Katch Fish House is a real catch
Compared to a lot of the country, Colorado is high and dry. Our rivers make much of the West inhabitable, though we don’t get to keep all that water for ourselves. We get glorified ponds for lakes and about a 1,000-mile trek to the ocean. Hence, seafood isn’t a large part of the local cuisine. (Instead we get bull testicles and rattlesnake.) But, distance be damned, people still want their fish.
Katch Fish House (1300 Pennsylvania St., 720-328-1616) is an ambitious new seafood shack, bringing the fast-casual concept to Capitol Hill: lower prices than a traditional restaurant, and with more variety and less fuss. Housed auspiciously in the former space of one of the first Chipotle locations, Katch aims to provide a diverse representation of American fish-eating with recipes from the East Coast, the West Coast, and the—cough, gulp—Gulf of Mexico. The restaurant looks similar to its previous life as a Chipotle with shiny, steel furniture, exposed brick, and a simple, easy-to-customize menu.
The main dishes are separated into two cutesy divisions, Katchers and Katchwitch's. Katchers are seafood dinners: Pick your fish (seared ahi tuna, fried cod, salmon, and so on), two comfort-food sides, and a tasty sauce for dipping and drizzling. Katch is very proud of its list of nine sauces, from “angry tartar” to wasabi mayo. Many of the sauces also get slathered on the (say it out loud, it sounds like bug noises) Katchwitch’s.
Perhaps the perfect encapsulation of the Katch mission is found in the shrimp po’ boy: It starts out New Orleans with fried shrimp, lettuce, and tomato on a fresh, baguette-like roll. Instead of mayo, though, the Katch po’ boy goes California by adding avocado and San Francisco-style crab Louis sauce. It’s a suitably mixed-up version of the classic sandwich, sure to piss off New Orleanians. It is also damn delicious, sided by homemade, Old Bay-seasoned potato chips. Lunch at Katch isn’t as cheap as its fast-casual set-up would imply—expect to spend around $10 or more—but, remember, it’s seafood. And we’re hopelessly landlocked.
