If you are ever in LA and want a casual, yet top quality seafood lunch or dinner, go to Santa Monica Seafood at 10th St. and Wilshire. You will enjoy a delicious meal, from a fish dinner cooked to perfection, to fish and chips, crab cakes, ahi tuna, poke bowls and great clam or lobster chowder. In the center of the building is a magnificent display of 54 different types of fish and shellfish. You have never seen anything so gorgeous. The side of the store has lots of specialty items to accompany fish, like sauces, cheeses, oils and crackers. The restaurant has only been around a few years, but the Santa Monica Seafood Company has been around for almost a century.
It was officially founded in 1939, but the real story began in 1898 when John Deluca arrived in San Pedro from Naples, Italy, and needed to make a living. He looked to the sea, and with his son Jack, began building a company into one of the top distributors of seafood in Southern California. Cousins and children of cousins came together to turn Santa Monica Seafood into an empire.
In 2002 Santa Monica Seafood made two strategic decisions. One was to move to a state of the art climate controlled facility in Rancho Dominguez. (They used to be just a storefront in Santa Monica). Next, they professionalized their management team with outside experts. They bought up Fish Warehouse, Central Coast Seafood, American Seafood, Chesapeake Fish, LA Fish Company, Long Beach Seafood, and Seattle Fish New Mexico in the next 10 years. They were smart enough to know what they didn't know, and brought in experts that helped make them what they are today.
While at the restaurant, I asked one of the fishmongers what they do at the end of the day with all the leftover fish. The answer was they sell it to other markets and fish markets. So, the fish you get at your local market may have originally come from Santa Monica Seafood! Try it if you're in LA in the Santa Monica area.
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