The Dish is a new collaboration between Watertown News and the Little Local Conversations podcast which takes a deep dive into a favorite dish from a local restaurant and beyond.
Watertown’s Ritcey East has become a favorite place for people looking for comfort food, a cocktail, and enjoy it in a laid back, fun atmosphere. One of the most popular menu items, the fish tacos, also harkens back to owner Max Ritcey’s culinary roots, and has strong family ties.
Ritcey’s fish tacos are simple, but burst with complex flavors. Each bite is a mixture of warm crispiness, cool creaminess, with a burst of flavor tucked inside a tortilla. The inspiration for the fish tacos came from his family’s restaurant, Ritcey’s Seafood Kitchen in Waltham.
“It’s a play on my parents’ great fish: fresh haddock, lightly breaded, and then I jazz it up with homemade citrus slaw, chipotle aioli,” Ritcey said.
The dish has received top reviews from many, including a fish taco expert.
“This is definitely in our top three rotating top items every single week,” Ritcey said. “I had a 6-year-old from San Diego a couple of years ago tell me — he flagged me down on a Friday night to tell me ‘This is the best fish that I’ve ever had.’ And then he followed up by saying, ‘I’m from San Diego!’ and I took that very seriously. I would make a T-shirt that says that — it’s a compliment.”
Four ounces of haddock are battered, fried, placed inside flour tortillas, and topped with a citrus slaw, pico de gallo, and chipotle crema.
Having quality ingredients helps make a tasty fish taco, Ritcey said. The fish is fresh haddock.
“A lot of places will do tilapia, Red Fish or frozen fish for their taco,” Ritcey said. “I think that’s what separates us. We get our fish in twice a week. It stays very fresh. It’s quite delicious.”
The battering takes a few steps, starting with a milk bath.
“The milk acid really does help clean up the fish, and it’s going to help our flour stick to it,” Ritcey said.
Then there are two dippings into flour.
“So we’re going to take the floured fish, put it right in the milk again,” Ritcey said. “We’re going to lose some of the flour. No big deal.”
The flour mix uses Bob’s Red Mill corn flour and potato starch to make it crispy. Then the fish goes into the deep fryer. Ritcey knows it is ready when the fish floats. For the home cooks who are frying in a shallow layer of oil, Ritcey recommends using a thermometer.
“I have written right over there with the (cooked) temperatures of what people need to know for different things,” he said. “At home, I keep it inside my cabinet, where my plates are.”
Another tip is to cut the pieces of fish (or whatever protein you are cooking) the same thickness so that they cook at the same rate.
The restaurant makes its own taco toppings.
“We have our citrus slaw. Very, very simple. A lot of our ingredients are very simple. We really don’t have to outdo ourselves on some stuff,” Ritcey said. “The pico de gallo we make is truly just tomato, cilantro, onion, lime juice, jalapeño, salt, chipotle. We make it in house.”
Then they are placed into flour tacos, not corn, which is his personal preference.
“I would never have a corn tortilla. I don’t mind corn chip, I like, you know, Doritos and things like that, totally fine,” Ritcey said. “But just like the raw corn taste that generally is associated with corn tortillas I just don’t love.”
The tortillas get browned in the salamander (a broiler) and then get assembled in brightly colored, plastic holders in the shape of a taco truck.
“So the truck is really, truthfully, my favorite part,” Ritcey said. “It looks fun, and I really think it’s like a good descriptor for we are just taking something that everyone does and presenting it a little bit differently with a little whimsy.”
Ritcey East also offers a gluten-free version of the tacos, where the haddock is pan fried without batter, and they go into gluten-free tortillas. Ritcey, who is gluten free himself, puts an emphasis on finding the best gluten free options to serve his customers.
Founding Ritcey East
While the Ritcey family’s roots go back to the fish restaurant in Waltham, which started as a fish market in 1911, it took Max some time to become a restaurant owner.
“It took a lot of pushing and shoving for my dad,” Ritcey said. “It’s not that I drag my feet. I think I wait for things to be perfect a lot before I start things.”
Ritcey first began working in his family’s restaurant as a teen, and then worked in “a bunch of different restaurants.” He rose to general manager at a restaurant, and then moved to a series of other restaurants.
He almost started a restaurant in a brand new space, but when it dawned on Ritcey how much it would cost to start a restaurant from scratch Ritcey decided to look for another opportunity. Then he heard about a spot in Watertown, which had a fully functioning kitchen. In 2017, after an extended negotiation, Ritcey got a lease at 208 Waverley Ave. He thinks the City is a great place to be.
“I was reading Newton got a new economic developer, and I think Watertown is a step above every city around here, all the time: in the compost and (Senior Planner for Economic Development) Erin Rathe’s position,” Ritcey said. “I do think Watertown is just really mindful about the stuff they do, and I’m proud to be here, and I’m proud to have a business here.”
Ritcey East has also developed a reputation for being LGBTQ+ friendly, and has participated in the Watertown Pride Celebration.
“I do think Watertown has a very queer and welcoming environment,” Ritcey said. “I think due in part to a lot of people stepping back from Cambridge and Somerville, and still wanting to be close to things like that. And, it’s a very cool neighborhood.”
Giving Back
A fun place to get tasty food is not the only thing that Ritcey East has become known for. When the cuts to SNAP benefits were announced in the fall, Ritcey said he had to do something about it.
He remembers the feeling he had when he read about the cuts, sitting on the couch on a Sunday: upset and frustrated. He said to his wife, Chelsea, “This is so awful! What are people gonna do?”
“The day went on and we did stuff, and I came home and I flopped back down on the couch, and I remember still in that same position,” Ritcey recalled. “Then Chelsea looked over, and she’s like, ‘What are you doing? And I was like, ‘I’m making a sign on Canva.’ She’s like, for what? I said, ‘I’m doing free SNAP meals.'”
Word of the free meals for anyone who ordered online, no questions asked, spread quickly. Ritcey East’s effort caught the attention of WBZ, even before the meals were being prepared.
“I was like, s–t. I don’t know what I’m doing yet. I really got to get this together,” Ritcey said. “So, I went out and bought a ton of stuff from BJ’s and a lot of bulk stuff, eggplant, and just started cooking.”
Many people took advantage of the meals. Ritcey estimates the restaurant provided nearly 400 meals.
“What people thought is, comfort food, of course!,” Ritcey said. “It was fun. People really love chicken parm, I’ll tell you that.”
Then one day Ritcey got a text from an unfamiliar number. The person said they were from Gov. Maura Healey’s office. Ritcey wasn’t sure if it was the real deal, but then he got the invitation for he and Chelsea to be the governor’s guest for the State of the Commonwealth. When the night came, the couple was seated with people like the president of Planned Parenthood, the retired director of the Greater Boston Food Bank, and owner of Harpoon Brewery.
“I thought everyone was going to be recognized. And then when it was only me, the firefighter who helped people from the old age home, and then the trooper who saved the guy from the bridge,” Ritcey said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, thank you all so much.’ It was very surreal.”
The free SNAP meals have had a ripple effect, Ritcey said. A woman came in to the restaurant recently bearing gifts.
“She said that she’s from Wilmington. She read the article and she cried. She’s a very emotional person, and she thought it was so sweet,” Ritcey said. “So, she wanted to make sure she came out here and supported us, and she brought us a gift of these linens and some table runners and stuff. It was so sweet.”
The Dish
Hear more from Max Ritcey in The Dish podcast by Little Local Conversations host Matt Hanna.
Also, listen to Hanna’s Little Local Conversations episode on Max Ritcey below: