Just beyond a pair of nondescript silos where 95th Street meets the Calumet River, the red roof of Calumet Fisheries beckons. It is a Chicago institution – a humble, one-room shack that has served up smoked fish from a nearly-century-old smoker for decades.
“The whole point of Calumet Fisheries is the experience,” manager Javier Magallanes told Geoffrey Baer in Touring Chicago’s Lakefront. “We like to explain to customers…what the process is, so that way they’re part of the experience, as well. They don’t just eat the smoked stuff. They actually see how it’s done.”
Calumet Fisheries has survived major changes to the fishing industry, the shuttering of former nearby steel mills, and a fire that closed its doors in 2023. Photographer Jack X. Li went behind the scenes to capture some of the magic.
The restaurant brines their fish overnight.
The pepper and garlic salmon at Calumet Fisheries has a “taste that will keep you coming back,” the restaurant says on its website.
The fish spend hours in the smokehouse, carefully tended by the workers.
Heads and collars are on the menu, too.
There’s no seating inside Calumet Fisheries, so all orders are made to go. And for the customers who want to stick around when the sun is shining, there are a pair of picnic tables outside on the sidewalk just before the 95th Street Bridge.
