~ The Old Sachem ~ The origin of Legal Sea Foods

By Bill Stewart

In 1904 Harry Berkowitz opened Legal Cash Market as Inman Square Market in Cambridge. He produced legal cash stamps that customers received at Legal Cash Market, a grocery store in Inman Square. The store thrived for years, but organizations like Stop & Shop eventually dominated the area. The restaurant, Legal Sea Foods, was established by his son, George, in 1950.

George kept his father’s store name Legal and added Sea Foods. He kept the Legal and added, “If it isn’t fresh, it isn’t legal.” In 1950 you could get a Haddock dinner for 89 cents. An ad said, “The French Chef, A Japanese Council Officer, A Greek Engineer, An Israeli, and your next-door neighbor buy their fish at Legal Seafood.”

The next Legal Sea Foods restaurant opened in 1968 next door to the market. Harry’s grandson, Roger, opened the restaurant. He became president and chief executive officer for the company. The restaurant was very successful in Cambridge, but a fire in 1980 destroyed the restaurant. It was the same date that they opened another restaurant in the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. In 1982 the company had a dispute with the City of Cambridge and the neighbors for processing fish in Inman Square in a warehouse that was used for export to other stores. The city claimed that the fish store gave out a great stench in the neighborhood, and the store was shut down.

The restaurant system then expanded with the Park Plaza Hotel as the base and opened two additional restaurants in Cambridge: in Kendall Square and Harvard Square. Kendall Square had a seating capacity of 125 seats indoors and 75 seats in the outdoor facility. It had a two-tiered indoor lounge, an oyster bar, a takeout facility, a fish market and a function room. In 1989 a reviewer, Sandra DeJong, praised the fresh grilled swordfish for only $19.95: “succulent and smokey, this was about the best swordfish that I can remember. It was perfectly complemented by the baked potato and coleslaw to make a simple but deeply satisfying meal.”

By 2001 Legal Sea Foods owned and operated 25 restaurants along the eastern seaboard from northern Massachusetts to southern Florida, a catering division and a mail order division. In December 2020 Legal promoted its 40th year anniversary and served at special prices, such as its “Sunday extra special with its Sunday-only Scrod dinner value for $9.95.” It has been the clam chowder, a tremendous specialty, that has often been on the menu whenever U.S. Presidents were inaugurated.

The restaurant received many honors and awards over the years and was cited by Food & Wine magazine as Boston’s best Seafood Restaurant in 2001. The company has gone on to renovate the Ristorante Giannino restaurant in 2003 on the upper courtyard of the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square.

On February 20, 2022, George died and the restaurant system went on to serve the public as a quality institution. I have used the restaurant in the past, and I believe many of you readers also have been there and praised the foods they developed.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, who is better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column – sometimes about sports. He also opines on current or historical events or famous people.)