Firefighters battle blaze at former renowned restaurant

A building in Crockett that was once home to one of the Bay Area’s most renowned seafood restaurants burned in a fire late Sunday and early Monday, according to fire officials.

The one-time Nantucket restaurant, now abandoned and sometimes a home to squatters, emerged mostly intact, according to spokesman Steve Trotter of the Crockett-Carquinez Fire Department. Embers from another warehouse that was destroyed in the blaze burned near the pier area underneath the old restaurant’s deck, Trotter said.

The two-alarm blaze also burned an area of the Bass Club, a fishing club in the area. It started around 10:40 p.m. and did not cause any injuries, Trotter said.

The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District and Richmond Fire Department provided boats to help fight the blaze, because the area of the fire was near the Carquinez Strait.

Firefighters from the Vallejo, El Cerrito and Rodeo-Hercules fire departments also responded, Deputy Fire Chief Doug Botta said. Crews still were at the scene at 8:30 a.m. Monday to monitor for flare-ups and hot spots.

Crews controlled the fire in the warehouse within an hour, Trotter said, but it was much more difficult to control the other ones after the embers spread.

“The main warehouse of the building that moved the most collapsed pretty quickly and it was easier to get that one under control,” Trotter said. “The others were down there by the water, and it’s a mess down there, so it complicated things.”

The difficulty in getting to the Nantucket was known to diners when it was open. Patrons parked in an unpaved lot and had to cross railroad tracks as they went through the front door.

The restaurant’s old web site said the first restaurant at the site was in 1928, one year after the Carquinez Bridge was built. The Nantucket Fish Company opened in 1975 and operated until 1993, when Ken and Jackie Carver opened their own place called Nantucket. It closed in February 2019.

The blaze also burned unknown materials, and a hazardous materials team also responded to the scene, Trotter said.

Investigators have not determined yet what caused the blaze.