The Shrimp Show

San Sabino makes maximalist seafood for the social-media age.

- MATTHEW SCHNEIER

NEW YORK DINING is subject to endless trends and booms, and the wheel of proteins always spins: burger flexing, farmhouse pork chops, the wide world of cutlets and parms. These days, the glassy eye of my dinner stares back at me: Fish's time has arrived. Seafood places such as Penny and Theodora have been joined by the likes of Il Totano (named for Italian squid) and Strange Delight. More and more, the city's unbookable spots are marine-curious.

Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli's Don Angie was born during an earlier era of New York trends, the post-Torrisi red-sauce revival, but has maintained its near impenetrability right up to the present day. They have proven canny readers of the current moment. For the pair's second restaurant, San Sabino, which opened in March three doors down from the Don, they apply their Southern Italian American spin to fish.

From the start, San Sabino has been-thanks in part to its ubiquity on TikTok-as jammed as Angie. I gave up on stalking the restaurant's Resy page and resigned myself to trying the line that forms at its door every day. At 4:28 p.m. on a recent Thursday, I was the 12th person waiting. For three seats at the bar, the quoted wait was two hours and 45 minutes.