Since the 1980s, Flathead Fish and Seafood Co. has offered a variety of fresh cuisine ranging from Alaskan salmon to lobster from the Atlantic Ocean to branzini from the Mediterranean, all flown in to the landlocked Flathead Valley.
“We source from all over the world,” Flathead Fish and Seafood Co. owner Tom Meade said. “We fly in all of our fresh products and that’s something that’s unique to Montana.”
Regularly sourcing Alaskan salmon from Seattle and shellfish from Boston, Meade says the fish are often not out of the water for more than three days by the time they arrive in Montana.
“When we get fish from Seattle, our stuff is probably fresher than theirs because they go and pick it up with trucks and ours is flown,” Meade said.
The company offers products ranging from commonly consumed fish like salmon, halibut and crab to obscure items on the menu like deep water monkfish, Norwegian lutefisk and sushi items, which they sell to restaurants like Wasabi Sushi Bar and Blue Samurai Sushi Bar and Grill. Meade sources king salmon from New Zealand for sushi because they are ocean farmed and therefore do not have parasites and can be consumed raw.
While Flathead Fish has a retail location in Columbia Falls, which opened in 2018, most of Meade’s business is wholesale and he sells to restaurants around the valley, including Café Kandahar, Jalisco Cantina and Latitude 48, and the company makes weekly trips to Missoula.
Meade says crab is easily their most post popular product, which they often sell to restaurants and in the retail shop, but the shellfish has nearly doubled in price in the last year as supply runs low amid the pandemic.
“Crab is at an all-time high right now,” Meade said. “That’s because nobody fished for it in 2020 and 2021. People didn’t want to go out on boats because if one person caught COVID, everybody got it. So boats just didn’t go out.”
Alaskan salmon and halibut have remained a stable price throughout the pandemic, Meade said, and since fewer fish were harvested in the last few years the fishery numbers are healthy right now.
“Alaskan salmon hasn’t been as dramatic,” Meade said.
As Meade continues to deal with fish inventory challenges, he said flight logistics has been the main supply chain issue that’s given him a headache with a slew of flight cancelations over the holidays. Until after the New Year, Meade drove to Spokane on multiple occasions to pick up products because there weren’t enough planes flying into Kalispell, especially with available cargo space, but flight logistics have improved in the last month.
While most of Flathead Fish’s products are flown in, Meade sources some of his fish from Polson, including lake trout from Native Fish Keepers, Inc. and Alaskan salmon from Kvichak Fish Co. Since Meade bought the company, he has also added wagyu beef from Lazy K Ranch in Columbia Falls, which includes rib eye, New York, tenderloin, tomahawk rib, sirloin, cube steak, chuck roast, short ribs and hamburger.
Quail and duck eggs from Colonial Sunrise Farm are also available in the retail shop, and Meade says they deliver a richer taste than a chicken egg.
With the holiday season behind them, Meade and his crew can take a breather until summer tourism arrives and restaurants across the valley become slammed, causing them to pick up orders at Glacier Park International Airport two to three times a day. For now, they are gearing up for another busy summer.
“As the restaurants get crazy, we get crazy,” Meade said.
For more information, visit www.flatheadfishandseafood.com or sign up for fresh fish alerts at [email protected].
