Shore to Shore: Tide To Table Lets The Daily Catch Shape Its Ocean City Menu

OCEAN CITY, Md. — In Ocean City, the connection between the water and what’s on your plate is hard to miss. One local restaurant is taking that idea literally, bringing the flavors of the coast from Tide to Table.

Executive Chef Timothy Elliott said he wanted the chef-owned restaurant to offer something different from the traditional seafood fare found throughout Ocean City.

“I came here saying that I would not be like any other restaurant in Ocean City,” Elliott said. “We wouldn’t be the crab dip, fried oyster kind of place. We wanted to elevate our food a little bit.”

At Tide to Table, the catch of the day isn’t simply a special — it helps shape the menu. The restaurant takes a different approach to seafood, allowing what is caught each day to influence what ends up on the plate.

Elliott said that means pairing fresh seafood with unexpected flavors. “We have some fun things on the menu,” Elliott said. “We just had Halibut with a Granny Smith Apple Beurre Blanc, and we have Bluefin Tuna with a Pomegranate Barbecue sauce. It’s about bringing together different flavors like that.”

While the day’s catch sets the foundation, Elliott said the kitchen uses it as an opportunity to experiment, including with dishes such as seafood sausage.

“I try to think of unique dishes and flavors that I’ve done in the past,” Elliott said. “I’ve worked in a lot of crazy places, so it’s always fun to bring a little piece of that with me.”

That creativity extends beyond the food. The restaurant also creates cocktails designed to complement its tasting menus and seafood dishes.

“We base our drinks and cocktails on the fresh fish and the catch, and how they pair together,” Elliott said. “We also have a fig Cosmo. I infuse different things into the drinks, too, and the concepts are going pretty well so far.”

Owner and chef Bobby Bassett said building a restaurant around seasonal ingredients and the seafood available each day was something he had wanted to do from the beginning.

Bassett also has a longtime connection to Elliott. He said Elliott was his mentor and hired him in 1991. Bassett worked with Elliott for more than a decade, developing a cooking style influenced by his mentor.

“Having Tim Elliott as the executive chef, who was my mentor, was amazing,” Bassett said. “My cooking style was very similar to his because I learned from him. Having him come on board with me here and do this project was amazing. We can do whatever we want, and as chefs, that’s always what we wanted to do.”

Bassett said the restaurant’s menu can change quickly based on what is available.

“I come in every morning at 8 and get to play in the kitchen,” Bassett said. “Tim and I walk through menus every day. By 2, I need a menu from Tim. He tells me what the menu is going to be for the day, and then I retype it and print it. By 3, we have a new menu.”

Before service, the staff goes through each dish and discusses where the ingredients came from, the characteristics of the food and possible wine and cocktail pairings.

“By 3:30, we do our pre-shift meeting with our staff,” Bassett said. “We go through every menu item — where it came from, what it is, its characteristics, and pairing it with wines and cocktails. From there, we go right into service.”

Bassett said the restaurant wants guests to approach the experience with an open mind.

“We’re constantly saying, ‘Eat against the current. Let us provide for you. Come curious,’” Bassett said. “Let us direct you to what we have, and when you leave, you go, ‘Wow, that was good. I’m willing to try something different.’”

The restaurant plans to offer eight-course tasting menus with pairings that can include wine, cocktails, bourbon and whiskey.

“We’re going to go into eight-course tasting menus, with everything paired with wines, cocktails, bourbons, whiskeys — whatever we can,” Bassett said. “We want people to come in, experience something they’ve never tried before and leave saying, ‘Wow, I really do like that.’”

The experience doesn’t end with the seafood. The restaurant’s dessert offers another opportunity for the chefs to experiment, with pastries and house-made ice creams.

“Our pastry chef is phenomenal,” Bassett said. “I’ve got a really good team around me, and I rely on them to do what they do.”

Bassett said he still gets involved in the kitchen himself, including making several of the restaurant’s ice creams.

“I made the pumpkin ice cream. I made the Luxardo Maraschino Cherry ice cream, I made vanilla ice cream,” Bassett said. “So, I still, as a chef, get to come in and have fun.”