Date: January 10, 2008

Winter weather greeted the opening of the 2007/2008 crab season with a series of storms that kept fishing vessels close to docks and processors without power. Some calm relief from December 20th through the 23rd allowed California boats to get out and enabled us to secure enough fresh whole crab to provide for a cherished holiday tradition for hundreds of our Northern California guests.

For 23 years, we have featured our holiday Dungeness crab sale out of the retail markets in our four Bay Area restaurants (weather permitting, of course). This year was no exception, with guests lining up in San Mateo on Christmas Eve waiting for the doors to open at 6 a.m. Guests were treated to coffee, champagne, pastries and smoked fish as part of the festivities. For those who wanted to take their holiday dinner up a notch, we made available specialty Fish Market sea shellers and bibs and all the ingredients to create perfect oven-roasted Dungeness crab or The Fish Market’s famous crab cioppino “at home”. All in all, we sold about 5,000 pounds of Dungys on Christmas Eve alone.

Dungeness crab is a thoroughly enjoyable eating experience, with its sweet and succulent meat and relative ease in getting at it. And, of course, we feature it in our restaurants and retail markets well past the holidays. Between the seasons in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and British Columbia, one can generally find the fresh whole crab in good supply through mid-year.