I Dream of Dungeness During the Holidays

It's Christmas, and in my parents’ tidy dining room in Burlingame, California, just south of San Francisco, a golden oldies vinyl spins on the record player, and the table is set with their wedding china, crystal candleholders, and the set of skinny silver seafood forks I gifted them years ago, paid for with money from my piggy bank. As we take our seats, eager to raise a toast and put the shiny seafood forks to work, my mom’s eyes widen with panic. In what feels like slow motion, she says: “Oh my god. I forgot the crab.” Somewhere in the middle of frantic errand-running, she’d lost sight of picking up crab at the grocery store. We all turn to the clock. It’s past 7 p.m., one hour after our local store closed for the holidays. Following a few moments of silent reflection on our situation, I start laughing. Then, we all burst into laughter.

Many years later, our first (and only) crabless Christmas has become a running joke in my family. It’s a marker of how central Dungeness crab is to our holiday traditions. For most, the crown of a holiday meal is the main course — that centerpiece of crisp-skinned turkey or tender prime rib. For my family, however, the most anticipated dish on the table isn’t the main course but the starter. Prized for its distinctly sweet flavor, Dungeness crab reigns supreme at my family’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, where our feasts commence with a lavish appetizer of steamed whole Dungeness crab served in a white porcelain bowl with fresh lemon wedges, followed by my dad’s winter salad studded with glistening crab meat.

Dungeness fever is not unique to my family. When it’s in season, for a few fleeting months starting in late November, a date with Dungeness crab is the hottest ticket in town. Although Dungeness crabs are found off the coasts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, the San Francisco Bay Area is a singular hotbed of Dungeness lovers. It should come as no surprise that the City by the Bay has a flourishing seafood industry, and Dungeness has a special place in the city’s heart. On Fisherman’s Wharf, the famous greeting sign — a ship wheel with a Dungeness crab in the middle of it — nods to the central role the crustacean played in the history of the city’s monumental fishing industry. While commercial crabbing in California has been around since the 1800s, it was transformed when the crab industry in San Francisco exploded in the 1940s, after fishermen transitioned from nets to crab traps.

One living testament to this rich history is Sabella & La Torre, a family-owned crab stand that became a full-service restaurant after World War II and whose apt motto is “If it swims, we have it.” It is one of the few original Wharf restaurants that’s still standing, and crowds of people continue to gather at the crab stand in front of the restaurant to savor heavenly sandwiches of fresh crabmeat nestled inside sourdough rolls. Fourth-generation owner Thomas La Torre sees the Dungeness demand every day. “We sell about 18,000 pounds of Dungeness crab a year. Dungeness crabs can be caught as far north as Alaska, but I find they are never quite as sweet as the local catch,” says La Torre. “Nothing compares to the excitement when the local season opens.”

The local season, however, has drastically changed over the past few years. Historically, Dungeness crab season in the Bay Area started at the beginning of November and lasted through June. Now, environmental stressors and the conservation policies to address them have led to a delayed start and early end to the season. In 2015–16, a toxic algal bloom delayed the Dungeness crab season for nearly four months, cutting the gross sales for fresh-off-the-boat crab by 44%. This year, after a late-season start in 2022, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife abruptly ended the commercial crabbing season just two weeks into April in an effort to better protect the burgeoning humpback whale population. But even as the industry evolves and shorter seasons become the new normal, the momentum and significance of Dungeness crab remains the same. For my family, it is a constant in a sea of change. No matter what the future might have in store for us, for now, we know that we can always sit down, eat crab, and relish every moment together. As long as someone remembers to buy it.