Four generations on, Billingsgate MKT serves fish at its restaurant and market in the Stadium Shopping Centre. Customers can eat fresh fish and chips as well as take home raw and frozen fish for later consumption. For instance, one might purchase a nice, thick halibut steak with a package of Billingsgate's own batter to enjoy sensational seafood at home. It’s just that kind of place.
Owner Bryan Fallwell, great grandson of founder Bert Malthouse, recounts that Billingsgate has seen a lot of changes since its 1907 inception. Originally, it was a horse-and-cart delivery operation that later grew to be the dominant seafood distributor to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels in Alberta. It moved to its third and current location in 2006 when Fallwell decided to get back to what he most loves about the business: selling and cooking fish.
“The first time I ever got to cook commercially, I was eight or nine years old, up in Edmonton at Klondike Days,” he recalls. It was one of his first big jobs working for the family business. When Billingsgate moved from its original Seventh Avenue Southwest location to the East Village in 1980, it closed the family restaurant, something Fallwell missed. “I always wanted to get back to having people come in, not just to buy fish, but to have fish and chips.”
Every day, from lunch through to dinner, Billingsgate makes classic seafood meals such as battered haddock, halibut, scallops, shrimp and oysters as well as king crab and lobster dinners and seafood chowders. There are also Cajun twists such as plates of blackened catfish and seafood po’ boys. Fallwell’s daughter Melanie, from the upcoming fifth Billingsgate generation along with brother Frank, brainstorm a weekly menu of specials that include a different mussel recipe and other seasonal fish prepared in distinctive ways.
Over a century serving seafood-loving Calgarians, Billingsgate in Stadium Shopping Centre has its fish and chips act down pat. Go with Great Grandpa Bertie’s Fish ’n’ Chips, featuring either halibut or haddock. Scallops, shrimp and oysters are also served battered with fries. Also on the menu is full oyster bar service and non-battered entrees. Pick up your own market-fresh fish for home cooking.