Upscale dining in downtown Rolla
Inside the kitchen, the work is never done — especially before the first customer even walks in the door. Whole fresh, never frozen, salmon, halibut and mahi-mahi need to be skinned and prepped. Whole potatoes are waiting to become fresh-cut fries and mouthwatering mashed potatoes. Perfectly aged rib-eye roasts are hand-cut into perfectly portioned steaks. There’s lots of shortcuts you can take running a kitchen; and this one bypasses all of them.
Matt and Sue Banholzer have brought their culinary experiences from around the globe to downtown Rolla at NaCl+H2O (Saltwater). The restaurant opened in 2017 and has garnered a following for their fresh seafood, unforgettable pasta, succulent steaks and craft cocktails.
Matt was introduced to Rolla when he went to school at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T) in the 1980s to play football. He eventually left Rolla and finished school elsewhere, but jumped at the chance to open a Subway franchise in the college town in 1987.
“My husband was always going to places like Alaska and bringing home these different recipes,” Sue says. “And I was a flight attendant, so I went to places like San Francisco and all over Europe. About 10 years ago, we started traveling more and kind of turned into foodies. Matt started playing in the kitchen and created all these recipes we make today.”
Once the Banholzers became empty nesters, they set their sights on sharing Matt’s recipes with the community. They picked Saltwater as they felt there was an opportunity to introduce fresh seafood to the Rolla dining scene.
“We started our menu with the seafood and gradually added in steaks and craft cocktails as we grew,” Sue says.
The team at Saltwater takes time to ensure each bite is delicious through the sourcing of their fish and beef to the housemade sauces that elevate every dish. “A lot of these recipes are secret and we make everything here from scratch,” Sue says. “The only things we don’t make in-house are the ketchup and mustard.”
Chef Arthur Martinez says that attention to detail and freshness gives all the food at Saltwater a boost. “It gives us the ability to put our fingerprint on all of our food,” he says. “No one can say they have the same ranch or sweet and spicy sauce as we do here.”
Start your meal off by splitting an appetizer such as the sweet and spicy shrimp or their hot Maryland-style crab dip served with bread or over their house-cut fries. For an over-the-top starter, go with the tuna poke nachos. A bed of wonton chips is topped with cabbage, jalapenos, onions, cucumber and marinated tuna. Wasabi mayo and sushi sauce are drizzled on top just before serving.
If you feel like skipping the silverware, Saltwater has a large selection of burgers, chicken and seafood sandwiches, including shrimp and clam po’boys and beer-battered cod with housemade tartar sauce.
With more than a dozen choices on the seafood dinner menu, you’re sure to find the perfect dish. Popular options include the Parmesan-encrusted halibut, grilled or blackened mahi-mahi and fish and chips.
The team at Saltwater also offers seafood specials. Plan your trip right, and you’ll be there on a night they’re offering their popular dill sugar-glazed, cedar-smoked salmon. While the fresh salmon is getting diamond grill marks, a cedar plank is heated on the grill until it starts smoking. The salmon is flipped onto the board and spread with dill-sugar glaze and cooked. It’s served on the plank with a pair of sides.
“It has this beautiful aromatic cedar smell from the smokiness and a sweet crunchy texture,” Arthur says. “It’s the best salmon I’ve ever tasted.”
There are a trio of pasta options, including a seafood pasta with scallops, clams and shrimp and a mushroom and scallop pasta featuring Missouri oyster mushrooms sauteed in duck fat. The presentation of the shrimp pasta carbonara is almost as impressive as the taste. Pasta noodles are topped with a creamy white sauce featuring bacon and mushrooms deglazed with clam juice, heavy cream and finished with Matt’s housemade carbonara base. The pasta is topped with cooked shrimp, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and dried parsley.
“It’s a smooth rich pasta with the shrimp and the slight taste of the ocean from the clam juice and the heavy cream,” Arthur says. “It’s just really delicious.”
Saltwater uses certified Angus beef for both of their steaks, an 8-ounce filet and 14-ounce rib-eye. Both are grilled to your liking and served with two sides. What makes their steaks stand out however, is the generous portion of steak butter — which of course is Matt’s secret recipe — that is put on the steak before leaving the kitchen.
Like all restaurants, Saltwater’s operations had a wrench thrown in it from COVID-19. Instead of steak and seafood served inside their Pine Street restaurant, they focused on burgers delivered to guests in their cars.
The concept was so successful, the Banholzers opened Ümrshlker Burger Co., a not-so-subtle nod to Matt’s inability to finish his degree at UMR in the 1980s. The food truck features everything from a classic cheeseburger to a jalapeno popper burger with roasted jalapenos, onion cream cheese, fried pickles, onions and housemade jalapeno ranch. And of course, house-cut fries.
Between the burgers from the Ümrshlker and the fresh seafood carefully prepared at their upscale brick-and-mortar restaurant, Sue wants to make sure the dining options are plentiful and delicious. “We, and the other great restaurants around here, are trying to grow downtown Rolla into a destination where you want to come and have a nice evening,” she says.
According to Arthur, that will be cemented when you try your first bite prepared by the team. “If you come to Saltwater, you’re going to get food that has been made by people who care and it is 100% made from scratch,” he says. “We love what we do and I hope that shows in our dishes. This place is unlike any other place in Missouri.”
NaCl+H2O
Specialties: Appetizers including tuna poke nachos, sweet and spicy shrimp and crab dip. Sandwiches including shrimp or clam po’boys, seared tuna club and mushroom burger. Fresh seafood including Parmesan-encrusted halibut, blackened or grilled mahi-mahi and shrimp medley. House-cut steaks and seafood pasta.
Price: Appetizers from $10 to $48. Salads, sandwiches and tacos from $9 to $18. Seafood and pasta from $24 to $44. Steak at market price.
Details: Open for dinner Monday through Thursday, 5 to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Open for lunch Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday. Cash, checks and credit cards accepted. Free Wi-Fi. Nonsmoking. Located at 817 N. Pine St. in Rolla. Contact at 573-426-6699 and www.naclh2orolla.com.