photograph by Omar Armendariz
Quite a combination: steelhead trout, served on a tortilla shell, with mozzarella and provolone cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
Most people refer to it as a “fish taco,” but the actual name of the iconic dish at Elwood’s Shack is “steelhead trout fish taco.”
Owner Tim Bednarski came up with the taco about six months after the restaurant opened in 2013. “I’ve been in the fish business all my life,” Bednarski says. “I wanted a great fish dish, but I didn’t want to do catfish or tilapia.”
Instead, he wanted “a good line-caught fish. A good-quality fish. There’s a lot of garbage fish out there. I didn’t want that.”
Bednarski wanted to do something “affordable and super-fresh.”
Bednarski believes his fish tacos are popular because of the freshness and creativity. They can’t be made the way he does unless someone has a special oven.
He decided that steelhead trout was ideal. “It’s similar to salmon,” he says, “but it’s got a little different flavor to it. It’s a little more mild, to me.”
Asked how he came up with fish tacos, Bednarski says, “I’m big about utilizing ingredients I already have and coming up with a new dish. Everything we used in that dish we had in-house: tortillas, cheese for our pizzas, pico de gallo, avocado, and spring mix.”
They initially served the fish tacos as a special. “It was a hit from day one,” he says. “Now it’s our number-one special. And it has been for years.”
They used to serve two tacos per order, but Bednarski changed to one. “I had to because the price of fish went up,” he says. “When it went up to $5.95 a pound I just couldn’t afford to put two in a basket and charge $14 for it.”
Besides, that was a lot of fish to eat at one time. “It was too much anyway,” he says. “People wanted just one.”
Bednarski believes his fish tacos are popular because of the freshness and creativity. They can’t be made the way he does unless someone has a special oven.
“I have an old-school pizza oven,” he says. “You can’t do it in a regular oven because it’s 550 degrees in that pizza oven. We take that tortilla, put a little butter on it, along with mozzarella and provolone cheese. It puffs up like pastry. It cooks in a matter of seconds. You can’t get that heat in an oven at home unless you have a pizza oven.”
A native of Houston, Bednarski, who’s “been working in the restaurant business forever,” says he wanted Elwood’s Shack to be “just a breakfast and lunch place with great food.”
They “evolved to dinner pretty quick.”
But, he says, “Most importantly, I wanted to serve the highest-quality, freshest food I could get my hands on. I only serve certified Angus beef, top-quality pork, not frozen. Everything we serve is top-notch ingredients.”
So, who is “Elwood” anyway?
“There really isn’t anybody, to be honest. It’s just a name I came up with. I thought it sounded better than ‘Tim’s Shack.’”
