Return of the Fish Man : Seafood: Rick Rittner's business is now confined to a 16-foot counter. Customers don't care. 'This is an institution,' says one.

By CAROL WATSON

Feb. 15, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Five years ago, the world was Rick Rittner’s oyster.

Celebrities lined up at his seafood market in Woodland Hills for fresh English plaice and Lake Superior whitefish. Hollywood writers featured him as the fishmonger in the television drama “Murder, She Wrote.” And, in many San Fernando Valley homes, his was a household name.

“It was like being a movie star in the community,” Rittner said. “Everyone knew Rick the Fish Man.”

But this fish star was forced to close his store three years ago and start over in Simi Valley after he fell prey to the excesses of the ‘80s, spending money on vacations while his business floundered in the recession.

Lately, though, word has started to spread: Rick the Fish Man is back.

His Valley-famous Seafood Emporium is now confined to a 16-foot glass counter in the back of a Ventura Boulevard butcher shop, just a few yards from the store where he once employed 35 clerks and waiters.

But customers don’t care.

Past the veal cutlets and chicken kebabs, beyond the diagrams of beef cuts and bottles of barbecue sauce, they can find Rittner offering the same live lobster, Cajun catfish and neighborly banter that have been reeling in fish aficionados for almost 20 years.

“This is an institution,” said Judy Fishman, 45, of Reseda, who rediscovered Rittner two weeks ago. “It’s just part of life for people in the Valley.”

Rittner, a 43-year-old in full-length apron and plastic gloves, started his career as a box boy at a Hughes Market when he was 18 years old. He later accepted an apprenticeship in the store’s fish department, quickly scaling the heights of management.

“I was at the top of the fish kingdom in markets,” he said. “It wasn’t enough for me.”

So he and a friend borrowed $10,000 and opened their first fish store in a defunct hamburger stand on Aug. 19, 1974. Over the next 10 years, Rittner angled for more and more, unveiling progressively larger stores along a two-block stretch of Ventura Boulevard.

By 1984, he had launched a fish market that also housed a 70-seat restaurant where one reviewer proclaimed that “the lobster was the best anywhere: sweet and cooked until tender but not chewy.”

Another advised: “Revive yourself after consummating a business deal, or a hard day of shopping, with a plate of oysters on the half shell or a bowl of steamed clams.”

It wasn’t long before Hollywood called up Rittner to provide stacks of bluefish and flounder for scenes in which Angela Lansbury’s character, Jessica Fletcher, shopped at Cabot Cove’s seaside market on “Murder, She Wrote.” Rittner even wormed his way into a recurring role as the merchant who sells fish to Jessica.

Meanwhile, his Seafood Emporium also netted celebrity clients, including pop star Janet Jackson, singer Andy Williams, baseball player Steve Garvey and actress Kim Basinger, who still sends her housekeeper to collect fresh fillets.

Flushed with such success, Rittner had a whale of a good time, building a back-yard pool and taking vacations to New York and Acapulco.

“I took advantage of the money I was earning and didn’t really nurture the business like I should,” he said. “Like everybody in the ‘80s, I was making money hand over fist. I let it go to my head.”

Problems came with the recession. Many people stopped eating out, and those who did dine out were less inclined to pay high prices for seafood, Rittner said. He delayed laying off employees, but finally decided to close the Valley store and restaurant in 1989.

About the same time, one of his customers purchased a grocery store in Simi Valley and offered Rittner a chance to run the fish, poultry and meat departments.

“It was like a miracle,” Rittner said. “Simi Valley was like a refuge. I was embarrassed to show my face here because every time I ran into someone, they’d say, ‘What happened?’ ”

Not that business was good in Simi Valley. About 1 1/2 years ago, the grocery store owner closed his business.

Rittner slipped quietly back into the Valley’s fish business. Many people are still discovering his return--announced by a plywood sign atop his baby-blue Mercedes.

“Rick’s back!” yelled one man as he burst into Anthony’s Old Fashioned Butcher Shop on a recent evening as the sun set and stomachs growled.

“Joe,” Rittner yelled as he rushed to the middle of the shop and pumped the man’s hand. “You haven’t changed.”

Indeed, Joe Galipo, 57, of Woodland Hills was still in the mood to buy the $27.50 lobster tails he got hooked on before Rittner left Los Angeles. “When I saw his sign up saying ‘Rick’s back,’ I thought, ‘I’ve got to check it out because I love his stuff,’ ” Galipo said.

Rittner attributes his following to the trust he has built up with his clients. They know, he said, that there will be nothing fishy about his fish.

Plus, customers said, he offers small-town services like peeling and deveining shrimp, provides impromptu cooking lessons and even makes occasional house calls.

“I have people come in and say they haven’t eaten a piece of fish since I left,” Rittner said.

Fish fan Judy Fishman told of her family’s response to the clam linguine that she made from her first seafood purchase since rediscovering Rittner.

“My husband couldn’t believe how much he ate,” she said with something approaching pride. “He ate 48 clams.”