Barlion’s Seafood & Poultry

ABOUT

Richard Barlion purchased Luken’s Poultry, Fish & Seafood from Mike Luken in 2023, and rebranded his business into Barlion’s Seafood & Poultry. Richard has decades of experience in the restaurant business. Most recently, he was Jean Robert’s right hand man. He had a hand in all of JR’s many hits–Pigall’s, The Table, French Crust–and sourced fish and seafood from Luken’s for all of them. At the same time Mike came around to selling his business, Richard was ready to step out of the back of house and into an ownership role.

Most of Barlion’s current team members have been there long before Richard bought the company. They’ve been diligently tending to customers for years, so they’re well-attuned to what’s selling and well and what isn’t. And Richard, being one of the newest members of the crew at Barlion’s, knows to value his employees’ opinions.

He encourages his staff to be curious and try new things. Some of them lean into making a new soup of the day, or coming up with a dish for a tasting event. Fueling their creativity keeps them inspired and keeps the product selection fresh. Investing time and energy into the staff improves conditions for everyone, even the guests.

There’s a strong stigma in the restaurant industry that chefs must be controlling and overbearing to be good at their jobs, but Richard has learned from experience that simply isn’t the case. “That used to be the reality of kitchens, but why would you want to work with someone like that?” Richard says. “I try to build a positive environment everywhere I go.”

Approaching their busiest holiday of the year, it’s imperative that the staff works like a well-oiled machine. Preparation for Thanksgiving began weeks ago at Luken’s with deep-cleaning and organizing to make room for 1800 turkeys that’ll move through their space in the next month. They do all this on top of taking care of their weekly grocery shoppers. They don’t shelve the rest of their business to focus solely on Thanksgiving. They do both, and they do it flawlessly. It’s the reason their regulars keep coming back week after week, year after year. Great product speaks for itself, but excellent, well-informed service is a notch above.