Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery re-launches from new Castroville location

CASTROVILLE – Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery, the much-savored and favored store and restaurant, relaunched with a soft opening over the weekend at a new location in a historic building more than 150 years old in the heart of Castroville. The two-story building at 10700 Merritt St. is on the corner of Merritt Street and Preston Road, next to the iconic Castroville sign that arches over the roadway.

“It was meant to be,” said Phil DiGirolamo, owner of Phil’s Fish Market. “It has everything we needed to do the restaurant part.”

But the fish market component is yet to come and will soon be at another location as DiGirolamo is busy looking at a couple of options, one about a half-block away from the restaurant’s new location.

Getting to this point has been like being in a foot race, said DiGirolamo, who added a few days ago he could finally see the finish line.

“I could see the ribbon … I just wanted to hit it before anything else,” he said.

Phil’s has served faithful patrons for more than 40 years and was at its last location in Moss Landing for 22 years before its lease with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ended earlier this year to make way for MBARI’s expanded operation with plans to build a 33,000-square-foot structure of its own in its place.

Over the years, the restaurant has garnered a loyal following and accolades from television to periodicals including from the likes of the Food Network’s “Road Tested,” and “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” to Sunset, and Via magazines.

The seafood dining and market establishment at its former location on Sandholdt Road served its last meals over Labor Day weekend.

Finding the new location was serendipitous said DiGirolamo.

“It was not really hard to find,” he said. “I was trying to stay in Moss Landing but couldn’t put a deal together. Then this popped up and I look at it as it was meant to be.”

DiGirolamo said he will still have a presence in Moss Landing with Phil’s Snack Shack and Deli at 7912 Moss Landing Road, along with Phil’s Cioppino Truck.

“Both operations will run at the same time. Our roots are there. We were in the building there for 22 years and built the business there,” said DiGirolamo. “The building is down but the business is still with us. We’re moving on.”

Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery now occupies the building first built as a schoolhouse in 1869. The 4,970-square-foot structure is listed on the Monterey County Register of Historic Resources. It has served the community in many capacities, including as a hardware store for many decades, and in 1990 it was renovated to function as an Italian restaurant named La Scuola – the school in Italian.

The 1,500-square-foot main dining room downstairs is an open space with high ceilings able to accommodate about 85 people while the upstairs area will be used as offices for now, said DiGirolamo, and the outside area lends itself to outdoor dining so “we can move right along with it.” Plans are to further protect the patio area, which runs along the side of Phil’s and the next building, from the sometimes inclement weather by partially enclosing it.

“The people who own it are accommodating and willing to work with us,” said DiGirolamo of the building’s owners, who he added have made improvements including to the roof and exterior.

The entrance and parking lot are on the backside of the building, and pieces from the last restaurant have moved over too, including a fisherman statue and other figures that currently adorn the outside entryway of the eatery, providing photo opportunities for visitors.

DiGirolamo said that the former site was about 14,000 square feet. But with the new location, snack shack, mobile cioppino truck and future fish market, Phil’s will be back to about that much combined operational area.

“We haven’t skipped a beat,” DiGirolamo reports.

The community of Castroville has embraced the old business that found a new place in its environs and people from all over have reached out, especially from Salinas, Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Watsonville, he said.

“Phil’s has meant so much to so many people,” said DiGirolamo. “It’s humbling to hear the stories that people have.”

Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery in Castroville is open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-8 p.m., with the owner there pretty much all of the time.

“I thrive on it,” said DiGirolamo.