Since June 2022, St. Louis seafood lovers have been mourning the loss of the beloved University City institution Bob’s Seafood, which closed to make way for the area’s Costco development. The shuttering of what many considered to be the area’s leader in fresh retail seafood left a huge void in the market, one that Brad Burns and Mike Vujević are eager to fill at their wholesale and online retail business City Seafood. A longtime manager at Bob’s, Vujević partnered with Burns to recreate the magic of his former workplace, bringing with him everything from the staff of fish-cutters to the freezers and equipment. “It’s Bob’s 2.0,” says Burns. “People who learn about us tell us that this is what they’ve been waiting for. Everyone is so excited.”
City Seafood feels like the heir apparent to Bob’s Seafood. How did it start? Everyone knows the story about how the Bob’s building was part of the eminent domain [situation] that happened to a lot of the businesses on that part of Olive Boulevard in University City to make way for Costco. Mike was VP of Bob’s and was the owner’s right-hand man. Mike wanted to figure out a way to keep doing it; initially, he approached me about buying a building and he would be a tenant, but we had a mutual friend who said that Mike knew the front end of the business, the fish-cutting, and processing, but I knew the back end of running a business. He said we should have a conversation, so we did and we decided to take a shot. I threw in money to help relocate, and we moved everything—all of Bob’s coolers, trucks, equipment—and the fish-cutters and processors all came with us. We hit the ground running in 2023 as a wholesale operation, and then, in late 2024, we added online ordering for direct to consumer purchases.
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How does the online ordering system work? Right now, we have it set up that we will deliver within a 35- to 40-mile radius from our processing facility in Fenton. People can go online and order what they want, then have it delivered—we do have a $100 minimum on delivery orders. However, if someone wants less than that, they can pick up at the Fenton location. And if they don’t want to order online, they can just call up Mike, and he will process it or even do it live if they just show up. It’s a really wide breadth of options we have, and I’m really impressed with the quality we can get.
Do you plan to add a retail storefront someday? We definitely thought about doing a retail location, but we wanted to have proof of concept that the market would support us first. We thought about waiting to open at all until we got a storefront, but we didn’t want to get too far out from when Bob’s closed and risk losing customers, so we opened as quickly as we could for wholesale. If and when we do it, I’d like to do it a little different than Bob’s; there is a place out of Chicago called Supreme Lobster & Seafood, and I really like their setup. Our lease is up in about a year and a half, so if we can find something that will give us a retail shop out front and processing in the back, we might look to move.
What other plans do you have for the business? We’re really interested in expanding outside of the St. Louis market. There are other cities in the Midwest that don’t have easy access to seafood, places like Tulsa, Omaha, Nashville… Ideally, we would love to be in about 15–20 markets throughout the Midwest.
People have such fond memories of Bob’s. What is it like being a part of that story? It feels like we are carrying on a legacy. Mike did all of the marketing at Bob’s, and when he’s reached out to people, their first response is something like, “Finally! I’ve been having to buy seafood from Costco or Sam’s Club… It’s been really great seeing our first repeat customers because they knew Bob’s, realize that we are the same quality, and are ready to get back. However, it’s also been great seeing people come in who weren’t Bob’s regulars but tried us and really like us. Seeing how excited people are and how much they like what we do has been really cool.
Recipe
City Seafood’s Teriyaki Salmon
Burns jokes that he knew very little about seafood before going into business with his partner, Mike Vujević. Even now that he helps run one of the best seafood operations in the metro area, he still sticks to his go-to favorites of salmon and shrimp, typically grilled. Those who want to add a little something more to their salmon, however, will enjoy this wonderful version of a Japanese-inspired classic preparation.
Ingredients:
- 2 salmon fillets (about 6 oz. each)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
- 1 tablespoon sake (Japanese rice wine) or dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Toasted sesame seeds (for garnish)
- Sliced green onions (for garnish)
Directions:
- In a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, mirin, sake (or white wine), brown sugar, garlic, and ginger. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for about 3-5 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Pat dry the salmon fillets with paper towels. This helps the salmon to sear nicely.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Place the salmon fillets in the skillet, skin side down if they have skin. Cook for about 3-4 minutes until the bottom is nicely seared and golden brown.
- Carefully flip the salmon fillets. Pour the teriyaki sauce over the salmon. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, spooning the sauce over the fillets occasionally, until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.
- Transfer the salmon fillets to serving plates. Spoon some of the teriyaki sauce over each fillet. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onions.
Notes:
- Serve your salmon teriyaki hot, ideally with steamed rice and your favorite vegetables.
- Adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of your salmon fillets. Thicker fillets may need a bit longer to cook through.
- You can also marinate the salmon in some of the teriyaki sauce before cooking for extra flavor.
- Feel free to customize with additional vegetables like steamed broccoli or bok choy on the side.
