Who Cares How Romantic The Fish Is As Long As It’s Fresh?

The new version of the Fulton Fish Market is “hopelessly unromantic,” the fish tends to be fresher:

The forklifts that carry pallets of catfish, grouper, striped bass and other varieties of fresh fish and seafood used to run on gas. Now they run on batteries. The old market was outdoors, two blocks south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The new one is indoors and resembles not a market but an immense refrigerated warehouse, where the workers dress for winter year round, the décor is a brightly lit white-on-white and one of the closest landmarks is the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant.

Yet these days, the mood in the New Fulton Fish Market is upbeat, as the three dozen wholesale seafood companies that moved into the 400,000-square-foot building last November adjust to life after South Street.

There is talk among the fish sellers of increased sales, smoother deliveries, fresher fish in the permanent 40-degree chill and happier customers. There is a marketing slogan (Fulton Fresh!) and a Web site (newfultonfishmarket.com), signs that fishmongering, an old-fashioned business that still operates on the faith of a handshake and the swing of a fish hook, has entered the 21st century. And, still, there are tales about the way it used to be, in the old market 13 miles away, the ramshackle home they traded for a windowless icebox that has proved to be good not for the soul, but good for the fish.

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The market in Manhattan was a favorite of writers, artists and tourists, but the new site, in its out-of-the-way spot in the Bronx, is free of sightseers most days, though it is open to the public for a $5 visitor fee. It is a market for commerce, not romance, a place where it is easy to find boxes upon boxes of codfish from Maine, farm-raised striped bass from Texas and tuna from Brazil, but hard to find a seat to sit down.

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Some of the market’s customers say they are more interested in the quality of the product than in the character of the building. Sandy Ingber, executive chef at Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant in Grand Central Terminal and a longtime fish market buyer, said he preferred the new place to the old because of the constant refrigeration and cleanliness. A 10-person maintenance crew cleans and sanitizes the building daily.

“You can lick off the floor there almost,” Mr. Ingber said.