Fourth generation marks 70 years of Quality Seafood
by Garth Meyer Before the pier parking garage, before the condos, before the name International Boardwalk, there was Quality Seafood, which marks its 70th anniversary this weekend. “Not sure if we have an official date. No one can remember back that far around here,” said Jeff Jones, president and CEO. The fish market started on the original pier — and then lost its lease when the pier’s front section was redeveloped in the early 1960s. “Urban Renewal came in, we were given three days to move,” said Ann Belson, a third-generation Quality Seafood employee, then a pre-teen. Her father, the late Pete Dragich, Sr., found a spot in what was known as “Basin Three of King Harbor,” a strip below Harbor Drive originally designed as storage spaces for moored boats. An imported goods shop was about to close, and Dragich made a handshake deal to take over the north-facing spot, in what is today called the International Boardwalk. You could see the open ocean, with only a dirt parking lot across the way (where the pier parking garage extends to now). Dragich family members soon were back up on the Pier, passing out handbills to get the word out about the market’s new location. “I remember, my…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com