Bottoms up: Blue Fin Seafood Restaurant & Bar

For many Columbia natives, the Northeast Richland area is still regarded as uncharted waters. But if you happen to live in that direction, then chances are, you are familiar with Blue Fin Seafood Restaurant & Bar. Located near the entrance of the Village at Sandhill and within sight of the movie theater and other high-traffic businesses, the fresh seafood restaurant seats its fair share of land lovers.

“It’s a great place for shoppers to stop in for a drink or a snack or decide they want to have a nice dinner,” said John Hankins, general manager. “We have handfuls of regulars you might see three or four times a week, so there’s a little bit of that ‘Cheers’ atmosphere, but we’re not exclusively that. We see all kinds of people. I see everyone from truck drivers to college professors. You name it, they’re here.”

Hankins, who’s been with the restaurant for six of the eight years it’s been open, says the privately owned establishment thrives not only because of its location, but also because of its attention to detail. When creating the bar menu, for example, the bartenders kept in mind that drinks should pair well with fish; that translated into a variety of martini-styled cocktails.

“We put a lot of drinks in martini glasses because we just like that classic shape and look,” he said. “And it’s a way for bartenders to express their creativity. There’s nothing wrong with a gin and tonic or a shot of tequila, but there’s only so creative you can get. So it’s fun to make all these drinks where you’re shaking flavors together and you’re garnishing with one or two different things.”

Hankins noted the Mermaid, created by one of the veteran bartenders, and the chocolate martini.

“I really like our chocolate martini,” he said. “It’s made with a chocolate vodka, and we make a chocolate sauce that we use to coat the inside of the glass. Then we use a microplane to shave bittersweet chocolate on top. You can have a cocktail for dessert.”

It should come as no surprise that a drink called the Mermaid at a seafood restaurant really reels people in. Made with Midori, coconut rum, peach schnapps, pineapple juice and sweet and sour, the aqua-green drink is tropical and delicious – like a day at the beach in a glass.

“We don’t leave any drinks on our menu that people don’t like,” added Hankins. “We’ll change it and put new ones on and see how they do.”

Besides cocktails, Hankins added that Blue Fin has a robust wine-by-the-glass program and pointed out that more than half of its 20 beer taps have been taken over by local brews.

“It’s styled to have something for everybody,” Hankins said of the bar.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Bottoms up: Blue Fin Seafood Restaurant & Bar."