Are you or your guest hungry for fresh seafood? It is available all year if you take the scenic drive off Route 198 to Route 223 at Hudgins. Continue over the Gywnn’s Island Bridge where you cross Milford Haven. Route 223 becomes Route 633 beyond the bridge. Continue to the sign, Island Seafood Company, Inc. on the right, which is Route 656. The road narrows, but drive slowly until you reach a large open expanse. You are looking out onto Milford Haven, and on the left there is a large white cinder block store with the Island Seafood Company, Inc. sign. You enter a shiny white sales room to find a showcase filled with various seafood, sitting next to the check out counter. 

     Between phone calls and customers, you will talk with Barbara Fincham, the store manager. If you are a customer you will discover that you come first with the 21 year veteran of this establishment.
The nearly 30-year-old store was first know as Milford Haven Seafood and was owned by Louis Jagger and Russell Mitchem. Fincham began working for the partners in 1979. She says they were like family to her. Jagger and Mitchem also built the oyster shucking house which sits next door. Later they sold the business to Jerry W. Jagger and Sandra Forrest, who operated Milford Haven Seafood for eight years.

     They then sold to David Owens and Whitney Mack, who operated it for four years, when Shores and Ruark took possession for four years, followed by the next owners Kid & Co., for three years. Fincham stayed with the different owners throughout these years and few realized the ownership had changed. She continues with a cheerful greeting whether you enter the sales room or she speaks with you on the phone.

     In March 1999, Island Seafood Co., Inc took possession of the business in the store and the shucking house. You won’t see the head manager without an appointment for Trisha Butler runs practically without stopping. She may be meeting the fish, oyster or crab boats to buy the best of the latest catch or she may be in the shucking house or in her office which is housed in the same building.

     Island Seafood Company, Inc. carries whatever freshly cleaned fish are available the season you arrive. There’s fresh crab meat, clams, scallops, lobster tails, soft crabs when they are available, fish roe in season, shrimp and freshly shucked oysters from the shucking house next door. Fincham may be approaching from the white kitchen in back of the sales room when you walk into the store. They make breaders of all types of seafood they carry, ready for the frying pan. In summer you may buy freshly made tuna and shrimp salad. Deviled crabs are another specialty as well as cocktails sauces.

     Barbara Fincham lives near the store with her husband who maintains the property. You are not apt to visit the store or the use after hours without being apprehended. The Finchams and Ms. Butler want to make sure there is seafood aplenty for every customer when they open next morning. 

© 2000 Catherine C. Brooks All rights reserved.