Steve Whitaker had planned to go into Cook's Seafood on his day off. A shipment of salmon roe was due, and after 44 years at the Menlo Park fish market he knew what late October meant: the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas. As The Almanac reported, a call at 7 a.m. on Oct. 29 told him not to bother. Around 3 a.m. that morning, staff had received a group text saying both Cook's locations, in Menlo Park and Pleasanton, had closed on Oct. 28.
The next day, Oct. 30, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed the commercial Dungeness crab season along the entire coast from the Oregon border to Point Conception until at least Jan. 1, 2027. Within two days, Menlo Park lost the counter it had bought holiday seafood from since 1928, and the local crab that counter would have sold was pushed past Christmas. What's left is a set of smaller sources, and each one runs on its own clock.
The Counter Closed at the Start of Its Season
Cook's Seafood was founded in 1928 by Bill Cook, a police officer who went into business for himself. He sold it to Robert Rahe in the 1940s, and in 1963 Rahe's widow sold it to Roy Crumrine, an employee who had started there in 1955. It ran as a fish market and a restaurant together. The case held swordfish, mahi mahi, Dungeness crab and live or cooked lobster. The menu ran to sand dabs with steak-cut fries, petrale sole sandwiches, crab Louie and cioppino.
The timing is the part longtime staff kept coming back to. Dan Dowler, a counter clerk at Cook's for 55 years, told The Almanac that summer is usually the slowest stretch for fish and that the shop was heading into its most profitable months. In the paper's follow-up story, he described the calendar:
"We're starting to go into our busy season, especially during the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. And of course, January and February are pretty good months too, because of Easter."
Customers were caught off guard as well. Tom Gibboney, a customer for two decades, told The Almanac he drove up on Oct. 29 expecting to buy seafood and found a note on the door. Linda Hubbard, a Menlo Park resident, told the paper that her mother bought seafood only from Cook's and that she had done the same.
The Crab Would Have Been Late Anyway
Even if Cook's had stayed open, its crab case would have looked different this month. The commercial Dungeness season normally opens Nov. 15. CDFW's Oct. 30 announcement pushed that date back because of the number of humpback whale entanglements confirmed in 2026 and the large number of whales on the fishing grounds. The agency said the delay also gives whales time to migrate out of California waters before commercial gear goes in.
Domoic acid, the algal toxin that has closed crab seasons in other years, is behind a separate recreational closure far to the north, between Cape Mendocino and the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve. It has nothing to do with the waters off San Mateo County.
Jan. 1 is the earliest possible date, and it isn't guaranteed. CDFW expects its next risk assessment in mid-December. At that point the director will review the data, including a recommendation from the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, before deciding when commercial boats can go out.
Local salmon won't fill the gap either. CDFW's commercial salmon page states that "the 2026 commercial ocean salmon fishery has concluded." Federal managers closed the summer season on Aug. 19, once the 83,000-Chinook harvest limit was reached. Any crab that reaches a Peninsula case before New Year's will have come from outside California. Washington's coastal crab season was still waiting on lab results this fall. A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife notice dated Oct. 28 set a target of finishing the first round of testing in the Westport and Long Beach areas by Nov. 15.
Four Clocks to Plan Around
| Source | Where | How it works | The clock to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draeger's Market | 1010 University Drive, Menlo Park | Meat, Fish & Poultry department; Seafood Department platters through catering | Catering orders by noon, two days before pickup |
| Piazza's Fine Foods | 3922 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto | Meat & seafood department; online holiday orders for pickup at the Palo Alto store | Holiday menu appears after you choose a pickup location |
| Pillar Point Harbor | One Johnson Pier, Half Moon Bay | Fresh fish sold directly by local fishermen | Availability changes; call the Fish Line at 726-8724 |
| Your own hoop net | Coastal waters, Fishing Zones 1–5 | Recreational Dungeness season open since Nov. 7 | Hoop nets checked every two hours; traps prohibited until at least Jan. 1 |
Draeger's is the closest. Its Menlo Park store on University Drive lists a Meat, Fish & Poultry department, and the phone number is 650-324-7723. On Draeger's catering site, the Seafood Department offers a shrimp platter. The Thanksgiving menu takes orders for pickup on University Drive, and all orders are due by noon two days before pickup. With Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, a Wednesday pickup means ordering by Monday at noon.
Pillar Point is the closest you can get to buying off the boat, and it changes the most from week to week. The San Mateo County Harbor District says local fishermen sell fresh fish directly at the harbor and points buyers to the Fish Line for availability updates. What's for sale depends on what's landing that week. Until commercial crabbing opens, call the Fish Line before driving over Highway 92 for crab.
The fourth option is catching your own crab. Recreational Dungeness season opened Nov. 7 across most of the coast, including the waters off San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. Through at least Jan. 1, though, recreational crab traps are prohibited in Fishing Zones 1 through 5. Hoop nets and crab snares, also called loop traps, are still allowed. CDFW reminds anglers that hoop nets must be serviced every two hours and can't be left unattended for longer. CDFW has also issued a fleet advisory asking crabbers not to set any gear where whales are present. This is general information, not legal advice. Before you go, confirm the current rules on the CDFW crab page, since they can change after the mid-December assessment.
The Holiday Calendar, Date by Date
Put the dates together and the season looks like this:
- Nov. 7. Recreational Dungeness season opens under the trap restriction.
- Nov. 26. Thanksgiving. Draeger's catering orders for a Nov. 25 pickup are due by noon on Nov. 23.
- Mid-December. CDFW's next risk assessment on reopening commercial crabbing and lifting the recreational trap restriction.
- Dec. 24 and 25. Christmas Eve and Christmas, still ahead of the earliest possible commercial crab opener.
- Jan. 1, 2027. The earliest date commercial Dungeness crabbing can open, if the December assessment allows it.
Under these rules, local commercial crab can't be in the case for any holiday meal this year. The earliest it can come is the first week of January. Dowler said January and February were good months at Cook's too.
The Lease Still Runs to 2028
The building itself has a longer timeline than the business that just left it. According to Whitaker and Dowler in The Almanac, the Rahe family, which sold the business to Roy Crumrine in 1963, still owns the land under Cook's. Dowler said the leases for both the Menlo Park and Pleasanton locations run until 2028, each with two five-year extensions available.
At least one person has said publicly that he wants the shop to come back. 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. "So to have this vanish from the community is kind of a tragedy." Buz Walters, a customer who shopped there three or four times a week, mentioned two local institutions that survived with community help. He told The Almanac that Kepler's Books and The Guild Theatre were both saved through community support.
Whitaker said he had hoped Cook's would make it to 100 years. It closed in 2026, two years short of its centennial and a few weeks before its busiest season began.
At Riese Real Estate Group, we follow the storefronts and the local businesses that set the rhythm of a Menlo Park week, along with the transactions. If you're thinking about how changes on the Peninsula's main streets affect the value of living nearby, schedule a free consultation and we'll go through it with you.
