Dube's Seafood
Dube’s Seafood was founded in 1961 by Lionel Pelletier and his family ran the restaurant until today. Lionel “Beaver” Pelletier was known as a successful businessman and sportsman in Salem. Now it is run by his daughter Mary Pelletier. Dube’s Seafood locates at 317 Jefferson Avenue, Salem MA 01970. It was well known among locals as well as tourists in Salem and North Shore area for its fresh and affordable seafood. Even with more than 20 seafood restaurants in the area, Dube’s still achieves over ⅘ stars in all of Yelp, Google, Foursquare and Tripadvisors reviews. Especially in Foursquare, it was ranked no.3 for seafood restaurant in Salem. “Clichéd as it sounds, for me, Dube’s isn’t just a restaurant; it’s a family tradition. My dad inevitably sees someone he knows there. Whenever one of my siblings comes back to the area to visit, a dinner there is imperative. Whenever a new seafood place opens, Dube’s is the standard to which they are compared.”, KN stated in his Dube’s review from North Shore Dish. Dube’s seems to be highly adored among locals as he referred to as “a family tradition”. Furthermore, Dube’s attracts a lot of students from Salem State University because of its location and affordable price; as it is only 5 minutes walk from the college.
There are three main sections in Dube’s menu: Main courses, specialties, and side dishes. There are total of ten main course, where two of them include fried seafood combination. In specialties, there are eleven dishes with majority of fried seafood but as separated type of choice. Dube’s was known for their fried seafood, especially clams. It was also the first thing they offer in their menu: Fisherman’s Platter including fried clams, shrimp, haddock and flounder. Especially, they offer such as fried shrimps, fried scallops, fried flounder and a lot more types as specialties on the menu in a bigger section. This shows that it is the strength and popular dish at the restaurant, as they really focus on giving patrons many options just on fried seafood. Fried seafood has been the trend in New England, especially in the summer. The last section, side orders, include the other dishes such as po’ boy, salad, onion rings and french fries. The food options were also vast. Unlike other seafood restaurants, where all of the courses are seafood-based, Dube’s have some other options such as chicken, salads, steak and burgers. The only main course that is non-seafood is New York sirloin steak. The rest of the non-seafood in the menu is placed in the last page along with side dishes, including chicken salad, mushroom cheeseburgers, turkey club, and teriyaki chicken. Even though the menu is not enormously big, it includes a little bit of every food type. So the menu was designed and consider for everyone, especially for families. The price of the dish is also sorted along the sections, with the main courses being more expensive obviously (range from $10-$25). The side dishes are priced from $6 to $12. These prices are average in comparison of other casual dining restaurants in Salem as of 2017.
Every dish has explaination carefully in simple language so it was easy and clear even to first-time customers like myself. Every main course is described with choices of vegetable and potato. Therefore it is quite easy to select a main course then choose side orders that are already included. The dish name usually describe itself, for instance, baked stuffed haddock or broiled salmon. These names are uncomplicated and simple, given the nature of a casual restaurant, so that patrons can quickly understand. The ingredients range are not extensively wide, but they have a good selections of seafood types and vegetable such as garden salad, potatoes with a choice of cooking, steamed broccoli. Dube’s menu also include some health claims on advising server if anyone have food allergies and a consumer advisory of consuming undercooked food may increase risk of foodborne illness. The purpose of advisory is to inform consumers about health-related risks by consuming certain dishes. These claims reflect a restaurant’s care and concern of customers health.
Seafood restaurants in Salem are growing constantly with different models and new approaches to customers. Dube’s Seafood still proved to be a valuable spot in Salem for everyone who enjoy a good casual meal. It is truly a landmark because of its great contribution to Salem and North Shore community for over 50 years. Their traditional but tasty dishes are what keep people coming in and stay highly rated among many other restaurants in the North Shore.
