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When a regular customer known as Mrs. Hockey walked through the doors at Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park Oct. 28, longtime employee Steve Whitaker was thrilled. He hadn’t seen her in a few years, and she was in her 90s. Whitaker couldn’t wait to tell his colleague, Dan Dowler, a veteran who’d been with Cook’s for 55 years.
“I just looked so much forward to seeing Dan that Friday and just telling him,” said Whitaker, a Cook’s employee for 44 years. “I knew it would tickle him.”
But Friday’s shift never came. Around 3 a.m. on Oct. 29, Cook’s Seafood staff received a group text message stating that both Cook’s Seafood locations in Menlo Park and Pleasanton had closed and all employees had been terminated.
“We are sad to inform you that after 98 years, we have closed all Cook’s Seafood locations Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026,” the text message, sent by owner Roy Crumrine Jr., read. “Our family thanks you for all your years of service, and we’re sorry for saying this so late tonight. But we don’t want you to drive to work tomorrow, as the building is closed. We’ll send out more updates later today.”
Whitaker woke up that morning unaware of the text message. Despite it being his day off, he was still planning on going to Cook’s to receive a shipment of salmon roe. But at 7 a.m., he received a call from Moises Bucio, former manager at Cook’s Seafood Pleasanton. Cook’s was closed.
“It definitely felt like the rug was being pulled out from under you to have it come down like that,” Whitaker said. “I’m disappointed. I’m shocked.”
For 98 years, Cook’s Seafood provided fresh fish and seafood to Menlo Park and surrounding communities. The fish market and restaurant amassed a loyal customer base with its sizable selection of seafood and its knowledgeable and friendly staff. Its abrupt closure came as a shock to both patrons and its roughly 45 employees across the two restaurants who lost their jobs without advance notice.
Both Whitaker and Dowler, who were close with the Crumrine family, said the closure came as a complete shock and that there were no indications that Cook’s would close. Business was consistently good, they said.
“We’re starting to go into our busy season, especially during the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.” Dowler said. “And of course, January and February are pretty good months too, because of Easter.”
Roy Crumrine Jr. and his brother Tony Crumrine did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Close to a century of history
Bill Cook, a policeman turned entrepreneur, founded Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park in 1928. He sold the business to Robert Rahe in the 1940s. In 1955, a 15-year-old Roy Crumrine began working at Cook’s as a dishwasher, according to a 2001 Almanac article.
Roy Crumrine thought of Rahe as a father figure, Dowler said, and after Rahe had a heart attack and died, his widowed wife sold the business to then 23-year-old Roy Crumrine.
The Rahe family still owns the land under Cook’s Seafood, according to Whitaker and Dowler. Dowler said leases for Cook’s in Menlo Park and Pleasanton don’t end until 2028, and both were eligible for two five-year extensions.
Roy Crumrine and his son Mike Crumine ran Cook’s Seafood together until Roy Crumrine’s death in 2018. Mike Crumrine is now retired and lives in Florida, and his brother Roy Crumrine Jr. had been running Cook’s in recent years.
In 2025, Cook’s Seafood expanded to Pleasanton after first filing permits with the city in 2017. Two managers from the Pleasanton location, Moises Bucio and Ramalah LaBang, declined to comment on the closure.
While Whitaker and Dowler are taking an-earlier-than-expected retirement, the closure has resulted in financial uncertainty for younger employees. Maria Leon, the partner of a Cook’s Seafood employee who asked to remain anonymous, said that reading the 3 a.m. text message “was gut-wrenching.” Her partner had worked at Cook’s for 14 years, and they share two young children.
“As business owners, you held the livelihoods of families in your hands,” Leon said of Cook’s Seafood. “Your staff depended on those paychecks to feed their children and pay their rent. To pull the rug out from under them without warning, or even the decency of a face-to-face explanation, shows a profound and hurtful lack of empathy.”
As of Monday morning, Leon’s partner had not received any additional information beyond the 3 a.m. text. It’s still unclear when employees will be able to collect personal belongings locked inside Cook’s Seafood or when PTO will be paid, she said.
A shock to the community
For regulars, the sudden closure was also a shock. Tom Gibboney, who purchased seafood from Cook’s for two decades, said that he was “stunned.”
“It was just really a sad day,” he said. “We drove up expecting to get some seafood (on Oct. 29), and it was shut with a note on the door. We had no idea this was happening.”
Buz Walters said he would go to Cook’s three to four times a week, noting that it sold reliably fresh fish and staff was knowledgeable and helpful. If the business had been struggling – which Walters saw no indication of – he wishes that the Crumrine family had asked for community support.
“There are a number of prominent people in the Atherton area that said, ‘I wish they had done a GoFundMe,’” he said, noting that Kepler’s Books and The Guild Theatre were both saved through community support.
Chris Dowler, the son of Dan Dowler, said that 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.”
Whitaker said that he had hoped Cook’s would make it to 100 years.
“I’m very proud of what Cook’s Seafood was and was to the community for many different reasons,” he said. “We put our heart and souls into that place, and it rewarded us and it rewarded the community. There’ll never be another place like Cook’s Seafood, ever.”
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