I recently had the opportunity of dining on sheepshead for the first time, which to me meant something as a person who was born and raised in Brooklyn.
Dining on Sheepshead For the First Time.
I have been to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn hundreds of times — both the neighborhood and the body of water. I never really gave the name a second thought — until one day, I wondered about it. Was the bay shaped like the head of a sheep?
A quick look at a map immediately dispelled that theory. In fact, the shape of Sheepshead Bay significantly resembles more like the state of Oklahoma — complete with its panhandle — than of the head of a sheep.
Not until years later did I find out that the bay was named after a fish called sheepshead that was found swimming in it. Archosargus probatocephalus is its official scientific name. It is sometimes referred to as a convict fish due to the coloring of its stripes; and it bizarrely has teeth that resemble that of a human being.
What is really strange is that I have lived all of my life without ever catching one or eating one. Whenever I went fishing in Sheepshead Bay — whether by party boat or off of a pier; or whether with my great grandfather or with friends — I never caught a sheepshead; and I did not know of anyone else that caught one. The fish we caught was usually flounder or fluke…
…and despite many restaurants having been established along the main drag of Emmons Avenue and other streets at or near Sheepshead Bay, none of them ever offered the fish as an entrée, to my knowledge…
…so when I went to a restaurant recently, I tried the sheepshead, which I ordered blackened with a whiskey bourbon sauce. Its flavor was mild; and it was quite good. I would order a sheepshead again if the opportunity presented itself and nothing better was available on the menu.
Final Boarding Call
Naming the restaurant would be pointless, as the sheepshead was only available during a special menu and is not on the regular menu.
Sheepshead is not endemic to Brooklyn by a long shot, as it can be found in the western Atlantic Ocean from as far north as Nova Scotia in Canada to as far south as Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil — including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
As for dining on a sheep’s head: despite being in Iceland at least twice, I have never had a desire to dine on svið, which is a national delicacy in that country…
All photographs ©2024 and ©2026 by Brian Cohen.
