Spending the night in Nashua, NH recently, I was on a quest for some really good seafood. Being in New England for the first time in about 30 years made me want to do nothing but find fresh seafood while I was there. At the hotel I stayed at, I asked the bartender what seafood place he'd go to if he had a choice. He didn't hesitate. "Surf Seafood in downtown Nashua," he said. A guy seated not far away said, "Oh, yeah. Surf if probably the best in town." Going on their recommendation, I headed to downtown Nashua that evening for a meal at Surf Seafood.
Michael Buckley grew up in the Boston suburb of Brookline, MA. At the age of 13, he started working at a restaurant washing dishes. He loved the restaurant business so much that he told his parents that he was going to own his own restaurant someday. And he would name it Michael Timothy's incorporating his middle name into the name of his dream restaurant.
During high school in the late 70's into the early 80's, Buckley was an industrious kid. During the summer months he'd paint houses during the day, work as a grill chef in the afternoon into the evening, then make cider over the weekends. After graduating from high school in 1981, Buckley ended up working on an eastern Oregon ranch that was owned by his neighbor's brother. Buckley worked on the ranch from May until December flying back home when his services as a ranch hand were no longer needed during the winter months.
When Buckley returned, he started to work as a grill cook at the restaurant he'd been working at during his high school years. He soon went to work as a line cook at The Pearl, an upscale restaurant in Nashua. From there, Buckley went to work in the kitchen at a now closed Italian restaurant in Nashua.
Figuring out that he'd have to learn how to work the front of the house since he'd been working in restaurant kitchens since he was 13, Buckley took a second job to wait tables another restaurant in Nashua. But not long after all that, he heard of a new restaurant that opened in nearby Amherst, NH - Lord Jeffrey. The restaurant's owner was German and he had a German head chef in charge of the kitchen. Buckley got a job as a line cook at the restaurant.
While other chefs got their start going to culinary school, working at Lord Jeffrey turned out to be culinary school for Buckley. The German chef that Buckley worked under taught him the basic foundations of European cooking from making stocks, what to look for in seafood and how to handle fish, and how to butcher meats. On his off day from Lord Jeffrey, he would go work in a Swiss restaurant where his boss was a co-owner to learn classic German, Swiss and Austrian dishes.
During this time, Buckley was dating a young lady by the name of Sarah who - when she wasn't going to school at the University of New Hampshire - was waiting tables at Lord Jeffreys. They had a co-worker who was from Germany and she had worked in restaurants there before coming to New Hampshire. She had told them of a restaurant where she formerly worked at in Gaggenau, located in the southwest sector of Germany near the border with France. The German co-worker told Michael and Sarah that she could get them a job at that restaurant if they were interested in going to Germany.
Not long after that offer was made, the owner of Lord Jeffrey decided to sell the restaurant. Both Buckley and Sarah decided to make the leap and went to Germany with their German co-worker. They made it to Gaggenau and went to the restaurant where they were introduced to the chef - a 27-year-old Certified Master Chef. They weren't hired right away, but one evening while dining in the restaurant, the chef's assistant - who was a 14-year-old boy - ran out of the kitchen crying. Exasperated, the chef came out to Buckley and asked when he could start.
The young chef Buckley worked under specialized in both made-from-scratch French specialties to classic German fare and people from miles around came to his little restaurant. The young chef was a taskmaster in the small kitchen which consisted of the chef, Buckley and a dishwasher. But Buckley thrived under the demanding pressure in the kitchen calling the experience one of the best of his culinary career.
After working in Germany for four months, the new owners of Lord Jeffrey contacted Buckley and pleaded with him to come back. The head chef had quit just before Christmas and the new owners were desperate. They offered to pay Buckley and Sarah's moving expenses to come back and handed him a large cash bonus when he showed up on the first day back at the restaurant. In 1985 at the age of 21, Michael Buckley was finally the head chef at a restaurant.
Two years later, Michael and Sarah tied the knot and it was also time for Michael to move on to his next culinary adventure. He ended up at an upscale restaurant in Merrimack, NH, just north of Nashua to work with a friend who was the head chef. When the head chef left in 1989, Buckley was elevated to the position.
Pictured right - Sarah and Michael Buckley. Photo courtesy NH Business Review.
In all, Buckley worked at the restaurant in Merrimack for over 7 years. By this time, he was working on a deal to be a chef at a new brewpub. But when that fell through he decided it was his time to open his own place. He left the restaurant in Merrimack and found a spot on Main Street in Nashua in a building that once housed an insurance agency. The young Buckley family - now with two kids and a third one on the way - pulled out their life savings, cashed in anything worth money, and put down a deposit.
With the help of his brother and Sarah's father, the trio worked day and night over a four month period to convert the former insurance agency office space into a restaurant. With more help from friends and family, along with some thrifty purchases of furnishings, the Buckleys opened Michael Timothy's in August of 1995. He was 31 years old and had been involved with restaurants for 18 years bringing the dream of owning his own restaurant by the name of Michael Timothy's full circle. (At one point, Michael Timothy's rebranded into MT Local featuring a menu of locally-sourced food.)
The restaurant was a hit right off the bat and Buckley found himself working long hours to oversee even the most minute detail. He hadn't even thought about opening a second restaurant, but in 2002 a chance to buy the restaurant right across the street from Michael Timothy's fell into his lap. Instead of letting someone else come in and buy the restaurant, he negotiated with the owners to take over the space allowing him to work on a concept that would be different from the bistro-style fare he served at Michael Timothy's.
Even though New England was a hotbed for seafood, there were only a few restaurants with a creative menu that catered to a more discerning clientele. In late May of 2002, Surf Seafood opened their doors. It was also the first time in his life that Buckley realized that he couldn't be in two places at the same time. He learned to delegate responsibilities to make two restaurants work. It also gave him some much needed time away from the restaurant business for some family time at home.
From there, in 2005 Buckley opened Buckley's Great Steaks in Merrimack, NH in a restored early-1800's tavern. After that, more restaurants popped up under the Michael Timothy's Dining Group umbrella - a second Surf Seafood opened in Portsmouth, NH in 2011, Buckley's Bakery and Cafe opened next door to Buckley's Great Steaks (a second location opened in Hollis, NH not long ago), Mike's Italian Kitchen in downtown Nashua was rebranded from MT's Local in 2023, and a new Surf Seafood location opened in Woburn, MA in 2023. And earlier this year, Buckley - along with his son, Ian - opened Lost Cowboy Brewing Company, 30 years after he almost became involved in a brewpub before owning his own restaurant.
It was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to downtown Nashua. I pulled up to Surf Seafood around 7 p.m. at 207 Main Street (see map). The parking spots along the street were filled up, so I went down the street to a bank parking lot that appeared to allow cars to park there after business hours.
Walking back up the street and into Surf Seafood I was met at a hostess stand by a young lady. The restaurant was semi-partitioned into two parts - a bar area and a dining area. The bar was a large U-shaped structure in the middle of that part of the restaurant. There were tables off to the side with banquette seats from the half-wall between the bar area and the dining room. More tables were off to the opposite side of the bar. In the back of the bar area was a raw bar/sushi bar that featured seating at its bar, as well.
The dining room was well lit and featured larger tables for bigger groups. The restaurant was very nice, but not stuffy. It wasn't a place for a one person diner, so I opted for the bar. I was lucky - I got the last open seat at the bar. It was a popular place and they were busy that night.
There were three bartenders working the bar that night - two men and a young woman. The young woman was the one who brought a menu over to me and she asked me what I would like to drink. I asked her what hazy IPA's they had available and she had to go ask one of the other guys what they had. She came back and said they had the Cloud Candy hazy New England IPA from the Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. in Waltham, MA. I have to say it was a very good beer.
The menu was an interesting mix of small plates, sandwiches, sushi, and raw bar items such as smoked salmon, oysters on the half-shell, and tuna pokè. They had an extensive list of main entree choices such as a flambéed lobster, shrimp tikka masala, Korean BBQ scallops, and a ramen dish with slow-braised bacon, miso-marinated salmon, with pickled vegetables in a broth with noodles. The pepper-encrusted ahi tuna sounded especially delicious.
The raw bar with the oysters on the half-shell sounded good to me, so I asked the young lady to put an order in for me. I found out later on that they had a variety of oysters to choose from. A couple had sat down next to me later in the evening as I was almost finished with my meal and one of the male bartenders came over to greet them. He went through a list of different types of oysters they had that night at the raw bar, then he talked about two or three specials they had off the menu - all of which sounded very interesting. I was sort of pissed that the girl never gave me any options on the oysters. The ones I had were OK. They weren't very big or meaty, and they were a bit gritty. It was $3.50 per oyster for a four-count of oysters that were served to me.
I also had to get a bowl of clam chowder while I was there - and I was glad I did. It had a thick and creamy base with large chunks of clams and diced potatoes mixed in. It was very rich and it nearly filled me up on its own. But it was also pretty expensive it was $12 for the bowl.
I had a lot of options for dinner that night. As I said, I thought about the pepper-crusted ahi tuna, and the blackened shrimp tacos sounded good to me, too. The cold lobster roll also was tempting. But in the end, I went back to the raw bar and got two items - the tuna pokè and two ounces of the pastrami smoked salmon.
The smoked salmon was served on a small plate with crostini bread, capers, chopped red onions and served with a creamy horseradish sauce that I never used. The smoked salmon literally melted in my mouth and when pared with the crostini, capers and onions, it was absolutely marvelous in taste. The smoked salmon was simply outstanding.
The tuna pokè wasn't far behind in terms of both flavor and freshness. It consisted of a mixture of yellowfin tuna, scallions, chopped avocado, a sweet tamari sauce, wasabi mayo, a spicy mayo, seaweed salad, all of which sat on a bed of sushi rice. It was formed in a tower and served with light and puffy shrimp chips. The pokè with its mix was out of this world. I just couldn't believe how great this all tasted.
Other than the young lady bartender not filling me in on different choices of the oysters they had that night, nor giving me the off-the-menu specials that evening, my visit to Surf Seafood was off-the-chart. The clam chowder was excellent, but a bit expensive, I felt. And it would have been tough to beat both the smoked salmon and the tuna pokè that I had from the raw bar for my main meal. Surf Seafood was a winner all the way around and I let the bartender back at my hotel know that when I went back for a nightcap later that evening.
Comments