David LeFevre to open Fishing With Dynamite in Manhattan Beach

This spring, David LeFevre, chef-owner of M.B. Post, plans to open a new restaurant in Manhattan Beach called Fishing With Dynamite, a 30-seat seafood spot a block from the beach.

LeFevre says he’s working on a menu that blends his nostalgia for the East Coast with the casual vibe of the West Coast.

“I’ve been thinking about this a long time; seafood has always been a really important part of my life,” says LeFevre, who garnered acclaim as chef of Water Grill in downtown Los Angeles. “I remember being a kid visiting my grandfather in Chesapeake Bay. He’d tie a string with a pig’s ear to my wrist to catch blue crabs.”

Expect a raw bar (oysters, crab, lobster, sea urchins) and a menu featuring products from “really exceptional seafood areas of the world -- Alaska, Chesapeake Bay, Maine” -- as well as local fish. “We just want the seafood to be the star of the show,” LeFevre says. “It’s not what we can do to the fish, but what we can do for the fish ... high-quality fresh seafood simply prepared in an interesting way.

“We want people to be able to come in and have an inexpensive dish and beer. Or if they want lobster and a great bottle of wine, they can have that too. We’ll have traditional items, nostalgic items with an interesting twist.”

The 1,100-square-foot space will be designed by FC Studio of Chicago to reflect East Coast meets West Coast, LeFevre says. “Kind of East Coast cottage-y, shingled, wood-ceilinged, whitewashed, sea-weathered and mix that with a West Coast vibe of endless summer.”

ALSO:

Best reader food photos of 2012

Learn to bake bread at Fiore Market Cafe

Onigiri contest at Little Tokyo’s Japanese American National Museum