David Witter

For many who grew up in and around Chicago, a fish dinner meant breaded perch, a fish sandwich, or every mom's favorite--fish sticks. Yet when you open the twenty-by-twenty-foot freezers at Rubino's Seafood, 735 West Lake, a different picture begins to emerge. Giant tubs filled with white crushed ice are topped with an array of brown clams, red salmon fillets, white halibut, black tiger shrimp, pink gulf shrimp, and the sixty-pound blue-grey torsos of fresh Florida swordfish.

While it may not rival New York's Fulton Fish Market--the "Wall Street of Fish"--the trend towards a healthier diet, gourmet TV and restaurants serving exotic fish is changing the way fish are shipped, bought and eaten in Chicago.

"Fresh fish like whiting, mackerel, cod and sea bass, as well as lobster, are flown in from Boston and New York, which are the main distribution points of most Atlantic cold-water species," says co-owner Jim Rubino. "Miami is generally the hub of gulf and South Atlantic fish like sole, red snapper, grouper, tuna and swordfish, as well as a portion of our shrimp. On the West Coast, most of the Pacific and Alaskan fish like halibut, trolley sole, salmon, mussels, clams, snow crab and lobster come through Seattle. A lot of your better tunas, like yellow fin, blue fin and big eye come through Hawaii, where they are graded on a scale of one-to-three, with one being sushi grade, two restaurant and then down to three."

While many think that these fish are delivered on special fish carriers, much of the seafood travels to us the same way people do, on United, American, Delta and Southwest Airlines. "Fish are usually brought into O'Hare in the cargo area of commercial airlines," Rubino says. "Usually they arrive in 3,000-pound steel containers packed with plastic, Styrofoam and cold gel-packs."

A lot has changed since 1913, when Rubino's building was originally built as part of Lake Street's Fulton Market. At that time, much of the fish that Chicagoans consumed was caught in Lake Michigan or nearby rivers.

Lawrence T. Schweig, chief proprietor of Lawrence Fisheries at 2120 South Canal, speaks of the days of the Chicago fish business when his father began working at Lake and Fulton in 1922. "At that time there were twenty-one commercial-fishing operations and the fish markets stretched across Union, Lake and Fulton Avenues. Fishermen would come up the river with their catch, which in those days included chubs, trout and perch. Most of them were small outfits on the South Side, men who worked in the steel mills and worked the commercial nets part time."

After World War II the use of DDT and other pollutants caused the FDA to severely limit commercial trout fishing. The Schweig family maintained the last commercial perch license in Chicago, but they recently gave it up due to the shortages caused in part by the zebra mussel.

While this ended the commercial fishing of many local species, many familiar native fish such as trout, catfish, salmon and shrimp are brought to Chicago's plates through aquaculture or "fish farms." Of course, the use of "farmed vs. wild" fish has stirred debate between chefs, proprietors and consumers.

"Some people like it and some don't," Rubino says. "But farm-raised helps the industry in that it keeps certain species or areas from being over-fished and pushed to shortages, which helps control the market and keep prices lower."

Rubino's is one medium-sized operation in a city filled with dozens of large wholesale/retail markets. Some of the other big fish players include Isaacson L & Stein Fish Co, Plitt Company, Chicago Seafood and Restaurant Supply, Vita Food Products and Supreme Lobster and Seafood Co. There is even a nearby fish farm, Rushing Waters Fisheries in Palmyra, Wisconsin.

Opinions vary as to the most popular or "hot" fish in Chicago. Tuna, in the form of high-grade sushi, is always popular. Wild Pacific salmon has also found its way into the kitchens of Chicago's top chefs. Yet a recent ban on the fishing of wild salmon on the West Coast, due to "warm river temperatures and a depletion of habitat" will put an end to this trend.

"I think that across-the-board from homes to mid-range to high-range restaurants, the "in" fish now is tilapia," Rubino says.

(2006-03-28)

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