Family-owned and -operated New Day Fisheries is one of our favorite sources for live and specialty seafood. If you've ever stopped to say hi to the live crabs chillin' in their pristine tanks at your neighborhood Town & Country (No? Just us?), then you're familiar with their products.
Since 1986, New Day has done steady business out of its headquarters in Port Townsend, operating on the site of a former clam cannery previously owned by folk singer and restaurateur Ivar Haglund of Ivar's fame. Co-founder Scott Kimmel, who got his start selling his catch right off the dock in Poulsbo alongside his dad, now sources fish and shellfish from more than 200 other small fishing operations from around the region.
We love New Day for their excellent (and sustainably caught) Dungeness crab and spot prawns. The latter is a local delicacy that's only available for a short window of time each year. Sweet, succulent, and rich, these must-have shellfish taste more like lobster than shrimp.
Those with Norwegian blood or very particular palates will also be familiar with New Day's tangy-sweet pickled herring or their lutefisk. (For the uninitiated, lutefisk is dried cod that has been rehydrated in a solution of lye and water, giving it a jelly-like texture.) Weird but true: the company is the biggest supplier of lutefisk on the West Coast. Mmm, så godt!