Menlo Park Lost Its Fish Market Before the Holidays. The Local Crab Was Running Late Anyway.

Cook's Seafood closed on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, after 98 years in Menlo Park. The timing was hard on its regulars, because the fish market and restaurant was heading into the weeks it was best known for. Two days later, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced something that changes the holiday seafood plan for the whole Peninsula. The commercial Dungeness crab season, the source of the local crab that fills holiday tables here, is delayed until at least Jan. 1, 2027.

Put those two facts together and the loss looks different. Cook's would not have had local commercial Dungeness for Thanksgiving this year either. What Menlo Park lost is the everyday counter: one place in town with staff who knew the fish. Replacing that means building a weekly schedule across Menlo Park, San Carlos, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Cupertino, San Mateo and Half Moon Bay.

Ninety-Eight Years, Closed With One Late-Night Text

The Almanac reported that staff got a group text around 3 a.m. on Oct. 29 saying both locations, Menlo Park and Pleasanton, had closed. Owner Roy Crumrine Jr. sent it, and it read in part:

"We are sad to inform you that after 98 years, we have closed all Cook's Seafood locations Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026."

About 45 employees across the two locations lost their jobs. Some of them had been there for decades. The Almanac spoke with Steve Whitaker, who had worked at Cook's for 44 years, and Dan Dowler, who had been there for 55.

The business had a long Menlo Park history. Bill Cook, a policeman turned entrepreneur, founded it in 1928. He sold it to Robert Rahe in the 1940s. In 1955, a 15-year-old Roy Crumrine started there as a dishwasher, and he later bought the business from the Rahe family.

Dowler told the Almanac that the closure came right as the calendar was turning in Cook's favor:

"We're starting to go into our busy season, especially during the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc."

He added that January and February were good months too, because of Easter.

Why Local Dungeness Was Never Going to Make Thanksgiving This Year

On Oct. 30, CDFW announced that the commercial Dungeness crab fishery is delayed from the California/Oregon border to Point Conception until at least Jan. 1, 2027. That stretch includes all of the San Francisco and San Mateo coast. The state gave the number of humpback whale entanglements during 2026 as the reason. Current regulations require the director to take these steps to reduce the chance of more entanglements before the year ends.

Jan. 1 is the earliest possible date, not a set opening day. CDFW expects its next risk assessment in mid-December, and the director will use it to decide whether the commercial fishery can open around the new year.

Sport crabbing is a separate story. The recreational season opened Nov. 7 in most areas, but crab traps are restricted in Fishing Zones 1 through 5 until at least Jan. 1, 2027. Hoop nets and crab snares are still allowed. CDFW reminds anglers that hoop nets must be checked every two hours and cannot be left unattended for longer.

In practice, this year's Thanksgiving table and much of the December calendar fall outside the local commercial crab season. That would be true even if Cook's were still open. Ordering whole local crab from any counter will have to wait for the new year at the earliest, so the job between now and then is finding good fish.

The Counter Is Now a Weekly Calendar

With no single neighborhood fish market, buying fresh seafood now depends on the day of the week. Here is how the nearby options line up:

Full-service counters

• Draeger's, 1010 University Dr., Menlo Park. The downtown store lists a Meat, Fish, & Poultry department. It's the closest full-service option to the old Cook's customer base.
• Bianchini's Market, 810 Laurel St., San Carlos. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The market says its seafood department gets deliveries almost every day.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

• Ocean2Table pickup sites. This community-supported fishery offers fee-free pickup in Palo Alto near El Camino Real and Arastradero Road, in Los Altos near Fremont and Grant Road, and in San Carlos near Highway 82 and Holly Street. Pickup orders carry a lower minimum and no delivery charge. Drop-off windows run from late morning into the afternoon, with pickup by 8 p.m. The delivery calendar changes week to week, so check the current schedule on the pickup sites page before you count on a date.

Saturdays

• Mission Fresh Fish, San Mateo Farmers' Market. The Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association lists it at the San Mateo market, Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round.

Sundays

• Dragon Baby Seafood, De Anza College Farmers' Market. The San Mateo-based vendor sells fish, crab and shrimp. Its De Anza stall runs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round. Its Thursday spot at the downtown Los Altos market ended for the season on Oct. 29, 2026.

Weekends on the coast

• Pillar Point Harbor, One Johnson Pier, Half Moon Bay. The San Mateo County Harbor District lists dockside fish sales and a fish market among the harbor's activities. It also promotes weekend sales of fresh fish straight from local fishermen. What's on the boats depends on the catch, so call the harbor before you drive over the hill.

The list shows what changed. Cook's was one stop. Now there are two full-service counters in two towns, a Tuesday/Thursday pickup, a Saturday market in San Mateo, a Sunday market in Cupertino and a weekend trip to the coast. Planning a holiday meal around fresh fish now starts with picking the day.

A Practical Holiday Sequence

For a Thanksgiving or December dinner built around seafood, the calendar above suggests an order of operations:

1. Pick the fish before the day. If you want something from a farmers' market vendor, the Saturday San Mateo and Sunday De Anza markets are the last chances before a midweek holiday.
2. Use a pickup for midweek. Ocean2Table's Tuesday and Thursday drops fit a holiday that falls on a Thursday, if the delivery calendar matches that week.
3. Keep the counters for last-minute shopping. Bianchini's is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Draeger's is in downtown Menlo Park, so they are the fallback when plans change.
4. Plan local crab for January at the earliest. The mid-December CDFW assessment will decide whether a New Year's crab feed is possible. Recreational crabbers can use hoop nets and snares under the rules above.

What Happens to the Building

The Cook's site is still a question for downtown. According to Whitaker and Dowler, the Rahe family, which sold the business to Roy Crumrine decades ago, still owns the land under Cook's Seafood. Dowler said the Menlo Park lease runs through 2028 and could be extended twice, for five years each time.

Some customers have looked to local precedent. Longtime regular Buz Walters told the Almanac that a number of people in the Atherton area wished the family had asked for community support. He pointed out that Kepler's Books and The Guild Theatre were both saved that way. Chris Dowler, Dan Dowler's son, told the paper he would like to find a way to take over Cook's Seafood and keep it going. "It's iconic. It's historic," he said.

Menlo Park has kept beloved businesses alive before. Kepler's and the Guild both lasted because the community stepped in. For Cook's, the land is still owned by the same family, the lease has years left on it, and a longtime employee's son wants to run the business. The same Almanac story said Whitaker had hoped Cook's would reach 100 years, and 2028 would have been its centennial.

Long-running storefronts like Cook's are part of what defines downtown Menlo Park, and when one goes dark, how its lease and ownership are set up decides what comes next. If you own property near downtown and want to understand how changes like this affect your block, Fani Realty can walk you through it. Request a personalized consultation and market valuation.