Shelter Island Pier eatery closed...

[Ray619]

Fathom Bistro, Bait and Tackle - the beloved waterfront beer bar and bait shop perched on San Diego’s Shelter Island Fishing Pier - has faced a wave of health department forced closures over the past month due to vermin issues.

The small but iconic venue, located on Shelter Island Drive in Point Loma, was most recently closed on July 21, 2025, following a failed re-inspection that once again identified a vermin violation. This followed similar forced closures on July 19, July 18, July 1, June 28, June 27, and June 25 - each one tied to evidence of vermin, along with other repeat issues.

I ate here a Few times...cool place but it's shutdown until further notice. Not sure what type of Vermin but the area around the rocks have a Rat problem
The bait and tackle shop is still open...

 

[Ken Jones]

I've eaten food from that place several times and it almost always seemed to get busy early evening with people having a brew or two. However, I also owned a restaurant and you have to maintain good standards of cleanliness, something it sounds they haven't done. Need to get their act together.

 

[TheFrood]

If the surrounding area is infested by rodents there's not much they can do about it... No matter how clean you try to keep the place
or how many traps you put out if there are swarms of rodents nearby they will migrate to the food...

 

[Ken Jones]

Perhaps, but that place has been there for years and stayed in business all those years so I assume they were passing inspections. Something changed.

 

[TheFrood]

Perhaps, but that place has been there for years and stayed in business all those years so I assume they were passing inspections. Something changed.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's the number of rats that changed, at least that's what the below
articles suggest...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...iding-california-almond-orchards/85658990007/
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/31/nx-s1-5279426/population-rats-climate-change-cities

This doesn't rule out a change in how the business has been taking care of things either, but the original post makes it seem like
this has been a recurring problem recently for the business.

 

[Ken Jones]

Hard to say the cause. There have always been rats on the various rocky shorelines that line the bay and on the various jetties both in the bay and in oceanfront areas.