Marlboro's “JonnyFresh” Brings Virtual Seafood Market To Locals

MARLBORO, NJ – Like so many other industries devastated by the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, the wholesale fish market took a frightful turn in March: fish quickly flew off the shelves and remained missing from stores as waves of panic-buying struck Monmouth County and beyond. Longtime veterans of the fish industry, including Marlboro resident Jonathan Meyer, saw their industry struggling to keep up. The businessman and entrepreneur, who has spent the last 25 years serving as a wholesaler for top distributors, suddenly found himself out of work.

Yet, it was during the coronavirus pandemic that Meyer, who was born and raised in Holmdel, viewed an opportunity to reinvent himself and his business into a more intimate experience for customers. The Monmouth County resident now every aspect of his new business, from menu curation to food preparation to delivery to creating step-by-step instructions that even the most novice chef can follow. Working from a commercial kitchen in Freehold, Meyer spends his days hand-selecting, preparing, filleting and delivering locally-sourced fish to neighboring communities under the moniker JonnyFresh.

“At the beginning of COVID, people were asking me for fish, ‘where can I get fish?’ You couldn't get any groceries in April,” Meyer told Patch. “People can no longer go to restaurants in the same way they could and probably won't be able to for quite some time. I have a lot of years of experience with fish – what my goal was was to try to bring the restaurant and entertaining experience into people's homes.”

JonnyFresh currently serves Marlboro, Manalapan, Colts Neck and Freehold residents. But while it remains that the Holmdel native is an expert on Fish in New Jersey, it was 15 years ago that the entrepreneur went under another name in a different part of the country: Jonny Fish of New York.

Meyer began working in the industry in the early 1990s, first for a company selling fish to chefs such as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Tom Colicchio. The businessman subsequently opened several Manhattan retail stores in the early aughts, most notably landing retail space in locations such as Grand Central Market, Murray Hill and the Upper East Side. It was only until 2003 that Meyer and his wife moved to New Jersey to make room for a growing family.

After selling his former New York stores, Meyer began selling fish produce to the top restaurants on the Jersey Shore in the 2000s. It was not long after that Meyer was taking on companies with national contracts covering the fish market in Boston, Philadelphia, Albany and beyond.

“My name is really Jonny Fish,” said Meyer, reflecting on his years of experience. “I was doing sales lectures, I did trainings for salespeople. I'm kind of an expert’s expert on fish. Now what's funny is that now the fishermen are producing, because there is some business, but there's no restaurant business. There's a surplus of top quality products out there that people can bring right into their homes. And what we do at JonnyFresh is buy you fresh fish, New York City restaurant style: a quality piece of fish that you would have at a top restaurant in Manhattan.”

Meyer told Patch that he buys fresh fish locally nearly each day that his kitchen is open. In fact, he almost always buys specifically for every order placed via phone and text, with most of his product sourced from Point Pleasant. The Holmdel native credits his good reputation in the local industry for his ability to hand-pick each fish from trusted local connections.

“If you order by the night before, or by the same day, seven o'clock in the morning, it's no issue, but you can order up until noon,” said Meyer. “And with most of the categories, I can pretty much make 80 to 90 percent of the menu on a given day.”

Meyer states that his main goal for the business is to take the "scariness" out of cooking fish, starting with a simple menu. For newbies to the fish game, he suggests pairing a Canadian salmon or fluke with JonnyFresh’s homemade tartar sauce.

“Fish is scary. They don't know how it's supposed to smell, or if it's supposed to be slimy or how to deal with the bones,” the owner said. “There are not a lot of fabulous ways to get fish locally here. People only care about one thing when it comes to fish: it's not so much as the price, but they can't pick out a piece of fish in a store because they don't know what the right one to take. People need confidence in the person bringing it to them, that, that they picked it out for them. And that's what I do. I put the JonnyFresh thumbprint of approval on it.”

Meyer stressed that cooking with fish shouldn’t be an anxiety-inducing task, and aims above all else to make his customers comfortable with the process – he’s even texted customers through the fish baking process a handful of times. But while the seasoned fish expert seems to be as confident as ever while filleting his product, Meyer admits that he is still learning as well.

“The scariest and hardest part is not being a professionally trained chef. It's a little daunting to come up with the menu every week, because we rotate out a couple items on a weekly basis,” said Meyer. “So just getting the ready-to-eat stuff right, and proper and recipe testing and things like that. That to me has been the toughest part of the business, but the reviews have been phenomenal. As far as the rest of the business, it is what it is. I just followed what my instincts told me to do and that's what I'm doing … it's like one of those things where one door closes, another door opens. You follow your instincts, you follow your heart and you give it your all.”

This weekend, JonnyFresh is offering a 10 percent off special for all orders. For more information, call or text (646) 221-4051.

For a PDF version of the latest menu, click here.

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