TOPANGA : Despite Fire, Proprietor Has Fun With Puns

“Shrimply Marvelous,” “As the World Tunas,” and “Twist and Trout”--daubed on a roadside blackboard--are just some of the seafood sayings that lured customers to the Topanga Fish Market before it was destroyed by arson in early March.

And according to Lance Roberts, the restaurant’s owner, similar signs will be seen again just minutes away from the old site when he opens a larger restaurant called Froggy’s in late September. He still plans to reopen the Topanga Fish Market, although he is uncertain how long the permit process will take.

Froggy’s will be located in the 68-year-old American Legion building on Topanga Canyon Boulevard about five miles from Pacific Coast Highway. It is not a replacement for the Fish Market, but will be open for business much sooner. The new site only requires remodeling. Small piles of rubble skirted by a metal fence are all that remain of the original restaurant.

After the fire, a sign outside the Fish Market read, “Blackened Fish Special,” on one side, and on the other, “Charred House”--a play on the rival Chart House restaurant.

“Losing your sense of humor doesn’t help,” said Roberts, who also is the Fish Market’s sign writer. “People expect it. What am I going to put on the sign? ‘Boo-hoo!’ ”

The Fish Market, which was one of only a handful of restaurants in the canyon community, was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters responded to the March 4 early morning blaze. Sheriff’s Detective William Soltis said the blaze was investigated as an arson committed to cover up a burglary, but was closed after no suspect was identified. A rear door had been forced open, and strewn amid the charred wreckage were cases of beer, wine bottles and fish that had been removed from their storage crates.

The fire caused more than $150,000 in damage and also jolted the relatively serene ambience of Topanga, where serious crime is an aberration. “We haven’t had a (suspicious) fire in Topanga in years,” Soltis said.

Roberts, who has operated the restaurant for 10 years and employs a staff of seven, has been besieged with sympathy calls from patrons and local residents.

“I was completely shocked,” said Jennifer Youngs, a local resident and sales assistant at the Topanga Homegrown store. “To break into a restaurant like that and set it on fire, that’s crazy, that’s out of control.”

Roberts said he considered opening a new restaurant before the Fish Market burned down. “The fire has given me new incentive,” he said.

The old restaurant will be rebuilt as soon as building permits are obtained.