Las Vegas awaits seafood shipments

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001 | 10:45 a.m.

Stan Carroll's customers will have to get through one more day without fresh red snapper.

Carroll's Wild Sage Cafe in Henderson this morning was supposed to get its first shipment of snapper since last week's terrorist attacks, when airport closures and cargo bans cut off Las Vegas' seafood supply.

But a bomb scare at New York City's Fulton Fish Market, which sits a few blocks from the World Trade Center, had Carroll waiting in vain for his shipment this morning.

On Monday, Carroll said his seafood supply problems mean nothing compared with the tragedies on the East Coast. But he hopes that his first shipment, which is now scheduled to arrive later today, will signify a return to some form of normalcy.

"I just don't think we can allow an act like this to shut us down and make us live in fear," he said. "Otherwise they've won."

Others in the restaurant industry also said Monday that seafood shipments were slowly picking up again after a shortage by the end of last week.

"We ran out of lobster over the weekend," said Bryan O'Shields, Bellagio's vice president of food and beverage. He added that Aqua restaurant also took a couple of fish dishes off the menu Saturday because they ran out.

"Today looks as if things are back on track," O'Shields said, adding that he hadn't seen any price increases for seafood so far.

Nick Bimonte, who recently opened Nickarino's on Las Vegas Boulevard, said he had a hard time getting seafood this weekend. He added that he didn't expect a complete recovery very soon and said seafood prices were likely to go up.

"We are definitely going to feel the crunch to get the product here," Bimonte said.

At J & J Seafood Co., shelves and lobster basins remained almost empty on Monday.

Joseph Bergin, who is in charge of buying seafood for the company, said he hadn't received any shipments on a day that would usually bring in about 5,000 pounds of fresh seafood.

While he received some tuna and swordfish from Hawaii on Sunday, the only East Coast delivery was 200 bushels of clams that arrived via truck from Florida, he said.

Bergin added that he had sent company workers home over the past few days, because he didn't have enough work. Demand for seafood had also dropped by 50 percent, Bergin said.

"The casinos have cut their standard orders in half," he said.

Bergin added that he expected some shipments later in the day and hoped things would be back to normal by the weekend.

"I don't even count on it until I know the product is on the plane," he said, adding that suppliers have to face waits of several hours at airports to check in shipments.