Chef Stephen Pahde sautees a pan of vegetables at Two Tails Market / Eatery, 2400 Lake Shore Drive in Woodstock. The business offers a variety of fresh seafood and prime meats. (Travis Haughton (Photographer))

WOODSTOCK – Wish for fish without the fishy taste? The key is buying fresh, said Stephen Pahde, head chef at Two Tails Market/Eatery.

One look at the display case confirms this seafood is right off the dock. The flesh is pink and firm. The gills are red. The skin – be it on the Canadian walleye or salmon, from both the Pacific Northwest and Chilean waters – has not lost its sheen.

But, above all, it doesn't stink.

"It smells like the sea and not like strong ammonia," said Pahde, a 20-year kitchen veteran from West Dundee.

Two Tails opened quietly Nov. 19 next to Wachovia Securities on Route 14.

"We didn't want to promote it heavily. We wanted to get the stuff working," said Larry O'Connor Sr., general manager of Two Tails. "It's a learning curve."

The shop's repertoire includes aged black Angus beef in a variety of cuts; and the likes of 8– to 10–ounce South African lobster tails for $54.95 a pound; Alaskan king crab legs for $23.95 a pound; jumbo gulf shrimp for $18.95 a pound – plus swordfish, red snapper, mahi-mahi, ocean perch, tuna, mussels, oysters, clams and more.

"I like to say if it's legal and it has fins and gills, we can get it from anywhere in the world with 24-hour notice," said O'Connor, who doubles as logistics manager for Other World Computing. He and his son, Larry Jr., began the retail outlet's predecessor – the Internet-based All Seafood – 10 years ago.

At customers' request, it moved four years later from Judd Street to a more visible Route 47 location, and began dabbling in cooking. Two Tails has taken that a step further with a full menu featuring soups, salads, classic and seafood sandwiches, an $8.95 Friday fish fry and "Take & Bake" dinners – which are prepackaged for the oven. They feature vegetables, rice and your choice of salmon, grouper, walleye, tilapia, cod or scallops.

"We're very aware of what the customer wants because we put ourselves in that position," O'Connor said. "There's good seafood and then there's seafood. ...if you have fish and it smells up your apartment, you have the wrong fish."

O'Connor said the Internet-based BizRate has ranked Other World Computing among its top 27 companies for reliability and service in each of the past five years. The computer hardware and service support provider, begun in 1988, is thriving.

"We look at the seafood in the same manner," he said.

Future plans include transforming about half of the 4,800 square feet it owns into an Internet café and Apple service center. Java Planet is expected to open Dec. 22. O'Connor also hopes to bring delivery and expand catering capabilities to bolster a thriving lunch business.

"It's been a challenge, but I enjoy it. We operate as a team," said O'Connor, 65, of Marengo. "There is no [other] place you can pick up the quality of fish that we sell, with the variety we have."