We’ve Got Crab Legs! Sea Galley!
I’m so excited about this, I might not be able to sleep tonight:
1980s Sea Galley television commercial
When I was a tyke growing up in Seattle, Sea Galley was the height of fine dining, as far as I was concerned. On our birthdays, my brother Bob & I got to choose any restaurant in the entire city for our special birthday dinner. The answer was always Sea Galley, much to my parents’ chagrin.
In my eight-year-old eyes, Sea Galley was fancy. It had enclosed booths, and nets, and nautical bric-a-brac everywhere. It was dark, and mysterious, and it felt like you were being led through a maze when you were led to your table. And there was a salad bar. It was the first place in town to have a salad bar (as far as I knew), and it felt extravagant. The salad bar had baby corn. Baby corn! We’d never seen baby corn before, it was so dainty and adult. And they let you have all the baby corn you wanted! It didn’t even count as part of your meal! What a magical place!
The kids’ menu was shaped like something — I don’t remember what exactly, probably a diver’s helmet — and it included a list of non-alcoholic tropical beverages with crusty, sea-dog sounding names. As far as I’m concerned, Sea Galley is at least 70% responsible for my love of tiki bars, even though it was nautical, and completely tikiless. Since my love of tiki bars is a fairly massive part of my life, I still have a lot of reverence for Sea Galley.
There are two places I’ve been in my adulthood that look a bit like Sea Galley, and they’re both in Los Angeles (it’s no coincidence that I adore L.A.): Bahooka in Rosemead, and the Warehouse in Marina del Rey. But I see them with adult eyes, and while I love them, the mystique is not quite there. There is only one restaurant that still gives me the same sense of childlike awe: the Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I’ve searched high & low to find my adult Sea Galley, and the Mai-Kai is it, no doubt.
Right about when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, Sea Galley started a new advertising campaign, advertising their crab legs.
We’ve got crab legs!
Sea Galley!
We’ve got crab legs!
Sea Galley!
We’ve got snow-snow-snow,
king-king-king,
Dungeness, too!Get your crab legs!
Sea Galley!
Get your crab legs!
Sea Galley!
We’ve got crab legs!
So come get… your… crab leeeeeeeegs… TONIGHT!
This compelling bit of lyrical artistry was sung by a trio of half-chef, half-crustacean people, who literally had crab legs. And they danced. And they REALLY wanted you to eat their crab legs. I remember it being a pretty big deal — they did a whole series of commercials, and I remember all of us kids lining up Rockette-style in the schoolyard and singing “we’ve got crab legs!” complete with high kicks. I think there is an entire generation of Seattle children who cannot see crab legs without singing the song, at least under their breath. I know I can’t.
By the end of the ’80s, Red Lobster rolled into town, and ruined everything. By that time, I had finally moved on from Sea Galley, so I don’t know what kind of shape the restaurants were in towards the end. It’s probably best that I never saw what became of my beloved Sea Galley.
Hanford has heard all about the glories of Sea Galley, and has heard me sing “We’ve got crab legs!” enough times that he now sings it unprovoked himself. Can you imagine my joy at actually finding the commercial on YouTube today? Probably not. Unfortunately, the quality isn’t very good, but you can still sort of make out some of the nets & other nautical decor. Bebeya, thanks for making my day.
I can imagine a Sea Galley ad meeting, where after a few lame ad concepts are pitched, the president of Sea Galley exclaims: “Damn it, if there’s one thing I want communicated in our ads, it’s that Sea Galley’s got Crab Legs”.
And that’s why they say it 14 times in the commerical.
posted on April 13th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
ah..i remember those commercials, but i don’t recall if i ever went there. in fact until this post i think i may have had them confused with red lobster(shame, i know). for us as kids, the be-all-in-all of restaurants was farrell’s. part excitment, and part fear of being embarrassed to death. and of course when you lined up to leave you wandered through that aisle of tempting candy(and man, those jaw breakers lasted forever!). this all makes me wonder, whatever happened to pizza pipes? is it still there?
posted on April 14th, 2007 at 2:26 am
Pizza & Pipes is long gone, I’m afraid — I think the spot is now a Blockbuster Video? I just loved Pizza & Pipes. Every time we went, I asked the organist to play Clementine. I liked the song okay, but really it was just the only song I could think of. I loved those bubbles that went everywhere; I saw enough of the Lawrence Welk show to think that it was just a standard part of any musical performance, but I still thought they were neat.
A friend of mine who grew up in Phoenix told me about a pizza & pipes place there that’s still operating called Organ Stop — it sounds like it’s a lot more elaborate than the Pizza & Pipes in Seattle. I’ve heard there’s a pizza & pipes place here in the Bay Area, too, but I don’t know the particulars.
posted on April 14th, 2007 at 10:10 am
pizza and pipes is still there! it is on the corner of a strip mall in santa clara. it is at the intersection of lawrence expressway and homestead road. i grew up in that place, we went EVERY week. the one caveat, though, is that around the time “we built this city” by starship came out, they remodeled the place to have a race car theme. we started not going so much after that. however, the place still retains the same name, and im really curious to see what its like.
you guys should go check it out! it is in the same complex as contantino’s grocery store, and across from where bullwinkle’s used to be (now it is some lame dance club called avion or something).
posted on April 14th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I’ve got bad news about Pizza & Pipes on Homestead Road: it’s now Pizza Party. “Same people, same pizza, no pipes” their website proclaims — more as warning than advertisement, I’d think. The website does have an interesting page about Pizza & Pipes restaurants, though, and it turns out the Seattle restaurant was the same chain as the Santa Clara spot, and Santa Clara was the original location. Neat!
posted on April 15th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Where the frothy brine and octopedal minions of the oceans dark and murky depths meet white linens and wall mounted harpoons, that is where you’ll find Sea Galley… Or maybe it was just somewhere on north Aurora.
I was always very intrigued by the bar section off to the right as you entered the restaurant. I also remember it how you do, Michelle, like you were being led into a labyrinth. I think that was probably the greatest part of it. The subdued lighting and all the crap mounted on the walIs.
I remember I had sore legs once while we were eating and dad said “Thoses are just growing pains” The implication probably being that it was my birthday, and I was growing up, which of course can only lead to pain, withering and death. “But until then, kid, you’ve got tonight; and tonight, you’ve got CRAB LEGS!” F#*k YEAH!!!
posted on April 15th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I grew up going to Sea Galley in Anchorage, AK. It is still up and running today.
Loved the food and the comercials. There is actually a Sea Galley in Yakima, Wa. Haven’t
been there but just an FYI
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Thanks for the heads-up, Tamara! Do you know if the existing one in Anchorage is dark & nautical, with nets & pulleys & floats all over the place?
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I also remember Sea Galley, fondly, but remember with more reverence,
Skippers! You remember Skippers. All you can eat fish and shrimp at a
very reasonable price! Tasty too!
mickeba
posted on September 18th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Another one to recall was Ivar’s!
mickeba
posted on September 18th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I grew up in Seattle (born in 1970) and DEFINITELY remember this commercial. In fact, I had the privilege as a young child of actually KNOWING one of the crab legs guys (!!!!). I still do know him as a matter of fact. Just tonight I thought “if You Tube has the crab legs commercial on it, then You Tube is truly a monster phenomenon”. Well there it was. And then I found this post, and it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one who loved this ad.
posted on January 9th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Hey! I married snow crab. My friends that grew up in the Northwest had a good time mocking me for getting hitched to a crab legs guy. Pretty funny. Thanks for posting this, it gave us a good laugh. Cheers,
Mrs. Crablegs
posted on January 10th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Sea Galley had a great business, service and marketing model. Good food, great family environment and just plain enjoyable. Truly an all around treat. And, a good bargain. And, a fun place to go for everybody. Every lunch and dinner, every day the place was packed, even during Seattle’s slow economy.
Then . . . the management went crazy, or got greedy, or something and decided to go “yuppie” (an 80’s term) by totally changing their decor, making it more “elegant”; changing the menu to include haute cuisine and postage stamp portions; took away the salad bar; made it too stuffy to bring kids; hiked the prices way up.
The first time we went into one of the remodeled units (Totem Lake) was the last time we walked-in the door. Within weeks of making these changes you could go into a Sea Galley on a Friday evening and shoot a cannon through the place without hitting anyone.
To my experience, no one has come close to duplicating Sea Galley. Unfortunate indeed!
posted on January 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I watched a few minutes of “Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel and, upon hoisting up a trap filled to the brim with crab, the Captain said “We got crab legs! Sea Galley”. Milk came out my nose. Which was strange because I wasn’t drinking anything at the time. Hmm. Now I wondering if that really was milk.
posted on January 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Hello,
There is a SeaGalley in Yakima Wa. The only one left other than Anchorage. It is all original with the nets and booths.
It still has the salad bar and runs the Crab Legs commercial on the local radio and sometims of the T.V. If you are ever
in Eastern Washington its right off the freeway. They have the BEST appetizers especially the Cheese Sticks. The original
crab legs are sometimes worn to the Basketball games in Yakima to hand out coupons. Look up their webpage at seagally.com !!!!
posted on July 1st, 2008 at 9:36 pm