Ted Peters was casting about for a new career after moving from Olean, NY, to St. Petersburg in 1945 with his mother and stepfather. Peters, a plumber by trade, found work at a fishermen’s co-op in Madeira Beach where members collectively marketed, sold, and distributed their catches.
One day, while driving along a local roadway, Peters spotted an abandoned wooden box. He scooped it up and salvaged it. The discarded device, designed to slowly cook fish over a wood-burning fire, helped launch Peters into the restaurant business and establish a Florida landmark. For nearly 80 years, Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish restaurant has been delighting generations of family members along with travelers from around the world.
At that time, smoked fish typically was the foodstuff of backyard barbecues or backwoods cookouts, but a rarity at restaurants. Peters put his smoker, and smoked fish, front and center at his first eatery, the Blue Anchor, a small seafood shack on St. Pete Beach’s Blind Pass Road that opened in 1945. Billowing smoke and the delectable aroma of seafood slowly curing proved to be irresistible to passing motorists.
“When he would hear a car coming, he would run out and open the smoker,” said Mike Lathrop, son of Elry Lathrop Jr., who was Peters’s stepbrother and business partner.
A lot near Boca Ciega Bay purchased in 1950 was backfilled, built up, and, with Elry Lathrop’s help, developed. The rustic original dining room still stands and has since been joined by additional storage buildings; the open-air dining area is now outfitted with motorized hurricane shutters. Otherwise, the namesake restaurant where a delicacy became Peters’s legacy remains as true to its roots today as it was decades ago.
Following in the footsteps of the founders, Mike Lathrop and Ted Cook—Peters’s grandson—literally kept the fish cooking, fires burning, and crowds coming. Great-grandson Ben Cook and Ted Cook’s son-in-law, Richard Carroll, currently oversee the family-owned and -operated restaurant.
The time-honored technique of cooking fish lightly seasoned with a salt mixture and brushed with a tomato-based sauce has endured, ensuring that the hundreds of pounds of fillets stacked and racked above smoldering flames for hours on any given day will be moist, characteristically smoky, and full of flavor.
Signature side dishes made from family recipes—like the warm German potato salad and smoked fish dip featuring finely ground, hand-mixed mahi and mullet—have remained staples but the marquee seafood selections—mullet and mackerel—now include salmon and mahi mahi. Burgers and grilled chicken are also part of the menu mix.
Occasionally outside investors have inquired about partnering or purchasing the business but overtures are always met with an emphatic “no.” From the start, Peters and Lathrop were committed to running the restaurant but equally adamant about not allowing the restaurant to run their lives. That meant alternating months when one would work while the other pursued leisure activities.
“They loved being able to work one month on and have one month off. They were free to travel or just enjoy the Florida lifestyle while out fishing or on a boat,” added Mike Lathrop. “Our family commitment continues, we have loyal employees, a good location, and a great product. We just want to keep it simple and enjoy life.”
http://www.tedpetersfish.com/index.htm
Know before you go:
Sales are cash only and separate checks are likewise off the menu. Open 11:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m. six days a week ;Tuesday is the designated day off.
Considering the restaurant’s proximity to the beachfront and the number of holidays celebrated over three-day weekends stretching from Saturday through Monday, the decision was made early on to keep smoking, and serving, on Mondays.
