For three decades, Óscar Fermín has served tourists and locals in his palapa located along the Malecón
Mazatlán, Sinaloa.- Talking about food in Mazatlán is talking about the flavors of the Sinaloa coast, where shrimp, octopus, fish, and shellfish in all their varieties are the protagonists of typical regional food.
Nothing compares to enjoying fresh seafood while listening to the waves of the sea or what better than watching a sunset while enjoying an aguachile, a ceviche, or a zarandeado fish.
His business has survived the crises and remodeling of the Malecón de Mazatlán.
Óscar Fermín, from El Pirata seafood, has been proud to have been serving tourists and locals for 30 years in one of the traditional Malecón palapas.
He arrived with his family to Mazatlán from Nayarit, when he was just 8 years old and without knowing much about seafood, two years later his parents started this business, which with the effort and dedication of all managed to consolidate it and turn it into one of the favorite restaurants of tourists and local.
“This is where I started and stayed, the whole family worked, we started four brothers and my father and mother, and one employee we had, then two, three and so now we are a large team.”
What diners look for the most are the oyster and the zarandeado fish, the latter is the specialty of the house since the recipe is a mixture of the Nayarit and Sinaloa style.
“Things turned out, with some loans we were able to buy this business. I knew very little about seafood, here we learned how to prepare zarandeado fish, in a mixture of flavors from two states.”
For Óscar, it has always been important to consume the supplies locally, from very early on he buys the oyster, in another place the fish, the shrimp from the changueras, and the vegetables the yard.
Although he has a very good cook, he says that he does everything, since there are times when he has had to go into the kitchen, but what he likes the most is the cold bar and preparing the zarandeado fish, he also waits and is an errand boy.
Throughout three decades it has had to live several economic and health crises, the most recent is the coronavirus, which led them to close their business for three months, but since the reopening on July 1, people began to arrive little to little and December is a good season.
“For three months, the sale has been very good, we have not stopped having people, tourists who come to Mazatlán always seek to be on the beach and eat fresh seafood.”
In addition, it has had several remodeling of the Malecón, the last one was in 2018, where they eliminated the parking lot of the central median, which has affected sales.
“We have had several renovations, they have done it several times, they take it away, put it in and now with the lack of parking it has hit us a lot, we have clients who come from abroad and say that one of the things they enjoyed the most was arriving at the beach and stop the car on the Malecón. It’s very pretty and all, but it does lack parking. “
Another recurring problem is the damage caused to the place by the tides, because every three or four years a strong surge arrives that causes the waves to hit the wall of the Malecón, which prevents them from working, but they are things of nature and not there. they can do nothing, just wait.
The restaurant entrepreneur began to help his parents when he was 10 years old, at 11 he was already starting coconuts, he has worked all his life and from there he has raised his family. He will stay here as long as he can.
The young man, who was about to graduate as a lawyer, believes that the success of the business is cleanliness, perseverance and good service, so that people leave happy.
People of all kinds come, friendly, demanding of more, but we try to make them leave happy.
Oscar Fermin
How to get there
Source: elsoldemazatlan.com.mx
