For seven years, Seattle Fish Guys has been a staple restaurant in the Central District community. The man behind it all, Salvador Panelo, is not new to the business. He grew up in the Central District, where his family owned a fish tackle shop. Working there, he spent his younger years surrounded by fishermen, marking the beginning of his involvement in the seafood industry. After high school, Panelostarted his work at Pike Place Market, where he ended up spending almost 30 years. “I was one of the original OG fish throwers,” Panelo said. When he moved his work into the CD, he started the well-known, and beloved specialty seafood store, Seattle Fish Guys. “Whatever decisions you make in life, whatever you do, the best part about being your own boss, is you’re accountable for your own actions and your business will only succeed if you believe in yourself,” Panelo said. He continued on his experience as a business owner, “You have the ability to change and create and make choices. It’s exciting to wake up in the morning…Sometimes I work 72-80 hours a week and it’s tiresome, but when I go home, it’s a good tired, ‘I’m tired but it was a good day.’ It’s a good feeling.” 

Being a business owner has its challenges though, especially in the Central District.“I got the windows shot out, late at night. No one can fix a window that late, I lost a whole bunch of products… It took me two weeks to get the window replaced,” Panelo said. “That was disheartening for me, ’cause that was my sixth year in the business, I’d never had my window shot out before.” Not long after this incident, the Fish Guys’ street was targeted by another drive-by shooting. Panelo described that“My most major concern as a business owner is safety of my workers and the safety of my customers, and the safety of my family, myself.” Panelo was worried “I might have to close up the store because I don’t want anybody getting hurt, it’s not worth it for me.” Violence isn’t the only issue for small businesses in the area . “I was really bugged about Amazon coming across the street, going after the students,” Panelo said. “They’ve hurt a lot of businesses, believe it or not. I’ve talked to a lot of business owners and a lot of these Amazon fresh places, they’ve taken a lot of business away from brick-and-mortar companies,” Panelo elaborated. He decided something needed to be done. “I’m going to show Amazon they can’t just do that, come in the neighborhood and start taking all these customers… So I said ‘That’s it! We’re going to do a five-dollar deal.’” Fish Guys’ deal includes a mochi donut, drink, and spam musubi, all for five dollars. Since then, the deal has been drumming up a significant amount of business from schools nearby. “I have another goal to try to get the Garfield students to try something different,” Panelo said. “We’re not just a musubi place, I want them to come in and take a look at all of the seafood we’ve got, even the poke,” he continued. This isn’t Panelo’s only goal though. “We plan to open in several locations, maybe franchise,” he said. “I have an idea for the future… Once it takes off it’s going to be huge. I’m pretty excited about it,” he continued, wrapping things up with a mysterious tone. Whatever Seattle Fish Guys has in store for the future, it’s sure to be fin-tastic!