There’s over 100 species of seafood in local waters. And in Point Loma, there’s a waterfront shop with a parking spot reserved for local boats. Every morning, fishing crews pull up with the day’s catch. And every day, Gomes and his crew unload it into the display case at Tunaville Market & Grocery.
Distance from boat to throat? About 50 feet.
Owned by five local fishing families, Tunaville’s where top chefs and locals in the know come to get world-class seafood fresh as you can get it. Bluefin, wahoo, yellowtail, rockfish, lobster, uni, thresher shark, you name it. Try the addictively great jalapeño cheddar smoked fish dip—it’s like the pimento cheese of San Diego seafood.
This is SDM Guide to San Diego Food + Drink. Favorite dishes, drinks, places, things found across the city by food editor and longtime Food Network judge, Troy Johnson. From moms and pops to Michelin stars—the stories of the people who make the food + drink culture hum.
For Gomes, this is his life. A fifth-generation fisherman, his family came to Point Loma from Portugal in the 1890s. He lives up the hill in the family home with his dog, Butter. And a couple decades ago, he nearly lost it all.
“I was living under a rock in the jetty with a five-gallon bucket of vodka and a rubber hose up my shirt,” he says. “Local fisherman Dave Rudy gave me a second chance.”
Gomes sobered up, and became the face of local, sustainable seafood. He taught chefs how to cook it, advocated for the less-famous (but equally delicious) fish that hadn’t been overfished (his video of breaking down a giant Opah has millions of views). He’s got his own TV show on the Outdoor Network, The Fishmonger.
“You put lousy food in your body, you’re gonna get lousy results,” he says.
When he’s not filming on boats across the world, he’s here—dry-aging seafood, making pokes and tuna salad, and that naughty-good seafood dip. Gomes bought about 176,000 pounds of local seafood last year. Of that, only 57 pounds went to waste.
