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The most of the coast is close to home Chef Paula Phillips is back home again in her namesake restaurant on downtown Fort Wayne’s west side. And there’s no place like home for Phillips – home with her family, that is. Famous for her extraordinary culinary skills, Paula prefers an ordinary life outside the kitchen. Spending time with her son and husband is a priority – watching a movie or bowling, perhaps. Rather than go out for gourmet meals or hard-to-find ingredients, they eat simple fare such as chili or burgers on the grill (and maybe just a little more fish than most). “When I get home, I want to stay home,” Phillips says. That may have something to do with the bustling pace of her career. Paula’s does a brisk business serving seafood and more to a large lunch and dinner crowd. As if that weren’t enough, the restaurant is home to a fresh fish market. Hard work keeps it all afloat. It wasn’t what swims in the seas, however, that first enticed Phillips into the culinary world, but rather a semester spent overseas, part of her art history education in college. While in Italy, Phillips naturally came to appreciate good food. Her first job in the business was in Fort Wayne, as a waitress at Hartley’s. Phillips got a spot in the kitchen when a member of the staff went on maternity leave; she started with salads and worked her way up to day chef. After a short stint at Chappell’s, another local seafood institution, Phillips enrolled in culinary classes at Ivy Tech. In 1990, she teamed up with Lindy, also a celebrated Fort Wayne chef, to open Paula’s with a fish and deli case and just four tables in the small first room of their current establishment. Quickly, she grew too busy to continue classes, and the restaurant grew into two adjoining rooms. Now, after a three-year absence to sort out some ownership issues, Phillips is again serving such famous favorites as her almond herbed walleye. Seafood lends itself well to her cooking philosophy, which calls for fresh ingredients and healthy food. “We want to feel really good about feeding somebody,” she says. If customers want to test their own culinary skills, Phillips and her staff are happy to share their expertise. Beyond seafood, their market carries sauces, herbs, lemons and free advice on how to prepare it all. The selection is seasonal and sizeable. “If we don’t have it and they want it, we’ll get it,” says Phillips. One of the hottest sellers is the restaurant’s homemade jalapeno tartar sauce. Customers carry it out by the pint and quart. But even more in demand are the crab cakes. Phillips reports that people traveling to the East Coast come in and stock up so they can show their friends and family that better crab cakes can come from the landlocked heartland. Demand is so great, “we have a hard time keeping up,” she says. Maybe Phillips is onto something: Really, the best things come from home. Paula’s on Main Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Dinner, 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday Serving fresh seafood, prime beef and chicken. Fresh raw seafood including crab cakes, salmon, sashimi-grade tuna, mussels, oysters, scallops and more are available from Paula’s fish market. |
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