It’s the last place you would expect to have a sign out front that says, “Voted Best Steak in Eastshores.” The Hook and Cook, nestled within the beach town tourist strip, is known for cooking whatever is brought in from the local fishermen’s daily catch.
The owner and head chef, Bobby Bliss, takes his name seriously: “You hook it, we cook it!” The restaurant does not even have a refrigerator, just the ingredients to turn the catch on the end of your fishing pole into the best meal in town.
“I hated owning a restaurant because you have to deal with all of the suppliers,” Bobby Bliss said. “Now I just have a vegetable guy and pick up a few things here and there.”
The real question is, how did The Hook and Cook start preparing steak?
“I had a guy coming down with a group, but he didn’t like fish. He phoned and questioned if I would really cook anything on a hook. When I said yes, he appeared with a sirloin on a meat cleaver he got from the butcher.”
The results were legendary. Butchers in town now sell meat on hooks specifically to supply Hook and Cook customers. The unofficial menu has ballooned to include lamb, chicken and tofu.
“Someone had me roast marshmallows for them. Someone else got calamari on a hook. I have a rule that if I shake the hook and it stays on the hook, I can cook it.”
Yet Bobby Bliss’s favorite thing to cook was not edible.
“A girl came in with her homework on a hook and asked me to cook it,” Bobby Bliss said. “We recorded a video of me burning it with a torch. I’m pretty sure she got an A for effort for that one.”