ABOUT
Pier 46 Seafood market is in Templeton next to Trader Joe's in the Vineyard Center. We are located just west of Highway 101 on Vineyard Drive. With our vast and diverse background in the seafood industry we are able to offer the widest variety of local and imported seafood available. You can pick up something fresh and hand cut to take home or stay and enjoy the best the ocean has to offer with us indoors or on our patio.
We Love to meet people that wish to enjoy great food and gain knowledge of seafood, both locally and worldwide. Our primary interest is continuing to stay on the forefront of environmental sustainable products and the health benefits from them. We work hard every day to stay on top of our changing environment and look forward to sharing our knowledge with you.
Tony
OWNER
Tony's story begins with his Father, Mike DeGarimore, a well-known pioneer in the local seafood industry. As the oldest boy in the family, Tony helped from the boat as a child while his dad dove for Abalone in the California coastal waters. As his success in business grew, his father opened several local Seafood Markets here in SLO County as well as a wholesale seafood plant, which Tony learned all aspects of as he worked for his dad; an eye for quality, wholesale as well as retail management, route management, business and staff management, seafood processing, to exporting seafood to Japan where Tony was able to visit and meet the buyers themselves.
Tony opened and ran other very successful businesses, including Louies on the Pier in Avila Beach, and a small fish market and restaurant on the water in Morro Bay. Mike paved a successful road for his son to carry the baton with a sustainable life in the seafood industry. Tony, after running the export business himself, and later co-owning his father's company Central Coast Seafood, decided to go back into Retail, sold his shares in his company and is continuing the DeGarimore legacy & Heritage, serving the North County with the freshest seafood possible, just as his father began many years ago.
Tony has known Eric Gonzales for years as a valuable employee of Central Coast Seafood, and is happy to have discovered Eric wanted to open a fish market as well; They joined forces as co-owners, and Pier 46 Seafood was born on September 10, 2008. Tony's hobbies include flying his Piper Cherokee Airplane, running the sound for Highlands Church in Paso & Theatre 3 Band (see our friends list!) and playing a little golf in his non-existent spare time. You can reach Tony at tony@pier46seafood.com.
Eric
OWNER
Fish has allowed Eric to travel the world. He has met great people, and saw some beautiful landscapes. For Eric, fish is an international language that is a common tread between humans and ecology. His exposure to the seafood industry started in childhood, with his father’s father being a key player in the importation of lobsters and shrimp from Mexico. During the early 70’s, his father became owner of a wholesale seafood company in Los Angeles.
As a teenager, Eric began with scaling fish and peeling & deveining shrimp. He quickly began learning the fish business from the ground up. Starting at the bottom was the best thing that could have happened to Eric; he gained valuable knowledge on the proper handling and distribution of seafood. His experience since then has ranged from working on a Russian processing vessel, where he saw how squid and other shellfish are packaged for the export market, to importing all kinds of fish from around the world, to interfacing with high-end chefs and supermarkets providing guidance and recommendations for their menus and retail displays.
Over recent years he has seen increasing demand by consumers for sustainable, eco-friendly seafood items. More and more, people want to know more about where their food comes from and how it is prepared. Eric enjoys bringing this knowledge to the public so they feel confident about the choices they make when shopping for fish. Eric's experience in the seafood industry is vast and diversified. He has worked long on establishing relationships with valuable contacts, suppliers, customers and fisherman. He loves sharing what he has learned with others so that everyone can continue to enjoy seafood while making a difference for the future of the oceans. You can reach Eric at eric@pier46seafood.com.