CALUMET HEIGHTS — One of the city’s most beloved seafood spots has been closed for showing signs of having more than just fish.
The Chicago Department of Public Health suspended the license for Calumet Fisheries Oct. 31 over “evidence of rodents (mice and rats),” a health department spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
Health inspectors were called to the fishery at 3259 E. 95th St. along the Calumet River early last month based on a complaint, according to public health records. It then failed a Nov. 6 follow-up inspection.
The fishery was given five days to get rid of the rodents — but when health inspectors returned, “they still had rodent activity,” the health spokesperson said.
Calumet Fisheries failed another follow-up inspection Monday and remains in “non-compliance with pest activity and multiple core violations,” the health department spokesperson said. The business cannot reopen until it requests and passes another inspection.
The health department also found a dozen minor facility issues.
Two handwritten signs on the eatery’s window read “closed due to remodeling.” The signs are posted next to one from the health department reading “license suspended.”
Calumet Fisheries owners did not respond to requests for comment, and the number for the business’s main line went to voicemail.
The Chicago staple — known for its wood-smoked fish — opened in 1948 near the 95th Street Bridge over the Calumet River and has long attracted celebrities and tourists to the far South Side.
Vice President Kamala Harris picked up 3 pounds of fish from Calumet Fisheries after speaking on bridge infrastructure in January. Late chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain featured Calumet Fisheries on a 2009 episode of “No Reservations.”
In 2010, Calumet Fisheries won an America’s Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation, long considered the gatekeepers of American culinary excellence.
City health records dating back to 2011 show Calumet Fisheries routinely passed its health inspections before failing one in 2019 and another in 2020.
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