Baked oysters topped with crabmeat. A forkful of crawfish étouffée. A steak-and-shrimp dinner that makes choosing between land and sea unnecessary. Pier 36 Seafood & Oyster Bar has plenty to tempt Richmond diners—and its next chapter comes with a setting as memorable as the meal.
The family-owned restaurant plans to relocate its Richmond operation into the former downtown fire station at 112 Jackson Street. The move will place a familiar local name inside Richmond Station, a riverside dining redevelopment with roots in the city’s past. Read the relocation report.
Pier 36 Brings Gulf Flavors to the Table
Start with something to share. The restaurant’s current menu offers baked oysters with Parmesan, crabmeat, and spinach, bringing a rich opening bite to the table. Shrimp empanadas take another route: flaky pastry filled with shrimp and vegetables, with cilantro cream sauce alongside.
Then there is seafood fondue, combining shrimp, crawfish, and mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce beneath Monterey Jack cheese. Garlic bread gives everyone a reason to reach back into the dish. It is an appetizer that invites a slower start to dinner.
These dishes offer a preview of the restaurant’s established cooking, rather than a confirmed menu for the future address. Explore the current seafood menu.
Save Room for the Main Event
For a heartier meal, Pier 36 highlights favorites such as whole fried catfish, seafood gumbo, and crawfish étouffée. Meanwhile, ceviche and grilled fish provide other ways to satisfy a seafood craving.
The restaurant also serves steaks, giving a mixed table of seafood fans and steak lovers room to find their own favorites. Your dinner can lean coastal, hearty, or somewhere comfortably in between.
That variety suits the kind of gathering where nobody orders the same thing. One person wants oysters to begin; another has already spotted the steak. Before long, the conversation turns to what everyone should try on the next visit.
A Family Kitchen Started the Pier 36 Story
Pier 36 traces its beginnings to Needville, where Jimmy Cantu’s mother and aunt ran a small restaurant. Jimmy grew up in that business and later studied at the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College.
He went on to open Pier 36 in Richmond and then Fulshear. The business remains family-owned and operated, with scratch-made seafood at the heart of its identity. Meet the family behind the restaurant.
That local background gives the relocation a personal thread. A family restaurant with Fort Bend roots will bring its next dining room to a building that already belongs to Richmond’s shared history.
A New Purpose for Richmond’s Old Fire Station
Built in 1964, the former fire station will house two restaurants as part of the Richmond Station project. Plans call for Pier 36 to occupy more than 3,800 square feet within the building.
The move involves its existing Richmond restaurant on East Highway 90 Alternate. The Fulshear location will continue serving its community. Published reports give conflicting opening timelines for the new Richmond address, so a firm opening date remains unconfirmed.
For now, the appeal is easy to picture: a downtown destination where an old civic building welcomes people back, this time for oysters, seafood dinners, and conversation around the table.