by: Anna Frost
Betsy Larsen makes her way through the stacks of fresh fluke on the long table, with the help of her cousin Scott Larsen. The pair systematically skin one side of the fish and then the other to make filets to sell that day. Each can skin about 4 fish in a minute, using a long boning knife with a patient, skilled hand. The room around them is custom made for their job. They wear rubber aprons and boots as they perform the tasks that have been ingrained in them since childhood. The steady process is periodically interrupted by fishermen popping in the back door with bins full of just-caught fish, which Betsy inspects with her knowing eye.
From the back room, the bustle of customers inside Larsen’s Fish Market can be heard and occasionally seen. The kitchen workers pass through carrying bins of lobsters to set aside for customer orders that evening. The market, located right on the docks of Menemsha, starts compiling orders for sunset lobster dinners before noon on most summer days. The website recommends calling ahead, and Betsy echoed that wish. The kitchen often gets so many orders in the evening, they like to be as prepared as possible.
Betsy knows the market backwards and forwards. Her parents started the market in 1969 when she was nine years old. Five years later, she began working at the market, along with her brothers and other family members. Another five years passed, and Betsy was running the market. Over the last 36 years, she has seen many changes in the fish business. When the market first opened, they carried fish caught by her father and his friends, who were also fishermen. Many fish taken for granted as staples now were rarities.
“People want more variety now. Back in the early days, we only ever carried salmon around the fourth of July because salmon used to run – not here, but wherever they ran – around the fourth of the July and the peas were ripe, so we had salmon and green peas, it was like a tradition. So we carried salmon only around the fourth of July, and no one ever asked for it,” Betsy said. “Now, if you didn’t have salmon it would be like someone not having hamburger in the grocery store.”
Larsen’s now carries a wide variety of fish. Betsy rattles off their stock that day from memory: “Farm salmon, yellowtail flounder, three different sizes of shrimp, sea scallops, vineyard sole, swordfish, tuna, wild salmon, halibut, cod fish, bluefish, striped bass, today I’ve got mako shark, and calamari.”
Though she has worked in every position in the market, Betsy said she loves the retail side of the business the most because she gets to interact with the customers one-on-one. It makes sense; her bright, open personality draws people in. Larsen’s Fish Market is truly a family – and one that customers are welcome to join.
“A lot of the customers are my friends. I’ve known them for a long time and now I’m waiting on their kids and some of their grandchildren,” she said.
There is no question that Betsy loves what she does. She keeps the market open from May to October and closes it in the off-season when business would be slower so she never has to offer sub-par fish to her customers.
“At the risk of sounding snobby, I only want to sell really good quality fish and these are very perishable items, so the faster you turn it over, the better it is for you and the consumer. And in the winter, I just don’t know if I can do that,” Betsy said.
