42-year-old fish market and seafood restaurant closes one location. What about the other?
A 42-year-old fish market and restaurant closed its Palm City location this week but will keep its Jensen Beach location open — at least for now.
New England Fish Market & Restaurant closed its Martin Downs Boulevard location Tuesday, said social media manager Nikki Mellaci Reiland, whose father, John Mellaci, opened that location in 2010.
“Closing the Palm City location wasn’t an easy choice,” she said. “We have loved being more easily accessible to the people out there and to those in St. Lucie (County).”
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“He turns 73 in December and, as you can imagine, was looking to slow down a little,” she said. “As far as Jensen Beach goes, we have no plans on closing that location right now.
"Dad would like to retire one day though.”
New England Fish Market & Restaurant
In 1981, Mellaci opened a fish market on Indian River Drive in Jensen Beach, along the Indian River Lagoon. In 1987, he moved it to Jensen Beach Boulevard. In 1991, he added a takeout window and began transitioning it into a sit-down restaurant with a patio he later enclosed.
The nautical-themed market and restaurant has a wide variety of fish and seafood, which it also provides to local restaurants. It buys stone crabs from a wholesale supplier that gets them from the Florida Keys and Cedar Key.
But his daughter doesn’t share his passion for owning the restaurant, and she lives in Illinois with her husband and two young sons.
“That business has been my father’s dream,” she said. “He truly started out with nothing and created his own little seafood empire.
“Owning a business isn’t for the weak.”
New England Fish Market & Restaurant
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Phone: 772-334-7324
Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm's entertainment reporter and columnist dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Follow her on Twitter @TCPalmLaurie and Facebook @TCPalmLaurie. Email her at laurie.blandford@tcpalm.com. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: New England Fish Market & Restaurant closes Palm City location
