It’s an exciting time to visit San Diego, as this sun-kissed city—right next door to incredibly fertile Pacific waters—is about to get its very own open-air fish market! Watch out, Seattle…

Between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. on August 2, the Dockside Fish Market at the Downtown Waterfront will officially kick into gear on the Tuna Harbor Pier. It’s scheduled to convene at that spot every Saturday thereafter. Even more good news: As a guest at the Sofia Hotel, you’re a few minutes’ walk from all that great, wonderfully fresh seafood!

Northwest Inspiration

Organizers of the Dockside Fish Market, led by San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, took part of their inspiration from the Pike Place Market up in Seattle—that long-running tourist attraction perhaps best known for the hefty fish that seem to be constantly airborne. Given San Diego’s equally prime proximity to a productive ocean ecosystem, its vital fishing industry, and its topnotch climate—substantially warmer and sunnier than the Pacific Northwest, we might point out—an outdoor fish market seemed a natural for the city.

Visitors to San Diego’s new market will find the Tuna Harbor Pier transformed into a bustling canopy village featuring spectacular fish, rock crabs, urchins, and all sorts of other treasures, sold by the fishermen who just hauled them out of our front-door waters and docked directly at the pier. It’ll be a great way to support the local economy and get fantastically delicious—and fantastically affordable—seafood, fresh from the brine!

The site at the Tuna Harbor Pier, meanwhile, is close to several other notable attractions, including the excellent USS Midway Museum.

World-class Fish—a Hop, Skip, and a Jump Away

Comfortably set up in a beautiful room at the Sofia Hotel, one of San Diego’s historic institutions, you’ll be but a short and pleasant stroll from the newborn fish market. So come stay with us and celebrate the start of a new institution, one that honors both the vitality of our local waters and the hardworking folks who navigate them day in and day out.