Passionfish Takes To The Web
Like A Fish To Water
Passionfish Restaurant in Pacific Grove, CA, now can be reached in real time on Twitter and Facebook. Owners, Ted and Cindy Walter, have long used the internet as a communication tool that reduces waste of both time and money. Their website features on-line press kits, banquet menus, and reservation service as well as contact information to dozens of environmental resources to further the movement towards a sustainable planet. Cindy Walter enjoys communicating via her FaceBook page and was among the first to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.

The Walters thought it was time to bring the restaurant into the interactive world. “I downloaded a friends and fans page on Facebook a couple months ago and was thrilled to see we have over 100 fans in just over 60 days,” boasts Cindy Walter. The page features news of the latest, greatest wines being poured with blog entries written by Passionfish manager and wine muse, Jannae Lizza. Cindy updates loyal fans on the everyday happenings in her eco-sensitive restaurant while Ted tweets his thoughts on the ingredients for a perfect spring lunch. Passionfish’s ever-changing Facebook fans log on to chat about their dining experience, throw support to the restaurant’s goal of a sustainable future, or simply send best wishes to the Walter family and staff (especially with the Walter’s first granddaughter on the way).

Rates High to Highest with YELP reviewers
Passionfish pays attention to web reviews and has worked to earn high ratings on the popular website, YELP. The restaurant fluxuates between a 4-1/2 and 5-Star rating with the sites loyal fans. This is a tenuous position, as the ratings can change within hours. YELPers are known for their definitive and often theatrical descriptions of their dining experiences and Passionfish takes their words to heart. If someone from Illinois writes about a salad with too much dressing eaten when they were at a restaurant in California last Saturday night, most chefs would blow it off. Not Chef Walter, who not only takes note but action. “The world wide web provides me with another opportunity to perfect my cuisine,” explains Walter, “ Its a little scary having critics writing in from all over the world but, at the same time, I think I’m a better chef for it.”

A Look at This Year’s Cooking for Solutions Event with Passionfish’s Ted & Cindy Walter...
The Monterey Bay Aquarium
May 15, 2009

Passionfish’s Cindy Walter, first in line for set up, tweets while she waits for the doors to open.

Passionfish’s table display is an ode to Cindy’s father, Donny Dommer, a Monterey Bay fisherman who lent the fishing equipment for the display with stories attached to each piece and words of caution as not to lose anything.

The crowds were less rushed in Passionfish’s corner of the Aquarium, where folks could linger and talk to Chef Walter about the evening’s prepared dish—A Monterey Bay Squid Salad with mango, cilantro and a honey ginger viniagrette. The dish was an overwhelming success.

Passionfish Sponsors Sea Studios Foundation’s inaugural Film Festival
Saturday, June 6, 2009
IMAX Theater , Cannery Row, Monterey, CA

Sea Studios Foundation’s inaugural Film Festival in honor of World Ocean Day, with the theme Think Beyond
Plastics, will be held Saturday, June 6, from 12 - 7 p.m. at the Cannery Row IMAX Theater in Monterey. Sea
Studios Foundation will present three internationally acclaimed films focusing on the effects of plastics on the ocean and a Meet-The-Filmmakers reception. The films will be shown in the Cannery Row IMAX theater.

The films screening are Marina of the Zabbaleen, a Blue Nile Studios film directed and written by Engi Wassef, introducing the extraordinary world of seven-year-old Marina and the never-before-seen Muqqattam garbage recycling village in Cairo, Egypt, Message in the Waves, a film by Rebecca Hoskins and the BBC Natural History Unit that looks at some of the environmental challenges and plastic pollution issues facing the people and wildlife of the Hawaii, and Dirty Secrets, a Sea Studios co-production with National Geographic, hosted by Edward Norton, focusing on the dangers of plastic....