Church and Market seafood spot Woodhouse Fish Co. (2073 Market St.) announced on Friday that it will close this month after 18 years. As first reported by EaterSF, Woodhouse Fish Co.'s last day will be January 23.
Opened in 2006, Woodhouse is co-owned by brothers Dylan and Rowan MacNiven, and they later opened a second location in Pacific Heights.
“We get one last weekend of great local crab,” Dylan MacNiven told EaterSF. “We’re excited to provide that for people. But the important thing is we’ve got another location with the same great menu just a 10-minute drive away.”
Woodhouse Fish Co. at 2073 Market St. closes on January 23. | Photo: Kevin L./Yelp
Woodhouse Fish Co. was popular for its lobster rolls, Dungeness crab, fresh seafood, and $1.25 oysters on Tuesdays.
Following the closure, Woodhouse Fish Co.'s location at 1914 Fillmore St. (between Bush and Pine streets) will remain open.
MacNiven explained they decided to close the Church and Market location after the building's ownership changed hands and a lease renewal proved difficult.
“But the real answer is it felt like the right time after nearly 20 years on Market Street,” added MacNiven.
Inside Woodhouse Fish Co. at 2073 Market St. | Photo: Rahn Fudge/Instagram
The move to close Woodhouse Fish Co. comes a few months after the MacNivens' Mission District Tex-Mex restaurant West of Pecos closed its doors after 11 years. Regular customers told Mission Local at the time that the restaurant was not as consistently crowded post-pandemic as it used to be.
Just up Market St., the MacNivens still own and operate music venues Swedish American Hall and Cafe du Nord, and the brothers also run 6-year-old breakfast and brunch restaurant Wooded Spoon in the same building. The MacNivens come from a restaurant-owning family, and four years ago, in 2020, their parents turned over their longtime Woodside spot Buck's over to the two sons, as Palo Alto Online reported.
Despite the recent closures, Dylan MacNiven says he remains optimistic about the future. "Things being the way we are,” he says, “if we focus on one location, we can do that much better.”
