Breakwater Seafood
Café offers waterfront dining, family recipes
Story by D.A. Shaw
At Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House in Aberdeen, the clam chowder is made fresh daily using Grandma Mable’s recipe.
That’s not just a marketing line. It’s the storyline in the history of Bridges’ family restaurants on the Twin Harbors. This story dates to the 1950s in Raymond when Mable Bridges was featuring her clam chowder at Bridges Inn, which was a downtown fixture for more than half
a century.
Family lore has it that Mable put her mischievous grandson to work at Bridges Inn when he was 12 because she wanted to keep an eye on him. From cleaning to cooking to management, he learned the business, including how to make his grandmother’s chowder.
The grandson, Lowell “Sonny” Bridges, brought the recipe with him to Aberdeen in the 1960s when, at age 20, he opened Bridges Café. The café was a hit, and soon he was able to hire some staff to help out. In short order, his café at First and G streets was expanded and renamed Bridges Restaurant.
By the 1980s, Sonny was ready to expand again in Aberdeen. In 1981, he opened Billy’s Bar & Grill at 322 E. Heron St., at the foot of the Chehalis River Bridge.
Then, in 1987, when Breakwater Seafoods came on the market, he and local businessmen Jack Thompson and John Mertz formed Sea Scape, Inc. and purchased Breakwater Seafoods on F Street with a vision to support revitalization of the historic waterfront. Breakwater’s history dates to the 1940s when local fishermen formed a cooperative so fishermen had an outlet to sell their local catches.
The Sea Scape partners “felt strongly that Aberdeen should continue to have a seafood market,” explained Roberta Timmons, one of today’s owners.
It wasn’t long before the original Seascape partners purchased the current location at the corner of F and Heron streets. The original site simply could not be modernized to code and was demolished. But also, if there was to be an F Street revival, the corner property was critical, John Mertz noted in a recent interview. It has proven to be a smart move. They hired Don Henry to manage it and he eventually became owner of the restaurant. When Henry wanted to retire, the Breakwater partnership that exists today of the Bridges family, Roberta Timmons and Gary Running was formed in 2012.
Breakwater Seafood and Chowder House features a dog-friendly, turn-of-the-century dock over the Wishkah River and offers the only waterfront dining on the Harbor. The concrete shell of a former office building, with its faded, boldly painted exterior advertising “Breakwater Seafoods” serves as a historic backdrop.
Breakwater Seafoods is unique in that it is both a seafood market and a casual restaurant. In addition to Grandma Mable’s chowder, there’s fresh fish and chips, sandwiches, salads and local ales.
Patrons find it easy to pop in and out thanks to its corner location, convenient street parking and easy access to Wishkah and Heron streets.
Starting a new chapter
Sonny Bridges died in February this year at age 81. There is enormous fondness on display when his partners and employees talk about him.
Cutting corners was anathema to Sonny, says partner Roberta Timmons. “Sonny always talked about that last 10 percent – doing what it takes to go from good to great,” she said.
“That was very important to him and is for all of us,” agreed Luke Bridges, a grandson who began working in one of the family restaurants at age 14. He now has his master’s degree in business and is involved in management.
“For example, butter bread from corner to corner so every last bite tastes just like the first,” Luke added. “He was adamant about that.”
“Hoo boy! He was big on that!” Roberta Timmons agreed, laughing. “If he was served in one of his restaurants, everyone who has worked in his restaurants will tell you that is the first thing he would check.’’
Buttering from corner to corner has become a Breakwater euphemism for cut no corners.
Partners with purpose
Roberta, a 1966 graduate of Aberdeen’s J.M. Weatherwax High School, started as a waitress at Bridges Restaurant in 1972. She left after 11 years to pursue a career in banking and returned in 2008, joining Sonny in the office where her background as a credit union manager made them a good team.
The third Breakwater partner is Gary Running. Gary’s family used to own the Wirta Hotel and Café – long gone now but still referred to with affection as “the old Wirta.” When the Wirta closed, Gary went to work at Bridges Restaurant and then moved over to Billy’s Bar & Grill, and it wasn’t long before he was one of Sonny’s managers and then a partner.
Today’s Breakwater partners are embodying Sonny’s approach going forward. “He kept his finger on the pulse,” Roberta said.
Over the years, Sonny opened more than 40 establishments, Luke Bridges said. He was game to give a good idea a go, but he also “knew when to close the door on things even when it was sad.”
Perhaps the saddest, Luke said, was closing Bridges Restaurant, his flagship, in 2012. The times, they changed.
At the time of his death, Sonny was still involved in seven ventures – Billy’s and Breakwater in Aberdeen, Mercado’s and Row in the Olympia area, Country Cousin at Chehalis, Ramblin’ Jack’s Rib Eye in Napavine, and I.Talia in Ridgefield.
Sonny’s business acumen and experience were put to good use as a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe where he served as chairman of the Cowlitz Tribal Gaming Authority in the days when the tribe was developing its enterprises. “He was very proud of that work,” Luke said.
Luke thinks his grandfather would be pleased that so many of the lessons he worked to impart have been taken to heart at Breakwater. “The next generation is taking over, and we will be here for quite a while,” he said.
For example, one of Roberta’s grandchildren is among the wait staff, and Breakwater’s current manager is partner Gary Running’s son Garth, a 2009 Aberdeen grad and yet another who came up through the ranks – coming on board in 2017 and appointed manager in 2021.
“We’ve all been around each other for decades,” Roberta laughs. Good food, hard work and camaraderie “makes this place shine.”
Back to the chowder
So, circling back to Grandma Mable’s chowder. … On a recent Saturday as the Breakwater crew was getting ready to open, Rachel Pearsall confirmed the clam chowder story. On the days she works, it’s her job to prepare the chowder. Gallons of it! She has been entrusted to precisely follow the recipe dictated by Sonny Bridges. A brief glimpse of this recipe revealed a document that was produced on a typewriter, the page yellow with age.
She chops the vegetables, measures the liquids, browns the bacon – and that’s about all she was willing to divulge.
“People ask me all the time for the recipe,” she said, smiling. “I just have to tell them I’m so sorry, but I can’t give that to you.”
D.A. Shaw is a former journalist on Grays Harbor whose beat for a number of years was the City of Aberdeen.
Casting about for fresh fish?
Grandma Mable’s clam chowder isn’t the only thing on the menu at Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House in Aberdeen.
Breakwater is a fresh fish market that offers sit-down dining, take-out meals and delivery via DoorDash. On any given day, you’ll see folks leaving after their meal carrying fresh seafood nestled in a bag of crushed ice.
“The fish is as fresh as it gets and breaded here, and we buy as local as we can,” Roberta Timmons, one of the owners, said. Without missing a beat, she ticked off razor clams from the Quinaults, crab from Pacific Seafoods and oysters from Lytle Seafoods and Ocean Beauty.
Company coming for the holidays? “We can barely keep up with the orders for lobster tails,” Roberta said. So, you heard the tuna are running? “Anything you want, we can get it fresh for you in a day or two,” she said.
On the dining side, Breakwater features the only waterfront dining in the area. Enjoy your chowder, fish and chips, grilled crab and cheese or seafood Louie inside or outside on the historic, dog-friendly deck over the Wishkah. (Leashes required, treats provided.)
The salads include the Sea Breeze Salad, which was a signature menu item at Bridges Restaurant for years.
While you’re dining and taking in the river scene, Google “Billy Gohl” and discover that you’re sitting just feet away from the headquarters of the old sailors’ union that was managed by the infamous serial killer. Legend has it that there was a trap door in that union hall and, after accepting their valuables for safekeeping, Billy would drop his victims into the waters of the Wishkah on the outgoing tide.
If murder is too macabre for mealtime, just put on your sepia lenses, sit back and take in the remnants of an Aberdeen waterfront that was once teeming with loggers and sailors and envision the banks of the Wishkah and Chehalis rivers lined with docks, ships and sawmills.
Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House
306 F St., Aberdeen (360) 532-5693
11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sunday - Thursday
11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Friday - Saturday
www.breakwaterseafood.com
At Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House in Aberdeen, the clam chowder is made fresh daily using Grandma Mable’s recipe.
That’s not just a marketing line. It’s the storyline in the history of Bridges’ family restaurants on the Twin Harbors. This story dates to the 1950s in Raymond when Mable Bridges was featuring her clam chowder at Bridges Inn, which was a downtown fixture for more than half
a century.
Family lore has it that Mable put her mischievous grandson to work at Bridges Inn when he was 12 because she wanted to keep an eye on him. From cleaning to cooking to management, he learned the business, including how to make his grandmother’s chowder.
The grandson, Lowell “Sonny” Bridges, brought the recipe with him to Aberdeen in the 1960s when, at age 20, he opened Bridges Café. The café was a hit, and soon he was able to hire some staff to help out. In short order, his café at First and G streets was expanded and renamed Bridges Restaurant.
By the 1980s, Sonny was ready to expand again in Aberdeen. In 1981, he opened Billy’s Bar & Grill at 322 E. Heron St., at the foot of the Chehalis River Bridge.
Then, in 1987, when Breakwater Seafoods came on the market, he and local businessmen Jack Thompson and John Mertz formed Sea Scape, Inc. and purchased Breakwater Seafoods on F Street with a vision to support revitalization of the historic waterfront. Breakwater’s history dates to the 1940s when local fishermen formed a cooperative so fishermen had an outlet to sell their local catches.
The Sea Scape partners “felt strongly that Aberdeen should continue to have a seafood market,” explained Roberta Timmons, one of today’s owners.
It wasn’t long before the original Seascape partners purchased the current location at the corner of F and Heron streets. The original site simply could not be modernized to code and was demolished. But also, if there was to be an F Street revival, the corner property was critical, John Mertz noted in a recent interview. It has proven to be a smart move. They hired Don Henry to manage it and he eventually became owner of the restaurant. When Henry wanted to retire, the Breakwater partnership that exists today of the Bridges family, Roberta Timmons and Gary Running was formed in 2012.
Breakwater Seafood and Chowder House features a dog-friendly, turn-of-the-century dock over the Wishkah River and offers the only waterfront dining on the Harbor. The concrete shell of a former office building, with its faded, boldly painted exterior advertising “Breakwater Seafoods” serves as a historic backdrop.
Breakwater Seafoods is unique in that it is both a seafood market and a casual restaurant. In addition to Grandma Mable’s chowder, there’s fresh fish and chips, sandwiches, salads and local ales.
Patrons find it easy to pop in and out thanks to its corner location, convenient street parking and easy access to Wishkah and Heron streets.
Starting a new chapter
Sonny Bridges died in February this year at age 81. There is enormous fondness on display when his partners and employees talk about him.
Cutting corners was anathema to Sonny, says partner Roberta Timmons. “Sonny always talked about that last 10 percent – doing what it takes to go from good to great,” she said.
“That was very important to him and is for all of us,” agreed Luke Bridges, a grandson who began working in one of the family restaurants at age 14. He now has his master’s degree in business and is involved in management.
“For example, butter bread from corner to corner so every last bite tastes just like the first,” Luke added. “He was adamant about that.”
“Hoo boy! He was big on that!” Roberta Timmons agreed, laughing. “If he was served in one of his restaurants, everyone who has worked in his restaurants will tell you that is the first thing he would check.’’
Buttering from corner to corner has become a Breakwater euphemism for cut no corners.
Partners with purpose
Roberta, a 1966 graduate of Aberdeen’s J.M. Weatherwax High School, started as a waitress at Bridges Restaurant in 1972. She left after 11 years to pursue a career in banking and returned in 2008, joining Sonny in the office where her background as a credit union manager made them a good team.
The third Breakwater partner is Gary Running. Gary’s family used to own the Wirta Hotel and Café – long gone now but still referred to with affection as “the old Wirta.” When the Wirta closed, Gary went to work at Bridges Restaurant and then moved over to Billy’s Bar & Grill, and it wasn’t long before he was one of Sonny’s managers and then a partner.
Today’s Breakwater partners are embodying Sonny’s approach going forward. “He kept his finger on the pulse,” Roberta said.
Over the years, Sonny opened more than 40 establishments, Luke Bridges said. He was game to give a good idea a go, but he also “knew when to close the door on things even when it was sad.”
Perhaps the saddest, Luke said, was closing Bridges Restaurant, his flagship, in 2012. The times, they changed.
At the time of his death, Sonny was still involved in seven ventures – Billy’s and Breakwater in Aberdeen, Mercado’s and Row in the Olympia area, Country Cousin at Chehalis, Ramblin’ Jack’s Rib Eye in Napavine, and I.Talia in Ridgefield.
Sonny’s business acumen and experience were put to good use as a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe where he served as chairman of the Cowlitz Tribal Gaming Authority in the days when the tribe was developing its enterprises. “He was very proud of that work,” Luke said.
Luke thinks his grandfather would be pleased that so many of the lessons he worked to impart have been taken to heart at Breakwater. “The next generation is taking over, and we will be here for quite a while,” he said.
For example, one of Roberta’s grandchildren is among the wait staff, and Breakwater’s current manager is partner Gary Running’s son Garth, a 2009 Aberdeen grad and yet another who came up through the ranks – coming on board in 2017 and appointed manager in 2021.
“We’ve all been around each other for decades,” Roberta laughs. Good food, hard work and camaraderie “makes this place shine.”
Back to the chowder
So, circling back to Grandma Mable’s chowder. … On a recent Saturday as the Breakwater crew was getting ready to open, Rachel Pearsall confirmed the clam chowder story. On the days she works, it’s her job to prepare the chowder. Gallons of it! She has been entrusted to precisely follow the recipe dictated by Sonny Bridges. A brief glimpse of this recipe revealed a document that was produced on a typewriter, the page yellow with age.
She chops the vegetables, measures the liquids, browns the bacon – and that’s about all she was willing to divulge.
“People ask me all the time for the recipe,” she said, smiling. “I just have to tell them I’m so sorry, but I can’t give that to you.”
D.A. Shaw is a former journalist on Grays Harbor whose beat for a number of years was the City of Aberdeen.
Casting about for fresh fish?
Grandma Mable’s clam chowder isn’t the only thing on the menu at Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House in Aberdeen.
Breakwater is a fresh fish market that offers sit-down dining, take-out meals and delivery via DoorDash. On any given day, you’ll see folks leaving after their meal carrying fresh seafood nestled in a bag of crushed ice.
“The fish is as fresh as it gets and breaded here, and we buy as local as we can,” Roberta Timmons, one of the owners, said. Without missing a beat, she ticked off razor clams from the Quinaults, crab from Pacific Seafoods and oysters from Lytle Seafoods and Ocean Beauty.
Company coming for the holidays? “We can barely keep up with the orders for lobster tails,” Roberta said. So, you heard the tuna are running? “Anything you want, we can get it fresh for you in a day or two,” she said.
On the dining side, Breakwater features the only waterfront dining in the area. Enjoy your chowder, fish and chips, grilled crab and cheese or seafood Louie inside or outside on the historic, dog-friendly deck over the Wishkah. (Leashes required, treats provided.)
The salads include the Sea Breeze Salad, which was a signature menu item at Bridges Restaurant for years.
While you’re dining and taking in the river scene, Google “Billy Gohl” and discover that you’re sitting just feet away from the headquarters of the old sailors’ union that was managed by the infamous serial killer. Legend has it that there was a trap door in that union hall and, after accepting their valuables for safekeeping, Billy would drop his victims into the waters of the Wishkah on the outgoing tide.
If murder is too macabre for mealtime, just put on your sepia lenses, sit back and take in the remnants of an Aberdeen waterfront that was once teeming with loggers and sailors and envision the banks of the Wishkah and Chehalis rivers lined with docks, ships and sawmills.
Breakwater Seafood & Chowder House
306 F St., Aberdeen (360) 532-5693
11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sunday - Thursday
11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Friday - Saturday
www.breakwaterseafood.com
