Old Town Orange seafood restaurant donates part of menu proceeds to oil spill cleanup

The Friday before Orange County residents learned of the oil spill on their shores, Orange seafood restaurant O Sea launched a limited menu of special seafood offerings for national seafood month.

“Tragically, within 48 hours, we learned of that spill off our coastline,” said Mike Flynn, founder and general manager of O Sea. “It just didn’t sit right with us to serve a menu like this without acknowledging, and more importantly, giving back.”

Owner Mike Flynn stands at the O Sea restaurant in Old Town Orange.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Flynn decided to lean into the relationship his restaurant has fostered with the Surfrider Foundation, which is an organization dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans through an activist network.

“We will be donating a portion of the proceeds from our specials to our partners at Surfrider Foundation, who are taking an active role in assisting to mitigate the impact of the spill on birds, fish and other wildlife along our local coastline,” said Flynn.

The monthlong fundraiser will allocate 10% of the proceeds from the special seafood-month menu, which includes spot prawns, oysters and rockfish sourced from Santa Barbara and Morro Bay, to the Surfrider Foundation.

Advocating for the well-being of the ocean is a core concept for O Sea, whose tagline is “Seafood for Thought.” The Surfrider Foundation features a program called Ocean Friendly Restaurants that recognizes restaurants committed to making sustainable choices for the ocean. Flynn made sure O Sea qualified as an OFR before opening.

“The vision for the program is to ensure that restaurants are using material both in the dining room and in the kitchen that protect our coastlines. So non-use of single-use utensils and plateware, carry-out packaging that is not Styrofoam but recyclable or compostable materials, and there is a criteria involving responsible product offerings, particularly with seafood,” said Flynn. “If anything, that guided us in identifying which plateware, which glassware, which carry-out packaging we wanted to use in our restaurant.”

Before O Sea, Flynn served as assistant general manager of Water Grill, South Coast Plaza and general manager of Water Grill, Los Angeles where he said he gained a comprehensive appreciation for the importance of sourcing.

“You can’t read about seafood for more than five minutes these days without coming across this notion of sustainability in seafood,” said Flynn. “In building the restaurant, we wanted to write a comprehensive sourcing philosophy in which we work closely with our vendor partners that sources products that will be available, not just for today’s generations but for tomorrow’s generations as well.”

Flynn and his team compiled a six-pillar philosophy designed to challenge the way diners consume seafood.

“It was really important for us to first define what that word, sustainability, means within the restaurant,” said Flynn. “The United Nations defined that word sustainability in 1984 as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Which I think is a beautiful definition — frankly really ahead of its time.”

Flynn is working to normalize sharing detailed information about the seafood on menus: where it comes from, the catch method, how long it has been out of the water and if it is fresh or frozen.

Mexican white shrimp and Norwegian Salmon on the grill at O Sea restaurant in Old Town Orange.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“It really is important to know where your fish comes from,” Flynn said. “Be confident in asking more questions.”

O Sea uses Santa Monica Seafood for a majority of its sourcing.

“They are not our only vendor, but they are our lead vendor and we have had a great relationship with them for a long time,” said Flynn.

O Sea has pledged to communicate provenance of their products, reduce waste, buy domestic, promote seafood, preserve dignity by sourcing from fisheries that preserve universal human rights throughout the supply chain and encourage guests to try other species and aquaculture products.

“Everyone likes salmon, everyone likes tuna and shrimp, but maybe try something else, like petrale sole or barramundi, species that you are maybe are not quite as familiar with,” said Flynn.

Petrale sole main dish at the O Sea restaurant in Old Town Orange.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

And Flynn said that doesn’t have to mean removing salmon from your diet entirely.

“I am not telling guests to stop eating salmon,” said Flynn. “But maybe considering stepping outside of your comfort zone a little bit. And maybe if you have that piece of salmon, know where it comes from.”

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