The story
Founded by George Berkowitz in 1950, in Cambridge.1
Origins
In 1904, Harry Berkowitz opened the "Legal Cash Market" grocery store in the Inman Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The name for the market came from the "Legal Stamps", also known as trading stamps, given to loyal customers. The store provided a living for Harry and his family until the late 1940s when chain grocery stores like Stop & Shop and others entered the picture and provided stiff competition for the family business.
In 1950, George Berkowitz, the son of Harry, opened a fish market adjacent to his father's grocery store and named it Legal Sea Foods. This was done to add a degree of specialty to the grocery business by offering customers a fish counter to purchase fresh fish. From the early 1950s, the market sold fresh fish as well as fish and chips that could only be taken to-go. In 1968, the Berkowitz family opened a restaurant in the adjacent space. They offered fish and chips, fried clams, fried shrimp, and fried scallops, served on paper plates while the customers sat at picnic tables.
In 1975, the restaurant expanded with the opening of a more traditional outlet at the site of the former S.S. Pierce building in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The original Inman Square restaurant was destroyed in a fire on January 18, 1980. With the help of his two sons, Marc and Roger, George opened their flagship location in the Boston Park Plaza in the Boston Theater District of downtown Boston that same year.
1980s
At the first inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1981, Legal Sea Foods' fish chowder was chosen to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has been served at every presidential inauguration since. Also in 1981, the restaurant established one of the first quality control centers for fish processing and distribution.
In 1986, Legal Sea Foods was named "Best Seafood Restaurant in America" by NBC's Today Show.
1990s
In 1990, the restaurant partnered with the United States Department of Commerce in developing a hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) program and helped to establish a landmark fishing industry standard for freshness and food safety.
In 1992, Roger Berkowitz, the son of George, took over as CEO of the private restaurant business. Roger had worked in the family business since the age of ten and is an honorary graduate of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. During this time Roger became the company spokesman, and voiced many of the Legal Sea Foods radio commercials, including the award-winning "Fresh Insights" radio campaign.
In March 1994, Food Arts Magazine awarded the Silver Spoon Award to George and Roger Berkowitz for sterling performance and raising Americans' consciousness about seafood for 30 years. That same year Legal Sea Foods also opened their first airport restaurant at Logan International Airport's Terminal C, followed later in the year by a location in Philadelphia International Airport. Also, in 1994, Legal Sea Foods invited influential chefs from China to fuse Asian cuisine into the menu at the restaurants. This program was called "Cuisineast" and some dishes created for this event are still on the current menu.
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At the Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, fans in New Orleans were served New England clam chowder from Legal Sea Food's Chowda van.
In 1998, Roger Berkowitz was invited to join the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable, a group of people with personal and professional interests in nutrition. In the same year, Bon Appétit magazine named Legal Sea Food one of the Top Ten Tried and True restaurants in America. It was in this year that Rich Vellante became the restaurant group's Executive Chef.
In 1999, the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association presented Roger Berkowitz with the Silver Plate award for America's best full-service, multi-unit restaurant operator, one of the food industry's highest honors.
2000s
In 2000, the American Institute of Food and Wine sponsored Legal Sea Food's 50th birthday with celebrity chefs, including Julia Child, in attendance. The CBS news program, Eye on America, focused on Legal Sea Food restaurant's quality control program with a segment on food safety.
In 2003, Legal Sea Foods became one of the first American restaurants to go trans-fat free. The New Legal Sea Foods Cookbook was published in this year.
In 2005, a new type of restaurant, Legal Test Kitchen (LTK), was introduced, with a menu that was 50 to 60 percent non-seafood and with comparably lower prices than traditional Legal Sea Foods locations. Also in 2005, Legal Sea Foods began to offer gluten-free options on the menu for the first time, giving patrons with celiac disease more dining options.
In 2008, Legal Sea Foods was named one of the ten best full-service or buffet-style restaurant chains which cater to families, according to Parents magazine. Later in 2008, Roger Berkowitz was inducted into the Nation's Restaurant News MenuMasters Hall of Fame.
In 2009, Legal C Bar debuted with an outlet in Dedham, Massachusetts, focused on serving casual seafood and custom cocktails.
2010s
In 2011, Legal Sea Foods opened their new flagship restaurant, Legal Harborside on the Boston waterfront. It was named "Best New Restaurant" by Esquire magazine.
Two years later in 2013, Legal Sea Foods announced they would be opening a restaurant in the Downtown Crossing section of Boston named Legal Crossing (LXI).
On February 22, 2014, a carbon monoxide leak killed the manager of the Legal Sea Foods branch at the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station, New York and sickened 27 others. The leak was reportedly caused by a faulty flue pipe attached to a gas water heater. President & CEO of Legal Sea Foods, Roger Berkowitz, said that the company would install carbon monoxide detectors and conduct comprehensive safety audits at all locations. He also pledged to be at the forefront of legislative efforts to require the use of carbon monoxide detectors in commercial buildings.
In April 2017, Legal Fish Bowl debuted in Kendall Square. The restaurant is a fast-casual concept that features six signature poke bowls as well as the option to create your own. In that same year, Roger Berkowitz was awarded a “Who's Who” James Beard Award.
In 2018, the company opened Legal Sea Bar, a bar-forward concept, in Union Station in Washington, DC.
2019 marked the start of a collaboration with Stonewall Kitchen, a specialty food manufacturer based in Maine, on a line of signature sauces, dressings and condiments. These products are sold under the name "Legal Sea Foods by Stonewall Kitchen” and range from cocktail sauce to lemon dill aioli.
2020s
In January 2020, Legal Sea Foods announced a partnership with RLJ Companies to expand the presence of Legal Sea Foods restaurants in major airports across the United States.
In 2022, the group operated 25 restaurants in five states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia), with most in the Greater Boston area.
Response to the COVID-19 pandemic and sale
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Legal Sea Foods had 33 locations, 3,500 employees, and more than $200 million in annual revenue. By March 2020, Legal Sea Foods had closed all locations for indoor dining. During the summer, the restaurant chain gradually re-opened 18 more prominent locations in the Greater Boston Area. In August 2020, $10 million from the federal government Paycheck Protection Program ran out, and the company began exploring mergers with other restaurant operators. In December, the group merged with PPX Hospitality Brands, a subsidiary of Danu Partners. Under the terms of the sale, Roger Berkowitz kept control of online and retail sales using the Legal Sea Foods name, and PPX became the new owner of the restaurant network and the Quality Control Center in South Boston. Following the acquisition of the restaurants by PPX, there were reports from certain vendors indicating that they had not been remunerated in full, despite Berkowitz having allocated adequate funds for this purpose. The media covered these reports at the time.
In 2021, PPX, in partnership with DoorDash, opened its first two Legal Sea Foods dark kitchens in an attempt to widen the footprint of the brand and to take advantage of the growing food delivery market.
From Wikipedia’s article on Legal Sea Foods, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4