February Restaurant of The Month: Carvor’s Fish House by Jensen Bros. Seafood
I hope everyone is off to a fabulous start in February. I’m super excited about our restaurant of the Month - Carvor’s Fish House by Jensen Brothers’ Seafood at 907 Douglas Ave. in Dunedin. In 1984, John Jensen and his father Al Jensen, started in the seafood industry by selling Mississippi Catfish and Rainbow Trout out of a truck. The business model was to supply the freshest wholesale fish to local businesses and restaurants in Pinellas County and surrounding areas. In 2006, the Jensen Brothers Seafood opened up a retail front to allow local people to buy direct and carry-out the fresh fish. In 2018, one of John Jensen’s many dreams came to fruition, thus Carvor’s Fish House was born. The name Carvor’s was a creative namesake derived from his children, Carly and Trevor. Now, they were not only a fish house wholesale to the public, but they offered prepared foods and to-go deli items. This was a HUGE hit! You won’t want to miss the Valentine’s Day Special featured at the end of this article.
John Jenson can still be found working in the business daily. In fact, John swung through a couple of times during our interview and thanked us for coming out to support their family business. We even grabbed a pic of him and his daughter, Carly, the next generation that has taken the reins. Carly, spent her early years working in the business while attending school here in Dunedin. She was not only a graduate of Dunedin High School but we found out she was also the Valedictorian of her class. This led Carly to pursue and earn a degree from USF and successively accepted to Medical School away from home. She quickly realized that Dunedin was where her heart was and there was nothing more important to her than joining her family in business to carry on the tradition. Medicine was out and Seafood was in! Thank goodness! It was apparent right away that she has a real grip on the daily operations and business in general taking a very personable and involved leadership approach to running the business. Carly and the team maintain the quality control that was put in place generations before her. She without a doubt takes a ton of pride in keeping the reputation of the family business in great standing in our community. She refers to Dunedin as “Our Awesome Little Town.” Carly recognizes the boom happening in Dunedin but didn’t seemed to mind. In fact, she throughout some very welcoming comments about all of those in The Tampa Bay Area and beyond that take the time to come visit Dunedin and specifically Carvor’s Fish House. Carly is directing and growing the traditional business daily while helping it evolve into the next phase. Carvor’s Fish House has added many new menu items, a nice selection of craft beer and wine as well as some local arts and crafts pieces to bolster the retail sales.
Shortly after coming home, Carly proposed the idea of bringing Dunedin the best grouper sandwich she could make and it was a game changer. I ordered the blackened grouper sandwich with the cucumber salad side. It was by far the best grouper sandwich I’ve ever eaten and the cucumber salad was a perfect match. The fish was blackened in-house with a family recipe and cooked to perfection. This is definitely one of The BP Team’s new favorite spots and I have to say it just might be the freshest seafood around.
If you read through this whole blog article then you might be interested in joining the folks at Carvor’s for their Valentine’s Day Special. Be sure to preorder. The special Valentine’s Day menu was created by Carly herself and includes: Lobster tail, garlic butter pasta with grilled shrimp, grilled asparagus with parmesan and homemade key lime bars. If you decide to stop in and see Carly and the team, please tell them we sent you! If you want to learn more online please click on the links below or visit them on Facebook. Happy Eating!
