DINING REVIEW: Surf meets turf at English Dockside

The fishiest name in Colorado Springs restaurants recently got even more fallacious, and in the most felicitous way.

I'm alliterating here about English Dockside, a tiny hole in the wall just off Academy Boulevard.

It's fishy because the name suggests a British-style chip shop where limey expats shower deep-fried cod with vinegar while downing pints of Boddington's Pub Ale. In fact, the restaurant owes its name to the owner, Thomas English - an Alabama native with a flair for Cajun spices and no liquor license.

True, his Dockside does serve what is probably the best fried fish in the city - whole snapper, real Gulf and black tiger shrimp and sweet, rich blue crab - but even that part of the name is misleading because English has also started doing beef.

His menu boasts a list of steaks, which he smokes with applewood, then sears on a grill.

This red meat renaissance started when he was thinking about buying the Tabeguache Steak House in Woodland Park. He toured the restaurant and tried the steaks.

He ended up passing on buying the restaurant.

"I couldn't do that, but they had the best steaks I ever had, so I got them to tell me where they were getting them, then I worked my magic on them to make them even better."
Turns out, the steaks were coming from local processor Ranch Foods Direct. English started with its tasty hormone- and-antibiotic-free beef and added his own flair.

When I ordered the 10-ounce rib-eye steak ($25), it hit the table tender and pink inside, and coated with an ebony veneer of spices rubbed on and darkened by the grill. The crust had a subtle smoky bite. And the pink inside was moist, tender and wonderfully rich, as Ranch Foods steaks tend to be. The Ranch Foods name is quickly becoming the leading sign of quality meat in the city.

To stop at the steaks is to miss out on English's true magic. Good fish served in a casual, down-home atmosphere is hard to find in Colorado Springs. The Dockside feels like one of those shacks near the water you find while driving along the Gulf Coast, where the fish menu is as invitingly unfrilly as the dining room.

At Dockside, English gives diners a hearty welcome and points them to a few hard, wooden booths surrounded by light-blue walls strung with rope, nets, buoys and other coastal flotsam. The fish list is just as straightforward and welcoming.

The red snapper filet ($19) - which comes with a choice of sides like buttery garlic rice or a light, spring-greens salad - is real Gulf snapper, English said, warning that most places serve an Asian snapper cousin.

The filet is a good 2 inches thick, moist and flaky, and as good as you could get in any coastal shack. You can get it grilled, blackened or fried. I went with fried, and it arrived in a thin, crisp jacket of breading that was not the least bit greasy.

For folks who feel like $19 is a bit much for a fish fry, try the fish and chips ($13) or the Pollack lunch special ($7).

The same price range and decadence can be found in English's excellent po' boys. These New Orleans sandwiches come on a chewy, dense baguette slathered with rich, sweet and spicy remoulade, sprinkled with shredded lettuce and stuffed with your choice of deep-fried things from the sea: oysters, shrimp, fish, crab or crawfish.

In keeping with his new venture, he has a New York strip steak po' boy, too, but he was out of steak the day we tried to order it. Instead, we went with what the server (English's daughter, Jasmine) recommended: fried crawfish tails ($13). When the sandwich arrived, it was a good 14 inches long, hanging off both sides of the plate and steadied by a generous pile of fries.

"This is definitely not on my diet," a friend said when the plate landed in front of him.

"But it looks so good, I don't care."

It was.

English Dockside is not for dieters. It is for indulging. The crab po' boy, spilling over with fresh, real blue crab ($18) , is one of the great sandwiches in the city. English also offers half sandwiches for people with more reasonable appetites.

Nearly everything comes with a generous sprinkle of English's secret Cajun spice mix, which - and I'm just guessing here since no one with a secret spice mix will give you any hints - seems to have a lot of paprika, cayenne and garlic powder. It is on the fried fish, naturally, and the delicious crawfish tails. But it is also on the crabmeat salad ($16), the clam chowder ($10), the rice, the fries, even the corn on the cob. I ordered a side salad just to see if the greens would come with the tell-tale dusting of red.

They didn't, but the rib-eye steak did, and the strong spices overpowered what was a very nice - and expensive - steak. English should make it clear that the steaks come with the spices, and give diners a chance to opt out.

The spice mix is very good, but using it so often makes everything taste the same. The kitchen should be sparing and put extra shakers on the tables for customers who want more.

These are small quibbles for an excellent place.

The fact that English cooks steaks as well as he does fish convinced me that his homemade cakes might be worth a shot, too. We ordered a tall, luscious piece of his red velvet cake ($4.95) and took it home.

One bite and I knew the man could bake as well as he cooks.

English Dockside
**** (Surf and turf with worth)

Address: 2220 Academy Pl.
Contact: 380-7732, englishdockside.com
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. -2 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday, dinner 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. Tuesday - Thursday, 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Entrees: $7 - $25
Vegetarian: sides only
Alcohol: no
Credit cards: yes