wishing him the best

Terry and I were at Rocca’s Market the day after Thanksgiving getting our meat supply for the next week. The seafood selection was a bit light due to the holiday. I made an offhand comment to the effect of, “You mean Mike didn’t go up to the Wharf on Thanksgiving?” Jim, the new guy in the meat department, told us that our fish guy, Mike “Poppy” Castelan, was no longer there. He had taken a job as a salesman for a seafood wholesaler.

We loved his seafood shop when he was up in Morgan Hill and were sorry when he closed it. We were delighted when he joined Rocca’s in 2012. I’m sure that he was not making the kind of money he needed working at Rocca’s a few days a week. We will miss him, and we will miss the quality assurance that he brought to Rocca’s seafood counter. It remains to be seen what that will be like now that they’re simply buying from a supplier. But a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do, and we wish him the best.