Popular Fish House restaurant to close after 25 years
The Fish House will serve its last crab cake on Sept. 30.
The decision to close the popular destination restaurant in Stanley Park came when the operator, SilverBirch Hotels and Resorts, looked at its portfolio and decided to focus on hotels, said Brigitte Diem-Guy, vicepresident of sales and marketing for SilverBirch.
“We are a hotel operator — a free-standing restaurant is not in our strategic plan,” she said Thursday.
“We certainly hope that the park board will find another operator. It is a fantastic place and great destination.”
Leanne Novak, the restaurant’s sales and event manager, said she has been working at The Fish House for two years, but said several staff have been working there for 10 to 15 years. A couple of workers in the kitchen have been there for 18 years.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet ending,” she said.
“This is our 25th year of operation. We have several dedicated staff members who have agreed to see it right to the end. We’re working hard to make sure what The Fish House is known for is maintained to the end.”
Novak said at the height of summer as many as 60 people work at the restaurant. She said SilverBirch announced to staff in March that the restaurant would be closing. For special occasions such as Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, The Fish House is booked solid for weeks in advance, she said.
“We have several people who are local and come here on a weekly basis,” she said. “It’s been a fixture in the park for many years. It’s a meaningful location for lots of people.”
The Fish House operates on a lease from the park board.
Gordon Barber, manager of revenue services for the park board, said the lease expires at the end of October.
“SilverBirch has had the lease since 2006,” he said. “They’re not interested in an extension.”
He said within a few weeks, he expects the park board to issue a call for requests for proposals to operate a restaurant in the building. Once the RFP is completed and the winning bid selected, the recommendation for a new operator would go to the park board for a vote.
The building opened in 1930 as the Sports Pavilion and was used by golfers and tennis players as a clubhouse. In 1949, it started serving food as the Third Beach Tea House. In 1974, it became the Beach House and then The Fish House in Stanley Park in 1991.
The restaurant can seat 120 indoors and on two patios: one facing east called the Heron Patio and the other facing English Bay called the Bay Patio.