Take a bite out of local bounty with Café Nordo's seafood-themed adventure

Ahoy, matey! We're in old Fremont, on a yar vessel, with the jib hoisted and a sou'wester blowing, and the crew dancing a jig and spouting sailor jargon and lore.

The boat is really part of the Theo Chocolate warehouse. The crew are performers. And the folks seated at dining tables are there for a pricey show with vittles.

This is "Bounty!: An Epic Adventure in Seafood," a new eco-dinner-theater event by Café Nordo, a quirky crew of alum from Circus Contraption led by director Erin Brindley and writer-designer Terry Podgorski.

Café Nordo's successful 2009 debut celebrated the glory of the chicken, with a very tasty meal, some intimate insights into the world of fowl and a "flight" of wine (a tasting of multiple vintages), along with a hash of comic bits and musical garnishments by the waitstaff.

"Bounty" is another zany multicourse meal where the wine flows, the waiters cavort and educate. Here the focus is seafood — exemplified by the almost preternaturally fresh seaweed, invertebrates, mollusks and cephalopods served up with mini-lectures on the fishing culture and industry of our region.

On this voyage, the boisterous (and at times energetically amateurish) antics of 19th-century seafarers (including a spunky stowaway and an eerie sea siren) are regularly upstaged by the fruits de mer.

Starting with a delectable dollop of squid-ink custard with caviar, the meal is a transcendent ode to the gifts the ocean brings us — in the rich natural resource which, given the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is much in mind and more endangered than ever.

You eat your way up the marine food chain in "Bounty!" The second course is a sublime salad of seaweed and marinated geoduck (my first taste of the surprisingly luscious creature).

Then on to a shellfish soup of local mussels and squid with a tasty cod choux (fish cake) served in a glass aquarium, with warm halibut broth passed around in a teapot.

There has to be salmon, of course. And here it is simply roasted with a light rhubarb sauce and tender asparagus and potatoes, and tastes like it was hauled from the briny drink minutes ago.

Though it's hard concentrate on anything but the food (and wine) before you start each course, the info about these creatures and their place in our world is illuminating. And Anastasia Workman's live music is beguiling.

The show lurches to a Titanic-style ending, but with a wickedly surreal touch at the end. Sailor zombies? Well, it's Café Nordo. So aye-aye and why not? And please pass the salmon.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com