The owners of the San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant, the most profitable restaurant that once sprawled across a wooden pier in the Port of Los Angeles, have signed a 49-year lease to rebuild the historic waterfront home.
The fish market was part of the Ports O’Call tourist attraction for decades, but was demolished in recent years to make way for a new regional tourist attraction called West Harbor, which is currently under construction.
The restaurant built a loyal following of customers who spent about $30 million a year before the pandemic sharing trays piled high with shrimp, lobster and other seafood at spare metal tables on a weathered pier. Ta.
Members of the restaurant’s owners, the Ungaro family, had planned to move the business to another part of the harbor in 2021, but are now committed to remaining in West Harbor as an anchor tenant.
The restaurant will be located next to a new amusement park development that includes a Ferris wheel that is expected to be 50 percent more expensive than the Pacific Wheel at Pacific Park amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier.
The Fish Market, which currently operates from a mobile kitchen in a temporary outdoor space in a parking lot next to its previous location, served 450,000 people there last year, CEO Mike Ungaro said. The company reportedly provided meals to people and generated $16 million in revenue.
Before moving to the new digs, the fish market will relocate to another temporary space on part of the West Harbor site that will eventually house a hotel. It plans to operate there for about three years, serving 1,600 people at a time, until the market’s permanent home is built.
Ungaro said the eventual restaurant will be one of the largest in the U.S., measuring 55,000 square feet and accommodating 3,000 people at a time, roughly the same size as the original location. Almost 90% of the dining space is located on the outdoor patio overlooking the waterfront.
Planned features include event space, private dining options and an area for podcasters and other content creators to conduct live broadcasts, Ungaro said. This market features on the list of the most Instagrammed restaurants in the United States, and is usually posted with people crammed into giant seafood trays.
“They’re an institution in San Pedro,” said Eric Johnson, senior project officer for West Harbor Development. “Being able to provide long-term housing for them is really important.”
The San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant is slated for a long-term stay next to the West Harbor amusement park.
(Studio One Eleven)
The first phase of the $155 million West Harbor, which includes restaurants, bars and shops, is scheduled to open late next year. Developers announced plans in October to fast-track construction of the next phase of construction, which calls for an amusement park, more food and beverage tenants, and an array of outdoor pickleball and padel courts. A permanent home for the fish market will be part of the second phase.
Fish Market also announced that it will open a 17,000-square-foot restaurant at Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey in Northern California in 2026.
