Cambridge fish store was more than just a fish store

Damon Krukowski bids farewell to the Courthouse Fish Market in East Cambridge, which closed this month after more than 110 years in business, meaning the end of not just a place to get fresh fish but a part of the community:

At Courthouse, I learned a lot about fish from Eddy and Joe (and Al, the eldest brother who retired some years ago) but I also learned a lot about my larger community. Regular patrons included the older Portuguese residents of East Cambridge, whom Eddy and Joe spoke to in the language they’d learned from their parents. More recent Brazilian immigrants came, also speaking Portuguese of course; and so did the wider Caribbean community, with its mix of Creole, Spanish and English. On Saturdays there were groups of young men from Gulf states like Qatar and Emirates, temporary residents studying or working here and rooming together while they did. I met Moroccans, Indians, Japanese, pretty much everyone from anywhere near the sea who had come to Boston and was now looking to buy ingredients needed for their home cooking. I watched what they all bought, and I asked them all for recipes.