After decades of working together at the same restaurant company, Jack Gilmore and Tom Kamm decided to make their own foray into the food industry and opened Jack Allen’s Kitchen in 2009. Then, after several years and locations, the two decided one restaurant concept was not enough, and they opened Salt Traders Coastal Cooking to bring worldly seafood flavors to the Central Texas area.
The new restaurant, which has been open for one year as of early September, has flourished in Round Rock with a unique menu that adapts to the current offerings of the restaurant’s fish mongers.
Gilmore and Kamm get their seafood offerings directly from those who are fishing them out of the oceans—on the West, East and Gulf coasts. Six days of the week, fish mongers ship in fresh fish to the restaurant, the chefs make their pick and update the menu as needed.
So far Salt Traders has offered more than 70 different kinds of oysters, serving 5,000-6,000 per week.
Kamm estimates roughly 500 diners per day eat in the whitewashed walls of the restaurant under the pink Himalayan salt crab trap light fixtures, adjacent to the room where fish is butchered daily.
The menu has featured flavors from the Gulf Coast, Costa Rica, Japan, and numerous places elsewhere.
Gilmore said he prefers his menu to focus on textures and feelings rather than flavors.
“I think of it as hot and cold, sweet and spicy, crispy and whipped, like an oyster on a bed of grits—now that sounds pretty good,” Gilmore said.
Prior to opening the restaurant, Gilmore and Kamm traveled around the country to learn best practices for their new seafood eatery. Gilmore said as long as the two took away at least one lesson per trip—it could be as small as a pepper grinder or fork that they liked—he was satisfied.
After traveling, the two felt even more strongly that Salt Traders was exactly what the Central Texas area needed.
“There’s either real cheap seafood or really expensive dishes,” Kamm said. “There was a niche that needed filling, and [Salt Traders] is the sweet spot.”
Salt Traders Coastal Cooking
2850 N. I-35, Round Rock
512-351-9724
www.salttraderscc.com
Hours: Sun.-Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.