The Marsh

Omar Laroussi has a thing for wings.

"I'm a wing connoisseur."

He's a master of mac and cheese.

"I love a good buffalo mac and cheese."

And most of all, he's passionate about his pizza.

"You gotta try this pizza."

And he's serving up all that love on every plate at The Marsh Coal Grille & Tap.

Set along a scenic marsh in Marshfield, The Marsh Coal Grille & Tap is a dream turned reality for owner Omar, who wanted to bring bold, coal-fired flavor to a laid back, welcoming space.

"The Marsh is somewhere that no matter what day of the week is a Monday or Friday or Saturday night, you want a good hearty meal. You come in here, get a nice cold beer and maybe enjoy the beautiful views of the marsh in the back that you can't get anywhere. And this is the restaurant that delivers on both ends."

So he laid the restaurant out to give his customers the best of both worlds, with a fun bar on one side and a casual dining room on the other.

"We have a beautiful bar that has a panoramic view. And we have 20 taps on draft, some of them local, some of them imported. And then we have a dining room where all the families gather for a nice hot meal and just have nice conversations. We want people just to come in here and just relax and take a load off."

And at the heart of it all is the coal fired pizza oven, cranking out New York Style pies all day long.

"The coal fired pizza oven is a special oven imported from California. The pizza gets cooked right on the stone. There's no paddle, there's no peel. It cooks the pizza quick and gives a nice char to it. We have to use a special flour for pizza dough because the high temperatures. So we use a special double o flour imported from Italy. It holds that pressure when it goes in the oven. We used a whole milk mozzarella that the oven just chars up nicely and the dough gets a nice crisp underneath. It's a lot of work, but it gives that piece a nice char taste and smoky flavor that you can't get anywhere else."

Pizzas range from the Enno, a reimagined margarita layered with garlic, prosciutto and a punchy balsamic glaze, to the Honey Hot Roni, a slice that delivers sweet heat in every bite.

"We make our own honey hot dressing in-house."

"We use a premium pepperoni from Italy and, um, our homemade ricotta. So we actually make the ricotta. We season it ourselves, we put them on top and, and drizzle at the end with that nice honey hot glaze. It's sweet. It's got a little kick to it. And it's a beautiful pie to eat."

The coal fired oven is also responsible for the flavor packed wings.

"People want a chicken wing with a nice crisp outside and you get you can only get that from the coal fired oven. We top them off with it with caramelized onions for a nice little flavor. They come out crispy. They come out juicy. And they're fantastic."

For a Mediterranean start to your meal, try the Harissa Chicken Skewers.

"Harissa is a Mediterranean almost like a hot sauce. So we decided to take chicken kebabs and just give it a nice little pop. But we also serve it with our home made tzatziki sauce to kind of cool it down and give a nice balance. It's a very, very flavorful dish."

Other stand out starters include the artfully displayed bourbon-maple candied bacon.

These thick cut strips are marinated in maple bourbon syrup and then double cooked so they come out crunchy every time.

And then there's the garlic parmesan breadsticks, grilled for extra flavor.

"This bread, it crisps up on the outside marked up on the grill. But it has that, that kind of that sweet that, that buttery, that wonderful taste. You don't even need to dip it into the marinara. You can just eat it straight up. And customers rave about it. They order it for almost every meal."

The menu at The Marsh is also lined with a variety of sandwiches and salads.

The Steak Bomb is a sub shop classic on steroids loaded with onions, peppers, mushrooms and lots and lots of melted American Cheese on crusty French bread.

And the Honey Chicken Salad is something you have to try to truly understand.

"People look at it on the menu that never had it before. They see the pasta and the wontons. They're kin of confused. What is this dish? So we use our fresh salad mix. We use nice grape tomatoes. We fry our own wontons so it gives it a crunch. We take cold pasta. We toss it up with a little bit seasoning and we pick your choice of chicken either fried, grilled or blackened. Now when you add the honey mustard, you toss the salad. You get the crunchiness from the wontons. The pasta just wraps everything up together into this, this cold, this creamy, this crunchy, delicious salad that you cannot get anywhere else."

For something more indulgent, order a piping hot crock of buffalo mac and cheese.

"We make our mac sauce from scratch. We toss up very nice with just enough buffalo sauce. We put more cheese, homemade panko breadcrumbs. It goes right into the oven. The top is very crispy, but the inside is so juicy and moist that we top it with some, uh, blue cheese crumbles. It looks amazing. It tastes amazing. It's the best thing in the world."

There are also global influences throughout the menu, like the eye-catching Chef's Fried Rice.

"When one plate comes out, everyone looks at it, everyone orders it. We had our chef make his own homemade fried rice. We take our breaded chicken breast. We toss it in a sweet Thai chili sauce, then we finish it with a nice fried egg and the egg runs down. It binds the whole dish together. It's fantastic."

And since all of the desserts are made on site, the Reese's Cake is an absolute must.

"We have a chef that will bake all of our cakes. He loves chocolate and he loves Reese's. So we decided to make a double layer Reese's cake and it's amazing. People that love sweet. It's just a great way to end your meal."

And from coal fired pizzas to crave worthy comfort food, you'll never want your meal to end when you're at The Marsh.