Los Gatos: After 45 years, Steamer’s restaurant prepares for the final dinners

For Los Gatos, it will be a Christmas Eve dinner like no other.

The Steamer’s Grillhouse, the town’s premier seafood destination and a downtown mainstay, will shut down their dining rooms after the final service on Tuesday, Dec. 24.

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“It’s bittersweet,” said co-owner and chef Mark Matulich, who has been juggling kitchen duties and farewells since the family posted a social media note the first week of December that saddened the community:

“After 45 incredible years, Steamer’s The Grillhouse will be closing its doors. This decision was not made lightly, and while it marks the end of an era, we want to take this moment to celebrate everything Steamer’s has meant to our family and to this wonderful community.”

Mark and siblings Paul and Linda Matulich opened the restaurant on Aug, 17, 1979, and Steamer’s has remained under that family’s ownership and direction since then. The restaurant moved to its current University Avenue location in 1999.

As longtime seafood experts, the Matulich family has steered the menu’s evolution over the years, supplementing the classic entrees of the Seafood Linguine with large wild blue prawns, Dungeness crab and housemade pasta, Steamed Clams and Atlantic Lobster (and always fresh fish) with dishes such as Asian BBQ Glazed Salmon and Roasted Mussels with a Thai Curry-Lime Butter.

But never count out the classics. “I put two kids through college on that linguine,” a chuckling Paul told the Mercury News on the occasion of the restaurant’s 40th anniversary.

On one of the final nights in business, hundreds of diners packed Steamer’s, and with reservations all taken and no room for walk-ins, customers waited patiently for a spot at the bar or at the counter overlooking the massive kitchen and pizza oven. (The family has decided to keep the bar open, with a limited food menu, through Dec. 29.)

“You can feel it — for these diners, it’s the last hurrah,” customer J.T. Manley said as he looked out over the bustling restaurant that’s been a go-to for anniversaries, business meetings, birthdays, graduations and other gatherings.

“The reason this has lasted is him,” he said, pointing to Mark, and extolling the family’s long hours and hard work over the decades. “This is an expression of your values.”

Nearby, Peter Gosling and Barbara Ross were celebrating their respective birthdays. “If I see a pork chop on the menu, I’m buying it,” said Gosling, who owned a restaurant in Rochester, New  York, years ago. That, and a good martini, he said. “I find a lot of restaurants can’t do both.” Steamer’s surpasses his high industry standards.

Besides thanking customers, the family gave a social media shout-out to their loyal employees, some of whom have been with Steamer’s for a very long time — 15 years, 27 years, 31 years. “We are asking the Los Gatos community to show our amazing team some extra love and appreciation.”

Those cooks, servers and bartenders could have found new jobs and bailed on the Matulich family before closing day, but didn’t. “They’ve been good to us,” an employee said. “We owe them.”

What does the future hold for this prime Old Town property?

“Somebody will move into this space,” Hanley said, “but it won’t be the same as Mark and his family.”

Details: 31 University Ave., Los Gatos; www.steamerslg.com