Fifty One The Promenade

Gorgeous restaurant! First thoughts that came to me upon my gander to fifty one.
Something with a bit of a new angle always get’s me going. An Italian specialising in fresh fish and shellfish thus has me well and truly arriving in anticipation station indeed. An impressive entrée draws you in and the beautiful Victorian interior with high ceilings and original wood floors create a warm sense of satisfaction of knowing that your night is going to be a good one. A pleasant décor and ambiance indeed in which you’d definitely want to dine. There is also a bar and terrace with al fresco dining for those crisp clean blue sky days.
It’s a pretty chilled out place with good service and a menu that alters daily, which I like because that sounds like an Italian philosophy indeed; ‘simple, seasonal and ever changing’ and it is always filled with fish, seafood, steaks, vegetarian dishes, homemade breads, pasta and desserts. Well you’re by the seaside aren’t ya? Might as well try some marine cuisine then eh? I did, and loved it!

Opposite the Ramada Plaza, Southport Theatre and Convention Centre you will find Fifty One The Promenade, a fairly up market seafood and fish restaurant. Housed in a restored Victorian Building, the high ceilings, wooden floors and modern décor create a fresh and airy feel. If you don’t want to sit outside, there is a terrace where you can sit out and enjoy the weather. Menu wise the restaurant serves fresh wild fish with vegetables. But surprisingly it’s not all about the fish, with an impressive range of pasta and free range meat dishes. The mid week prices are fairly reasonable but as you would imagine prices get more expensive as you dive into the a la carte menu.

The Brunette lives in Southport, and considering that this is the seaside town of the Merseyside district, I thought it only fair that I keep rocking up on her doorstep and demanding to be taken around. I’ve known her for over thirteen years now (good GOD that’s depressing… nice because I love her, but depressing because I remember BEING thirteen when we met). The two of us bonded in an art lesson when we were making Paper Mache. I found a kindred spirit in the girl who like me was focussing more on amusing headlines than tearing the paper itself up.
‘What the hell?!?’ she spluttered.
I looked over. She’d found an article entitled: ‘Stephen Twigg: I want to be Gay Mayor of London.‘
I scrutinised it. What exactly was the difference between being a Mayor and a Gay Mayor? As the possibilities entered our brains we found ourselves convulsed with childish giggles and a permanent friendship was born, particularly when we cut out pictures of the then-​famous and controversial Teletubbies and stuck them all over someone else’s work when they weren’t looking. Anyway, that’s she and I. Still do this day our sense of humour is puerile and silly and we still do stupid voices at one another and speak in our own made-​up language. There are only a few major differences. We don’t dye our hair blue-​black any more, we don’t listen to Korn (admitting recently that both of us only pretended to like them) and Southport has climbed the social ladder in terms of eateries.
As teenagers she used to be baffled as to why our social group always wanted to come to hers. Growing up with a promenade, abundant candy floss, rock and fish and chips had evidently made her cynical. Years later, she tells me, ‘Southport’s actually gone quite sophisticated. I’ll take you to this restaurant everyone’s banging on about.‘
Opposite Southport Theatre sits this place which specialises in fish, and it’s rather good. The décor is simple and neutral, and while the space is quite small the most is made of it, with lovely touches like fresh flowers and crisp linen. There’s a friendly and welcoming atmosphere and the complimentary appetisers were excellent (balsamic and oil with anchovies and guacamole on Panini bread — lovely combination). There isn’t any pizza but you’ve got three pastas to choose from, one of which the Brunette went for as she’s not huge on fish anyway. The ravioli was stunning, with ricotta cheese, sundried tomatoes and olives. I was almost annoyed I didn’t go for that myself. Then again I had a delicious, crisp-​skinned, plump sea bass to enjoy. The pasta was soon forgotten. Even my side of veg was stunning, not merely an accompaniment but worthy of comment itself.
All the fish is wild and locally sourced from Southport’s piscine markets, the veg is organic, the meat is free range, the pasta is freshly made and the breads and pastries are baked there and then, and as well as the accompanying wine being gorgeous (one from a good variety of choice) the dessert of apple cake that we shared hit the spot 100%. Oh and I forgot to mention the starters, there’s plenty to choose from and I’d highly recommend the baked aubergines, they’re perfect for when there’s a nip in the sea air.
Rather than a nostalgia trip, this was even more fitting. Like us, Southport has grown up and its tastes have become more sophisticated. We were very content with that indeed.