Dartmouth's Cape Quality Seafood has offered the dock-to-table experience for 27 years.

DARTMOUTH — Seafood is kind of like jewelry — without a certain level of expertise, it can be difficult to trust you're receiving the product you're paying for.

Unless of course you can trust the source.

That's why at Cape Quality Seafood in Dartmouth, manager Joyelle Benevides says it's important that her staff's word is golden when it comes to what's on your plate, carryout container or market order.

"For example, Nantucket scallops only have a season from Nov. 1 to April 1, so if someone says they have ... Nantucket scallops in May, they're either previously frozen or they're those small scallops from China," Benevides said.

Rather than obscure the origins of their food, Benevides says Cape Quality staff take pride in where it came from.

"We can probably even tell you what boat your order came off of," she said.

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Benevides began working at Cape Quality Seafood — a split business between its restaurant and seafood market sides — in 8th grade, eventually meeting her husband, and now general manager, Josh, on the job. But her knowledge and connection to all things seafood goes deeper still.

"I grew up around the waterfront," she said. "My grandfather was a fisherman, so I'm the third generation in a fishing-related business."

Generations' worth of seafood knowledge

In 1984, Benevides' father Mark Bergeron and fellow seaman Sonny Stanley took their collective fishing experience and teamed up to open the fish house Bergie's Seafood Inc. on the New Bedford waterfront. Then in 1997, the two brought their business full circle when they opened Cape Quality Seafood.

With those pieces in place, the partners found themselves able to curate the complete dock-to-table experience. It's the same locally-owned production chain bringing seafood to Cape Quality's customers today.

"[Bergie's] is still one of the few fishhouses that can actually unload boats right at its dock. So it's being unloaded and processed there and driven right here," Benevides said, noting Bergie's waterfront location at 8 Hassey St. in New Bedford.

The certainty of products' sourcing, together with generations' worth of experience, are "a blessing," Benevides said, "because we know what we're getting and what we're talking about."

Today, Benevides says her father and Stanley still own both businesses, however she and her husband are largely charged with running Cape Quality.

Fresh, not frozen

But getting the freshest raw product and overseeing quality control every step of the way is only half the mission.

When it comes to Cape Quality's restaurant/take-out menu, Benevides says it's hard to narrow items down to what she'd consider to be fan favorites, but some things that come to mind include: baked stuffed shrimp, fish tacos, lobster mac and cheese, and clam boils, to name a few.

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Whatever a customer's tastes are, Benevides says they won't be getting the freezer aisle version.

"It's more like back in the day, how restaurants made everything there," Benevides said.

Even items that might be commonly found pre-made — like coconut shrimp, onion rings and desserts — are made from-scratch, she said, also noting Cape Quality's "big portions."

"Like if you came to eat at my house — that's how we want you to feel. We want you to leave full and happy," she said.

Benevides says Cape Quality also won't settle for anything less than the purest product, for instance, opting for options such as "dry" scallops instead of "wet," which have been soaked in chemicals to extend preservation and artificially increase size.

"Growing up around the industry, you know things like the difference between wet and dry scallops, you know what shouldn't be coming in frozen; you just know the ins and outs of everything," she said.

Only fish market in town?

Being about five minutes from the waters of Padanaram, Benevides says the business benefits from its location at 657 Dartmouth St., especially in the summer, and also from being the only seafood retail market in the immediate area, possibly the only one in the town of Dartmouth.

"There's some places in New Bedford of course but not really in Dartmouth," she said.

A quick web search for "Dartmouth seafood markets" doesn't produce results for any in-town competitors.

For many, Benevides says the dual restaurant/market components of the business make Cape Quality a great source of convenience.

"Some people will order from the market for the next day, then come in to pick up their takeout from the restaurant side for that night," she said, mentioning some restaurant offerings have been adapted to retail, for quick and easy cooking at home.

Attention to detail

One thing Cape Quality is not trying to be is a copy of anybody else, Benevides says. One thing that exemplifies this is their generously-sized fried quahogs, which she says stands out against the many baked versions more commonly found.

"Our homemade quahogs are deep fried so they have a nice texture on the outside and then they're nice and warm on the inside," she said.

When it comes to classic fish and chips, Benevides knows for many, it's all about the batter. On that note, she says those who prefer a thin, crisp batter will be pleased; even English-style batter lovers might be converted.

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However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to cooking, Benevides says. For instance, when preparing fish tacos, the fried fish receive a different batter, this one with bread crumbs, as the texture lends itself to the bouquet of flavors packaged in each tortilla.

"We put a lot of love and thought into everything," she said.

Worth the ride to Padanaram?

If those for whom Padanaram is a little out of the way wonder if Cape Quality is worth the drive, Benevides says there are plenty who'd say so — some who come from far outside the SouthCoast.

"We have people who drive from New Hampshire a couple times a month to come down and eat here," she said. "We have people from Boston.... One of our customers is from California and everytime he comes up to see his mom he always stops here.

"We definitely have people who come from all over."

Whether a regular or first-timer, Benevides says customers will find a homey atmosphere, reminiscent of an old television classic.

"It's kind of like that 'Cheers' vibe where everybody knows your name," she said. "It's not like that corporate atmosphere."

Fourth generation in the works

While Joyelle and Josh Benevides' three children aren't of age to take on official jobs just yet, Joyelle says there's been enough hints that the family will likely have a fourth generation whose work is based on what comes from the sea, in one way or another.

"Especially my son," Benevides said of her and her husband's 13-year-old. "He likes coming into the market and helping his dad with different things. He's said he'd like to go into fishing or come here and help us.

"Then we have two daughters [10 and 7] that like to pretend they're waitresses when they're at home in the kitchen," she laughed.

While the food industry is often noted for its high demands of time and energy, Benevides says the reward is worth the labor, and she's grateful for the opportunity to put her family's fishing industry expertise to work for Cape Quality's customers.

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"We're proud of the work we do. It's like, this speaks of us — this is our integrity; this is what we're known for," Benevides said. "Our word means everything, so when we say we go the extra mile to put our best foot forward in anything we do, we really mean that."

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Cape Quality brings fresh seafood to Dartmouth