Seafood market sets grand opening date

A seafood market that’s been a couple years in the works on the city’s northwest side is about to open its doors.

Longtime food distributor and catering company owner Chris Perkins said his newest venture, Seafood Express, is set to have a grand opening that will extend for several days beginning Sept. 25 at 2805 W. Chestnut Expressway. The business, registered with the Missouri secretary of state’s office as Seafood Express I LLC, is the first brick-and-mortar retail shop from Perkins, who has operated Express Foods LLC for 20 years. His catering company shares the same name as the new seafood market.

“It’s very, very seafood and Cajun focused,” he said of the 1,800-square-foot shop that will sell live, fresh and frozen seafood, Cajun specialty meats such as andouille sausage, boudins and assorted seasonings and sauces. Specialty meats, including wagyu beef, Berkshire pork, bison, duck and quail, also will be among available products.

“There’s nobody really focusing on that aspect of proteins,” he said, noting he plans to open with a staff of seven.

Perkins said he first started renting the Chestnut Expressway space in 2022 with the initial thought of just using it as a processing location for his other businesses.

“I started moving in equipment and I said, ‘I'll do a retail shop.’ We were about three or four weeks out from opening, and we had a fire over there in the middle of the night,” he said, noting no one was present during the October 2022 blaze. “It did enough damage where we had to take out most all of the equipment, especially in the front, and put new floors down and repaint and all that.”

It took several months after the fire to work with his insurance company and the property owner before he was able to start remodeling work. Perkins said he is on a two-year lease with Wehr Properties for an undisclosed rate.

“I had to kind of start over in certain aspects, and that included the remodel. You have to start over with permits,” he said, adding startup costs were roughly $200,000. “Any time there’s fire, that means electrical, plumbing, all that stuff.”

Through Express Foods, Perkins sells product in a roughly 70-mile radius of the Queen City to restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks, caterers and private chefs, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Even with the shop’s planned opening this month, Perkins said he’ll maintain his other businesses, which include a food truck.

“This town needs it, and I’ve had that idea for a long time,” he said of the seafood market. “It’s just something I’ve been working on mentally and on paper for a while, and then just trying to put everything together. It takes time.”