New England on the half shell

Entrepreneur Brad Johnson has had a hand, as partner, in the Sunset Room, Roxbury and the late Georgia -- all venues more notable for their star-struck youthful patrons than for anything the kitchen put out. But the New York native has been working up to opening his own place for a while now. Just what does he have in mind?

A few weeks ago, Johnson launched Menemsha. The sprawling restaurant, on Washington Boulevard near Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, is named for the tiny fishing port on Martha’s Vineyard where Johnson spent summers as a kid. Menemsha is famous for its sunsets and the superb lobsters, clams and fish the boats haul in from cold Atlantic waters there.

With its wood-lined bar and nautical lights, Menemsha the restaurant has a vaguely New England look. Upfront is a raw seafood bar (not yet open on the evening I visited). The main room features a fireplace framed in gray stone and a lobster tank of modest proportions (just bubbles, no crustaceans hanging out that night). The place also has a sleek outdoor patio, which is where I’m going to ask to be seated next time. That may be the only choice if you plan on any conversation over dinner: inside, the noise from an exuberant weekend crowd is deafening.

Read off a few of the items on the moderately priced menu to homesick New Englanders. I’ll bet they head for Menemsha that night in pursuit of cherrystone clams on the half shell, steamers, lobster rolls, stuffed quahogs and New Bedford cod cakes.

Main courses include oven-baked bluefish and Maine lobster bake, and also simply grilled or broiled fish for the minimalist crowd. But it’s not all fish. You can also get a Yankee pot roast or a grilled rib-eye steak. Blue plate specials include New England boil (Wednesday), Cabernet braised lamb shank (Thursday), prime rib with steak fries (Friday) and, on Sunday, country buttermilk-fried chicken.

I suspect the raw shellfish, ordered by the dozen or as part of an elaborate tiered seafood platter, will be the big draw here. Menemsha’s clam and oyster shuckers will have to get up to speed, though. Our order seemed to take forever, and service wasn’t much faster for any of the other items we ordered. The staff was so overwhelmed on a busy weekend night we even had trouble getting bread -- anything to stave off hunger after a long day. Hopefully, they’ll get their sea legs soon, before the crowd gets tired of waiting and moves on to the next new thing.

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Menemsha

Where: 822 Washington Blvd., Venice. (310) 822-2550.

When: Open for dinner daily from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., (until 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights). Full bar. Valet parking.

Cost: Dinner appetizers, $6 to $16; oysters, $14 a dozen; shellfish and seafood tiers, $28 (for one to two people) to $99 (for five to six); main courses, $16 to $42.