Potam Beach · Himarë · Albania
The sea, cooked the Italian way.
Soren stands on the shore road at Potam, a kilometre south of Himarë, facing west across the Ionian. One kitchen, one material. What changes is how much fire it is given.
No fire
The window tables face west. The sea starts across the road.
Boiling water
The whole argument of the kitchen on one plate: the catch, and an Italian hand.
Coals
Split, sauced, and sent out long.
No fire
The window tables face west. The sea starts across the road.
Boiling water
The whole argument of the kitchen on one plate: the catch, and an Italian hand.
Coals
Split, sauced, and sent out long.
The whole card runs along this line.
One kitchen
The pasta is the method. The fish is the point.
Linguine, paccheri, ravioli, risotto — the shapes are Italian and so is the hand that makes them. What goes into them comes out of the water at the end of the road. Of the seven pasta dishes on the card, only one has no seafood in it. All three risotti are sea.
The card opens on crudo — red prawn, scampi, viola clams, carpaccio — dressed and served without heat at all, which is a coastal Italian habit rather than an Albanian one. From there it climbs: a pot, a pan, boiling water, oil, and finally coals, where the whole fish is sold by the kilo in three categories.
Priced that way the bill follows the fish, not the plate; the per-kilo rates around Himarë generally run between 2,000 and 3,500 lek.
No fire
Crudo
Shellfish opened and dressed, nothing cooked.
A simmer
Soups
One pot, held below the boil.
The pan
Hot Appetizers
Quick heat, deglazed — cognac, saffron, the juices kept.
Boiling water
Pasta
Linguine, paccheri and ravioli. Only one of the seven has no seafood in it.
The stir
Risotto
Twenty minutes at the stove, all three of them sea.
Hot oil
Fried Seafood
In and out.
Coals
Grilled Seafood
Straight over the fire.
Whole, over coals
Fish
Served with garnish. The last line is fish by the kilo, in three categories.
The room
Across the road from the water.
The shore road runs between the dining room and the sand, so the tables at the glass look straight down the beach and out. Potam faces west: the light comes off the water into the room, and goes down into it.
Potam beach is 132 metres away. Himarë town is about 1.1 km up the coast — a few minutes by car, and a walk along the shore if the evening is cool.
The kitchen
Under Vionis Alushaj, Head Chef.
Soren keeps a second restaurant at Vlorë, inside Kompleksi Emiral on the old beach. Here the fish is wild and comes in whole: the last line of the card is fish by the kilo, in three categories.
The end of the scale is a whole fish and a fire.
Sea bream, sea bass, tuna, salmon — grilled and sent out with garnish. Below them the line reads Fish K. 1 – 3: whole fish by the kilo, in three categories.
Heat 7 of 7.