Customers ‘freaking out’ at possible Lexington seafood market closure. Can it be saved?
For a guy who runs a seafood market, it’s been a long time since Michael Yessin has seen the ocean.
But he wants to. And that might be bad news for his customers at Lexington Seafood Co.
Yessin is putting the fresh seafood store he’s operated at 867 E. High St. for more than 15 years up for sale in the hopes that someone will want to keep it going.
His customers ”are freaking out” a little bit, Yessin said.
“I’ve been letting them know I’m ready to retire,” he said. “They don’t want to see it close.”
But it will, if no one wants to take over his turnkey business, he says.
“I’d like to do something by summer,” he said. “I could find somewhere to go real quick.”
He’d probably head to Hilton Head, he said, where he used to vacation decades ago.
The business has been going so strong, Yessin said, that he hasn’t been able to take a vacation in five years. Every day except Monday fresh fish of all kinds, shellfish including crab, lobster, oysters, shrimp and more are flown or trucked in for his coolers.
He used to cook fish at lunchtime for hungry customers but had to stop two years ago, when COVID hit because he was just too busy.
Yessin said he was really worried about his business for the first couple of weeks of the pandemic.
“Then everybody started cooking at home,” he said. The trickle of new customers became a flood that has turned into repeat business.
His busiest time of year? The holidays. People come in for specialty items to serve.
“It gets crazy at Christmas because I smoke salmon,” he said. “Thanksgiving to New Year’s is crazy.”
He said that anyone interested can contact him at the store. “This would make somebody a great little business. I’ve done all the hard work,” he said.
If not, customers better get ready to celebrate Christmas in the July this year.
