Craving seafood? Giovanni’s Fish Market owner opens new takeout restaurant in Morro Bay
Giovanni DeGarimore has lost a tenant but gained much-needed space in which to open his new Morro Bay restaurant.
Giovanni’s Take-Out Express launched quietly with a soft opening on Wednesday, providing an alternative for people hoping to avoid standing in long lines to order seafood and more from Giovanni’s Fish Market and Galley around the corner.
The two eateries are in opposite ends of the same building at 1001 Front St., near the bend where the road intersects with the busy Embarcadero.
Giovanni’s Take-Out Express is located the space formerly occupied by The Coffee Pot restaurant, with a gift shop in between it and the market at the building’s other end.
DeGarimore said via phone Wednesday that The Coffee Pot closed in January after business owner “Gordon” Lu Chi Fa decided to retire rather than try to reopen after coronavirus-related shutdowns were lifted.
On Wednesday, DeGarimore was preparing for “this wacky, busy July 4th weekend,” he said with a laugh. “I live in chaos.”
He also thrives on it.
DeGarimore said the Independence Day weekend is historically the busiest of the year for an often-crowded area with limited parking.
He said the lack of parking was worsened by recent closures of some waterfront areas, removing about 120 parking spaces.
In June, the Morro Bay City Council approved the closures to allow businesses hit hard by COVID-19 closures to expand their outdoor dining and retail offerings.
DeGarimore agreed that the Galley’s long lines of hungry patrons may spread eventually at Giovanni’s Express Take-Out site, once tourists join the locals he hopes the new location will serve.
But by splitting the crowd between two separate locations, he said, “it should take off some of the pressure … It should spread it out a little.”
DeGarimore has long been aware of that pressure through years of complaints from friends and customers about the long queue that often snakes its way down the business-lined sidewalk that parallels the waterfront.
The Morro Bay Planning Commission was also unhappy about the line, DeGarimore said, because it made it more difficult for passersby to see the sea otters and boats in the harbor.
New Morro Bay seafood restaurant offers stripped-down menu
Giovanni’s Take-Out Express has a stripped-down menu to further speed up the process.
The limited offerings include various fried, batter-dipped fish, seafood and chicken options as well as chowder and poke bowls with tuna, salmon or a combination, plus add-ons.
The new restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., “for now,” DeGarimore said. That gives hungry diners a half-hour head start before the Galley opens at 11 a.m.
DeGarimore’s parents, Mike and Kathy DeGarimore, started in the seafood business with a small fish market on Main Street in Cambria, where the front of the Sow’s Ear Restaurant is now.
Giovanni DeGarimore’s latest venture is located in about 1,500 square feet of the building purchased by his family in 1985. “Now, it’s one of the only privately owned properties on the waterfront,” he said.
It will have one window for ordering, another where diners pick up their food to eat elsewhere.
Around the corner, Giovanni’s Fish Market continues to sell fresh and smoked fish and seafood, plus specialties, to those who want to cook their own. The giant hot-pot out front continues to cook crab and lobsters, both to order and to supply the market.
Menu options at the Galley range from batter-dipped fried fish and seafood to burgers, oysters on the half shell, salads, garlic fries and south-of-the-border specialties.
Giovanni’s Take-Out Express opens
As one of Giovanni’s clerks explained, Giovanni’s Take-Out Express is for “I’m hungry and I’m here now” diners, so that eatery doesn’t currently offer online or phone ordering.
Each of the two eateries has its own Facebook page. Go to www.facebook.com/giovannistakeoutexpress for information about Giovanni’s Take-Out Express.
For information about Giovanni’s Fish Market and Galley, call 805-772-2123 or 877-552-4467, email orders@giovannisfishmarket.com or visit www.giovannisfishmarket.com. All can be used to order take-out from the original restaurant and 100 varieties of fresh seafood and more to be delivered from the market.
DeGarimore said he sold Stax, his wine bar on the Embarcadero, in January.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 5:05 AM.
