King Harbor’s finest seafood market, Quality Seafood, Inc. is an historic Los Angeles seafood market that’s been providing the finest and freshest seafood since 1953.
Our story begins in 1897, when Petar Dragich came to America from Yugoslavia (now Croatia). He worked in the mines of Montana, and gained his citizenship at one of the local bars (which is where that was being done for lack of a better place). He had brought his eldest son Nick with him, and in 1913 he sent for the rest of the family and moved to Seattle.
There, Petar began fishing out of a small skiff and was noted in the local journals as the father of purse-seining (a form of fishing using nets) on the West Coast. His fishing brought him as far south as the coast of Los Angeles County. Naturally, he fell in love with the area, and shortly thereafter moved his family to San Pedro.
Nick Dragich
His eldest son Nick took on the family fishing tradition, with his own son, Pete Dragich Sr. They fished points as far north as Alaska, and as far south as South America. Being gone for months at a time began to wear thin on them as the family grew, and an idea was conceived to make a change that would last for generations. Together, they left fishing and decided to bring the freshest seafood straight from the boats in local harbors to Redondo Beach. This was well received, and business grew quickly. Before the redevelopment of the Redondo Beach King Harbor in the 1960’s, the Dragich family owned and operated four separate seafood markets: Western Fish & Seafood, Quality Seafood, Western Smoked Fish, and Weddington & McFarland. They combined them all and relocated to Redondo Beach’s International Boardwalk. The new seafood market created one of the largest retail seafood markets on the West Coast, now known as Quality Seafood Inc.
Pete Sr’s children and grandchildren now operate Quality Seafood, a place that remains a destination for seafood lovers, tourists, and families- many of whom have grown through several generations (just as we have), spending time cracking crab on our concrete tables.
We still strive to bring the absolute best product to market, expertly prepared by our great staff, and do so in a relaxed, low-key, family friendly environment. Whether you’re coming in for your first time, or you’ve been coming for decades, we want our family tradition to inspire your own tradition.
We call it “Quality Time”.
Sincerely,
The Dragich Family & The Quality Seafood Crew
