EST. 2015
SAN FRANCISCO

We’ve been providing seafood and specialty products to some of the best restaurants in San Francisco since 2015. We started our careers in the kitchen, as chefs. After traveling to coastal towns around the world, we became frustrated to return home to seafood that was less sweet and less pristine, despite our location right on the Pacific Coast. We wanted to do things a little differently and started Four Star Seafood.
In 2017 we expanded our Provisions line bringing in the kinds of ingredients we sought after as chefs. We curated a pantry of exceptional items from all over the world. We know what chefs want to cook with, and we know quality craftsmanship when we taste it.
In 2020 we began our online retail store and expanded even further. Encouraged by the relationships we formed with home chefs from Carmel, San Jose, Oakland, Napa, Marin to Cloverdale and everywhere in between, we widened our offerings, becoming a hub for local California food: produce from Bay Area farms, small batch specialty products, proteins from local ranchers and butchers, and much more.
We opened our retail shop Billingsgate in Noe Valley on 24th Street, a fish market and cafe, where we host events for the community centered around seafood.
Now in 2024 we are also in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, continuing to make connections with local fisherman, food producers, and restaurants along the way.
As you can see we are not your everyday fishmonger.

Adrian Hoffman & Ismael Macias
Chefs / Co-Founders



A big thanks to Tara Duggan at the San Francisco Chronicle for writing about our little seafood company!!
The chefs who quit their restaurant jobs to become fishmongers

and a sneak peak at our upcoming store/cafe for the public!
Billingsgate, a seafood market and oyster bar, to open in Noe Valley

A FRESH
PERSPECTIVE

The traditional seafood business model in the US has about 3 middlemen owning the fish after the fisherman sells it and before it is bought at the restaurant level. Each one of these has to operate on a first in, first out basis. It's quite difficult to buy a fish from a traditional purveyor that's been out of the water less than 5 days and quite often it's a week or more.

We decided to take a new approach and started by building direct relationships with the best fishermen up and down the California coast. We wouldn’t say we’re old fashioned, but we’ve found that having a direct connection to the person pulling product from the water is well worth the effort. It helps us ensure quality, speed up delivery times, and deliver value to our clients and their discerning guests. It’s not a new idea - to actually know the person you are buying from - but it’s one that has become more and more difficult as the industry has evolved.

WHOLESALE

IN 2017
WE EXPANDED

With Four Star Provisions, this same approach to relationship building makes it possible for us to offer our clients truly exceptional artisanal products.

Just as our relationships with our vendors allows us to bring the best to our clients, our relationships with our clients allows us to be their partner as well. We get to know what our clients need and how their menus work. When we see something interesting on a dock or from one of our partners, our clients know we’ll give them a call.

LET'S GET TOGETHER

MEET THE TEAM

Adrian Hoffman

Born and raised in Boston, Adrian started working in kitchens as a young teenager. After cooking his way through the Boston area, and a obtaining degree in Philosophy from Brandeis University, Adrian’s taste for adventure led him to cook in San Francisco, New York, London, Israel, France and Tokyo before he landed back in San Francisco as the chef at One Market Restaurant. In this role, he received top accolades from the San Francisco Chronicle before becoming the culinary director at Lark Creek Restaurant Group. While eating gorgeous seafood in Half Moon Bay with Ismael Macias, the two wondered why they weren’t getting such high quality seafood in San Francisco. And thus, Four Star was born. With close ties to chefs in San Francisco, Adrian and Ismael began buying fish at the pier and selling it to restaurants, quickly finding a loyal fan base with the help of their pristine, freshly caught sardines. They’ve since grown out of their space on Pier 45 and have expanded their offerings to include provisions. As Four Star continues to grow, Adrian revels in the challenges and fun of expanding the business.

Ismael Macias

As the middle son in a family with 9 brothers, Ismael grew up in the kitchen helping feed a full (and often rowdy!) dining room. His professional career started at One Market Restaurant. He started as a dishwasher, but quickly caught the eye of the kitchen team. He rose through the ranks and ultimately became Sous Chef at One Market, with Adrian Hoffman as Executive Chef. In 2011, he became Executive Chef at Lark Creek Steak. A passion for learning and a spirit of adventure sent him on a self-guided culinary education, staging in some of the world’s finest kitchens including Le Bernadin, Eleven Madison Park, Minibar, Noma and other restaurants throughout Europe. When he returned home to San Francisco, Ismael and Adrian set out to open a seafood restaurant together. As they learned more about the industry, they realized that the product they had been ordering as chefs wasn’t quite as fresh as they wanted it to be. They decided they could do things a little differently and embarked on another adventure – the opening of Four Star Seafood. As the business continues to expand, the unique perspective of a chef and a driving spirit of culinary adventure food remains at the heart of Four Star’s mission.

Cain Monti

Cain started fishing with his family at a young age while growing up in Mill Valley, CA. He fell in love with his days out on the ocean catching salmon and albacore, and decided to turn his passion into a living. After studying English & Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, he started a fishmonger business, Monti Seafoods, which he owned and operated as a sole proprietor for 12 years. Working out of a warehouse on Pier 45, Cain’s landlord informed him that a few guys were starting a seafood business and would be working out of the back of the same warehouse. Cain quickly realized that these other guys were serious and working hard. It didn’t take long for a partnership to form, perfectly merging Cain’s fishing expertise and his new partners kitchen backgrounds to strategically expand the Four Star business. When Cain isn’t at work, you can find him hunting, fishing, skiing, and spending time with his wife and two boys.

Ren Ostry

Ren is a fishmonger-entrepreneur with experience ranging from farmers-market-fish-slinging to fine-dining recipe development and seafood sourcing.

In 2017, she founded her first seafood business "Trashfish," specializing in undervalued and lesser-known local seafood species like whelks and anchovies. They rebranded to "Kitchen Catch" in 2019 and happily got acquired by Get Hooked Seafood in December 2020.

She was a two-time Forbes 30 Under 30 finalist and has been featured as a sustainable seafood expert in Vogue, Forbes, Eater, the Imperfect Food Podcast, and was a Food Inc. Emerging Voice in Food in 2018.

She is so excited to continue bringing trusted seafood to Los Angeles! Her passion lies in bringing a millennial mindset to one of the oldest industries of modern society. The industrial seafood complex needs a face lift, and she is here to help! She brings a food-justice approach to our work, valuing people above all else.

Drop us a line

Let us know what you're interested in and someone from our team will reach out shortly.