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Issue date: January 24, 2001

A family tradition: Cook's Seafood is a Menlo landmark

Cook's Seafood at 751 El Camino Real is one of those hardy local stores whose friendly owner, Roy Crumrine, and his son Mike give their customers the seafood products, casual dining and friendly service that they want at attractive prices.

Cook's includes a seafood market and an informal restaurant, which do approximately an equal dollar amount of business.

"We have long-term relationships with suppliers who know what we want and know what we won't accept," says Mike Crumrine. "Buying from wholesalers at the dock, all our seafood is processed here."

Depending on the day of the week, the market has 200 to 300 customers and about 500 restaurant customers.

The three top-selling seafood items are salmon, halibut and Dungeness crabs.

Unlike other seafood outlets in the area, according to Roy Crumrine, Cook's keeps whole fish iced and then cleans and cuts them.

It helps to have the market and restaurant together, his son says, because the food can be processed for both. "We don't have to get fish from someone else for the restaurant, which is one of the ways we can keep it so fresh."

Another feature of the business is that all the crabs are boiled on the premises in a 60-gallon pot (100 pounds at a time) for 10-14 minutes, depending on the size. This makes them "much sweeter," because they are sold right away. If they aren't sold and eaten within 48 hours the sweetness is lost.

"No one else around here does this," says Mike Crumrine. "We hand select every crab that we cook. If it's a little bit light or if it has a barnacle on its back, it doesn't get sold as a whole crab."

Cook's ship its crabs to longtime customers throughout the United States. "Crabs are available in Hawaii, but we have a customer there who orders from us, because, he says, his local market can't cook them right."

Average daily sales of crabs in the market are 200-300 pounds on weekdays and 400-500 pounds on weekends. The seafood business has grown because of its nutritional value. People want better diets, and the "many different types of fish available provide greater variety than beef or poultry," says Mike Crumrine.

Cook's seafood comes from many places, including Half Moon Bay and San Francisco. They have crabs flown from Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Salmon comes from British Columbia. Mahi-mahi, tuna and swordfish come from Hawaii, and some of the tuna and swordfish are bought from South America. They get sea bass from Argentina.

Salmon, trout, catfish, prawns, clams, mussels and oysters are farm-raised, which, according to the Crumrines, improves freshness and quality, because they can be taken from the water as needed. Shipments are picked up at the airport before dawn.

Began in 1928

The business was started in 1928 as Cook's Seafood by Bill Cook, a local policeman-turned-entrepreneur. He sold the business to Robert Rahe in the 1940s. Following Mr. Rahe's death, his wife sold it in 1963 to Roy Crumrine, who started at Cook's as a dishwasher in 1955 at the age of 15. He has built the seafood market and restaurant combination into one of Menlo Park's most popular businesses.

"It's the extended family of employees that makes our business go," says Roy Crumrine. "It's not just Mike and me. We don't have any managers, because we trust our employees to help us run the business.

"We take care of them with good wages, complete insurance benefits and a good pension plan. We let them share in the success of the business, and they take care of it."

Most of the employees have been there a long time, one for 30 years and several for more than 20 years. During Christmas and New Year's holidays, they often work 18 or more hours a day.

The second reason for Cook's success, says the senior Mr. Crumrine, is listening to customers and giving them what they want. His employees give him feedback from customers every day.

"Our customers are like family, as well," he says. "It's an open dialogue all the time. And I want to hear about any complaints, because customers teach us more than anyone else could. You have to be willing to correct mistakes and not worry about the cost, and don't let them happen again."

He also stays with what works and resists changing unless someone can make "a very persuasive case" for moving into something new. "There are too many businesses who have tried different things and soon they don't know what kind of business they're running. Big companies get into that situation, too."

The thought of expanding was never considered, he says, because we'd have to change everything that we do.

Another element of Cook's success is Roy Crumrine's passion for profit. "One measure of success is being profitable, and that's my job -- to be sure we make a profit."

Downside

What's the downside of the seafood business? It's stressful and tiring, he sighs, because seafood is a perishable product and in the restaurant "you're putting on a performance every day."

To offset the pressure, he and his wife travel, and he plays golf with a handicap that's "not good."

He says that he could retire from the job that requires him to be at the business 50 hours a week (down from 80 hours) and enjoy himself. "My wife asks me why I don't do it."

There's still a love of the business, he says, and he doesn't want to make his son work seven days a week. "We share running the business."

Dish washer

Mr. Crumrine grew up in a Redwood City trailer park. In 1955, when he was 15 years old, he found his first part-time job at Cook's while attending Sequoia High School. Wandering up and down El Camino looking for work, he went into Cook's and snapped up an offer of $1 an hour ($1.10 when "working split shifts") to wash dishes.

In those days, he points out, kids either worked or didn't have any money. Soon he had saved enough from his wage to have his first haircut in a barbershop (his mother and father had always done it). Later, he bought his first pair of Levi's "so I could dress like the other kids." Still later, he saved enough money to buy his first car, a 1947 Ford. And at age 23, he had enough to buy Cook's for $1,500.

He met his wife, Josephine, at Cook's where she was a waitress in the restaurant. The couple has four children and lives in Newark. Mrs. Crumrine, who used to work in an electronics company in Newark, goes to trade shows with her husband, talks to people, and "tells me things about the business that help."

Mike decided at age 17 to join his father in the business, giving up the opportunity to go to college, even though he had high SAT scores. Knowing his father "worked very hard," he was interested to learn "what my dad did."

He told his father that this was going to be his college and that he was going to learn the business "from the ground up. I'm glad I did."

His two brothers worked in the business for several years and then went on to other things.

He's stayed at Cook's where he does everything except cooking in the restaurant and waiting on its customers.

He also can be found, wearing Cook's trademark blue apron, filleting fish and cooking the crabs.

Living in Newark, he often makes the 25-minute trip over the Dumbarton Bridge on an electric bicycle to bypass the traffic congestion, cutting the commuting time in half. His wife and three children help package orders during the year-end holidays, sometimes pulling all-nighters.