Aether, Fishtown’s New Seafood Restaurant, Has an Opening Date

Aether, the new fish-focused spot in Fishtown, is ready to start plating oysters and stuffing lobster rolls. The seafood restaurant at 1832 Frankford Avenue tests the waters with a limited dinner service (no walk-ins) on Wednesday, February 6, and then opens for real the next day, Thursday, February 7.

Aether is from executive chef Scott Anderson and restaurateurs Stephen Distler and Fia Berisha, the team behind Mistral in King of Prussia and Princeton and Elements in Princeton, with Berisha taking the lead on this one. The chef de cuisine is Chris Boyce, moving over from Mistral in KOP.

The dimly lit space, done in browns and other neutral shades, is long and narrow in the front, where there’s a row of tables opposite a bar. Globe lights made from champagne and wine bottles line the wall and hang over the bar. It opens up a bit farther inside, in the dining room.

To eat, look for a list of oysters and clams from both coasts, priced around $3 each, and seafood towers, including the shareable Frankford, which goes for $125 and comes with a whole lobster, oysters, clams, crabs, and scallops. In the sandwiches section, there’s a lobster roll, a shrimp po’boy, and, for those not in the mood for seafood, a burger with bacon jam. Crab linguine, saffron risotto with shrimp, clams, and mussels, and cavatelli with broccoli rabe, poached egg, and Calabrese pepper make up the pasta selection.

Bigger dishes skew fishy — trout, seared tuna, fried whole branzino, scallops — but roasted chicken breast and steak frites offer other options.

Here’s a peek:

Johnathan Moore

Johnathan Moore

Johnathan Moore

Neal Santos