It’s a common tourist question Eurekans struggle to answer: Where’s a good place to dine on the waterfront?
There’s no place, you answer, at first, before remembering the few anchors of hope in this bay-abutting town: the humble restaurant with a deck over on Woodley Island. Glass-encased, fancyish Bayfront, in Eureka proper. Shamus T Bones on Truesdale. And Gill’s By the Bay over in King Salmon. Shamefully slim-pickins’ water-side considering the overall abundance of Eureka eateries.
But by the end of next year, godwillin’ and the sea don’t rise, there might be one more offering to suggest: Jack’s Seafood, inside the city of Eureka’s long-malingering Fisherman’s Terminal at the foot of C Street. Architect Philippe Lapotre, who’s designing the restaurant for Jack Wu (who also owns Bayfront), designed the overall terminal project which was completed in 2011. Wild Planet Foods’ fish processing operation moved in and is a thriving operation. The lovely world map engraved in the concrete, and sculptures, are appropriate lures. But the space where a restaurant was supposed to go in has remained empty with a jaggy, unfinished interior.
This week, the Eureka City Council voted to approve a 5-year, $4,500-monthly lease with Wu with the option for him to extend it another five years. Getting the 3,100-square-foot space ready will cost about $500,000. The city has agreed to contribute $240,000 toward the “hard costs,” says Lapotre — that is, for fixtures that’ll stay even if the tenant moves out, such as heating, plumbing, and electrical systems, a walk-in refrigerator and a hood system for the kitchen. Wu will fund the rest.
The restaurant will have two faces, much like Wu’s Bayfront where a bay-near section offers Italian and sushi and an inner room holds teppanyaki tables. Jacks’ Seafood will have a bayside bar and dining room seating about 49 serving fish and chips, clam chowder and other such fare. The more intimate space back from the bay will seat about 32 (down from an earlier estimate of 38), with barbecues in the centers of the tables where diners can barbecue their own strips of raw meat and fish, Hawaiian and Korean style, says Lapotre. On fair days, there’ll be outside dining tables.
The next steps, says Lapotre, are finishing health department review and other documents to submit to the city building department for a building permit; that could happen by February or, worst-case scenario, March, and the builders could be breaking ground by April or May.
Lapotre says it’s fun to be working on a waterfront project. “The location is absolutely incredible. It’ll be a significant improvement in the area.”
Over the years, his company has designed a number of local projects, including the Roy’s Club expansion, Alder Bay, Vector’s swimming pool, Oberon’s remodel and Pachanga in Eureka; the Holiday Inn at the airport; and Arcata’s Plaza Center building where Jitterbean lives.
This article appears in When the Waters Rose.
Not impressed with the Bayfront and in questioning how well this eatery is doing I would be worried that this new proposed eatery is more of the same.
The Bayfront is one of my favorite restaurants and that bodes well for how good Jack Wu will make the new one work.
Looking forward to Eureka having another good restaurant.
“The shamefully slim pickings” the article refers to in terms of numbers of sea side restaurants should also be applied to the quality of the eateries. I will never again eat at the restaurant on Woodley Island and the rest of the mentioned places are not much better. What is needed is quality, not quantity. Humboldt Cty abounds in mediocre eating establishments.
It’s sad you can’t get a cup of clan chowder and fish and chips for a reasonable price. Maybe you should look at the restaurant in Crescent city. Family style eating and fun for everyone. The Chart Room is a fun place for families. And excellent food.
The Bayfront building with the sushi restaurant is terrible, couldn’t have been designed much worse. Food is acceptable at best. I hope this new restaurant fares better.
Crony capitalism is what you get when right-wing ideology dominates a community forever. Dozens of other restaurants can’t even get small bank loans and Poor Eureka, lacking adequate services for children, homeless, mentally ill, and sound infrastructure, dishes out $250,000 for another restaurant, $750,000 for a bigger brewery, zone changes for more big boxes, all done on pure ideological faith in discredited “trickle down” economic Voodoo.
Not one media source is willing to question the actual costs and benefits, or whether Eureka’s public money is better spent elsewhere.
Pathetic.