So well that Joseph eventually left the deli and opened a Little Caesars, and a Tubby Subs franchise, and then in 2005, opened Scalawags Fish and Chips in Okemos. The next stop was the west side of Lansing, where, after selling the Okemos location, he opened another Scalawags about three and a half years later. He still owns the restaurant today.

But the pièce de résistance occurred only a short time ago, when Joseph learned that the lady who owned the Fish Market at the Lansing City Market’s old location wouldn’t be able to operate it when the market moved, due to the new requirements that vendors be open five days a week. As a resident of Sault Sainte Marie, she didn’t think she’d be up for the commute.

So it seemed only natural that Joseph, who had been purchasing the fish for his restaurant from her, should take the plunge by moving City Fish to the new market when it opened this past spring.

He calls it “a great opportunity for me,” and has greatly expanded City Fish’s offerings to include “a full line of fish,” the varieties of which we’ll get to in a minute. He’s spreading the news via word-of-mouth, referrals and local TV commercials. But for those who haven’t heard or seen the news, City Fish is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

As City Fish’s sole employee, how does he simultaneously run two businesses that require their owner to be on site? Joseph says that he spends his mornings at Scalawags cleaning fish and getting the restaurant ready to open (his ex-wife runs the restaurant and according to Joseph, does a “great job”).

Then, it’s over to City Fish during the hours listed above—and what then? Home to watch a little television, catch up on the news and go to bed? Oh no. It’s back to Scalawags in the evening until closing. Joseph gets up in the morning and does it all again.

Given his schedule, and what Joseph perceives as the need for so much personal attention, he says he can’t imagine how a person can run two or three restaurants, chain or otherwise. He believes that in order to run a successful restaurant, people want to see you. “You need to be there,” he says.

He uses the same suppliers for both the restaurant and at City Fish. He purchases the Great Lakes fish that he sells from a Native American tribe that he says does a great job providing a wide variety of wild-caught fish. Joseph says there is one caveat, however: “They don’t go out on windy days.”

However, the rest of the time, there is a supply of delicious whitefish, walleye, trout, lake perch and smelt. For ocean appetites, he sells ocean perch, giant shrimp, swordfish, tuna, salmon, mahi-mahi … getting hungry yet?

He orders his fish three times a week—Tuesday, Thursday and Friday—and thus far has done a good job of predicting the variety of quantity to meet his clients’ needs. In the event that he does find himself with fish about to expire, he says he’s talked to the owner of a nearby kitchen about making sure nothing goes to waste.

Joseph said a big trend in the past several years has been away from fried fish and toward grilled fish. The health benefits of fish in general are well documented and prepared on a backyard or kitchen grill (as more and more of his customers are choosing to do at home), a fish dinner easily fits into the “tastes great and is great for you” category. (Of course, for those unable or unwilling to grill at home, there’s always Scalawags.)

Joseph enjoys being at the new Lansing City Market. He says there’s “a great bunch of people down here,” adding that it’s very much a family atmosphere. Just as importantly, “Business is getting better all the time. I see it getting better every week.” He also says that the new market is getting rave reviews from shoppers old and new.

Touting the fact that 90 percent or more of his fish are wild-caught, Joseph says you don’t have to be a culinary expert to figure out the difference between his fish fare and the farm-raised variety. “The wild-caught fish tastes much better,” he says.

Author: Jack Schaberg.
Photography: Terri Shaver.