wagyu beef. We try to keep all our entrees at an affordable price point,” Karpinski said with pride. “We’re not here to gouge somebody. We want them to have a great meal and come back.”
Autumn is a delicious season at HFMG: Grilled elk loin, large chunks of lamb shank or veal with hearty root vegetables. The barracuda offered as a summer special segues to sturgeon from Alaska with seasonal vegetables as extravagant as the fish. HFMG works with a company called Hawaiian Fresh Seafood that will fly in just about anything Massad and Karpinski request from the sea.
“Customers come to Harbor Fish Market already liking fish, so if we offer something extravagant, they’ll probably try it,” Massad said of some of their unique offerings. “Our distributors know that if they have unusual proteins, wild game, special fish, we’ll be interested in buying it. We are happy to experiment.”
During summer, HFMG served blowfish tails with a lemon soy reduction as a special appetizer. “They’re cute little guys with a texture similar to chicken or frog legs.”
Add to these affordably extravagant dishes Massad and Karpinski’s forays into foraging – for fungi, berries, flowers and herbs – and it’s no wonder Harbor Fish Market & Grille’s customers have kept the New England-style restaurant a success for more than 20 years; and nothing says New England on the menu like its lobster boil and lobster rolls.
After the busy summer season in Door County winds down in October, both Massad and Karpinski enjoy traveling. Massad is “open to trying anything”, and Karpinski travels with his wife to places like Florida, Las Vegas and the Gulf Coast.
“We enjoy dining at restaurants and eateries to find inspiration to bring back to Baileys Harbor and the Harbor Fish Market & Grille.”
