For the past several months we have been stopping by Black Salt (the combination fishmarket and restaurant on MacArthur Blvd in the Palisades neighborhood of DC) on Friday or Saturday for a weekend treat of fresh fish to grill or saute. The fish is admittedly on the pricey side, but the quality is exceptional and we are only buying for two people; we have never been disappointed.

Tonight we had a terrific example of the store's customer service. While we were picking out some crabcakes we noticed a display of enticing heirloom tomatoes and bought two for a salad. As we were checking out, the fishmonger said, "Anything else tonight?" I casually and spontaneously said, "I sure wish you had some fresh mozarella to go with these tomatoes." He said perhaps he could do something about that and disappeared into the kitchen in the back of the restaurant, returning a few minutes later with a delightful ball from the restaurant larder. He asked us what we normally pay for a pound when we buy it elsewhere, and rang it up. Wonderful!

Well, I used to work in the BlackSalt fish market and they are still friends and I live in the neighborhood, so you can take my comments with however much salt you want. But CF's story above would never happen at BlackSalt. First, because of the high volume of the restaurant, there are frequent deliveries and quick turnover of product. Stuff delivered by the wholesalers is sniffed before it is accepted, and anything that isn't super fresh is rejected or returned. I only remember one time when I worked there, a woman came in and said that one of the young guys had sold her some spoiled skate over the weekend, when neither Scott, the manager or I were there. She didn't have it with her, just came in to tell us about it. We apologised profusely, gave her some replacement fish of her choice, despite not having the exact amount of the sale in question. And we had a serious talk with the kid who sold it to her--he was doing an apprenticeship from a local cooking school, and probably should not have been left on his own.

Speaking of BlackSalt, I went in today to buy some mussels and I found a treasure hanging out in the refrigerator case--VEAL CHEEKS!! I had never seen them for sale before. They had a special order, had to buy a minimum of ten pounds and part of the balance is being braised for a special tonight and the rest got vacuum-packed for the market. $11.99 a pound. They also had a beautiful Hudson Valley Moulard duck breast for sale.

Stopped off at Black Salt today to get our periodic fresh seafood fix. The crab cakes looked temptingly good, and turned out to be wonderful. Big chunks of crab; no filler in sight; nice seasoning. A quick 10-12 minute saute in an olive oil/butter combination and they were heaven.

For those who enjoyed the DonRockwell dinner at Corduroy, MacArthur's (next door to Black Salt) had the 2004 Donnhoff Riesling ($20) that went so well with the Corduroy shrimp tartare. It went well with our crabcakes, too!

Do they regularly have head-on shrimp here? Tried calling, but no answer yet (they open at 10).

No head-on shrimp yesterday, but the headless, wild-caught were sweet and delicious and the mussels were outstanding. The fish selections looked gorgeously fresh, especially the lovely little anchovies. The prepared stuff looked less impressive - lots of binder in the crabcakes, etc.

It was great to be in a fish market that smelled fresh and clean - A&H in Bethesda reeked, and that made me nervous about buying anything. I'll be back any time we're getting fish for company.

How does pricing compare to Whole Foods?

More expensive, but couldn't say by how much. I was buying for a special occasion and was prepared to shell out (pun intended) a little more for quality.

Black Salt is about as expensive as it gets, but the quality is impeccable. I remember buying diver scallops in there for something like $24/lb. Painful, but well worth it.

I visit BlackSalt almost weekly. It's expensive, but not significantly more expensive than WF. The quality, as others have noted, is top notch. And it's right next door to Bassin's.

It may have looked as if there was a lot of binder in the crabcakes, but in fact there is very little. Just a little bit of homemade mayonnaise and enough breadcrumbs so that they hold together. And they use fresh crabmeat, not canned/pasteurized. At least, that's the way it was when I worked there.