In style Walnut Creek Yacht Membership seafood restaurant will shut after 29 years

Seafood lovers within the East Bay have simply six weeks left to get to the Walnut Creek Yacht Membership earlier than the homeowners shut the doorways for good.

Ellen McCarty and Kevin Weinberg introduced Monday that their restaurant, a lot beloved in the neighborhood, could have its final day of service on Might 7, their twenty ninth anniversary in enterprise.

“After long and thoughtful consideration, we have made the decision to close Walnut Creek Yacht Club, and set sail on the next challenge of our lives — retirement,” McCarty and Weinberg defined within the “Scuttlebutt,” their electronic mail e-newsletter to clients. “This was by no means an easy decision. It’s an emotional one, as we look back on all the memories, relationships, and milestones we’ve shared with our staff and our guests.”

Weinberg stated he and McCarty spoke with others who have been fascinated by conserving the restaurant going, however they finally determined they’d moderately shut with the restaurant’s legacy intact than take a threat beneath new administration.

“It’s a really difficult to do, to take over an old brand and you’ve got comparison, and even if you don’t change a single thing, if we’re not involved, people say, ‘it’s not the same,’ or, ‘they changed things, they don’t do the fish and chips and they changed the chowder recipe,’ ” Weinberg stated in an interview with the Bay Space Information Group. “Then the staff might not like it and the customers — it’s a very difficult thing to do. We decided the best thing to do is preserve the legacy. And let people remember us and their experiences as they were.”

They first opened the restaurant in 1997 with the thought of bringing the ambiance of a day on the bay to Walnut Creek. Their nautical-themed indoor house created a laid-back vibe that made it straightforward to take a seat on the bar and make new associates, or sink right into a sales space with household.

“We have seen families lose loved ones and come here to celebrate their memories with us, because this was their favorite place,” the homeowners stated.

The Yacht Membership underwent an in depth reworking undertaking in 2008, increasing indoor house by 25% and including an oyster bar. Diablo Journal voted it Finest Seafood Restaurant within the East Bay 12 occasions, whereas the restaurant was additionally Michelin Information advisable from 2010-2014. The Bay Space Information Group just lately named its clam chowder probably the greatest within the Bay Space.

Weinberg stated the recipe has gone unchanged for 28 years and he makes as a lot as 20 gallons of chowder per week, promoting it to clients within the restaurant and others who’re taking dwelling quarts at a time, usually for vacation dinners.

The restaurant was additionally identified for month-to-month dinners, like annual “Lobster Month” offers in January, once you’d get a Maine lobster with fries and coleslaw for $35, or the “Last Wednesday Dinner,” the place they’d have a good time the top of Dungeness crab season.