Portage Park's Hagen's Fish Market Turns 80 as Great-Grandson Takes the Reins

The smell of maple syrup and brown sugar still drifts out of the smoker at Hagen's Fish Market on a Tuesday morning, the same way it has for eight decades. Employee Rob Partynski drizzles honey over rows of salmon inside the smokehouse, a routine that has outlasted three changes in ownership as Portage Park changed around it.

Hagen's is marking 80 years in business this summer. The anniversary comes as Eric Johnson, 27, the great-grandson of one of the market's founding Hagen brothers, takes over the shop. He took the reins at the start of this year from his parents, Julie and Scott Johnson, who had run it alongside his aunt, Tammy Jesse.

Johnson said the store has always felt less like a job and more like home. His grandparents and great-grandparents lived next to the shop, and he grew up across the street.

"It was the family complex," he said.

His path into the business started early. Johnson washed barrels and hung chubs in the smokehouse before he was old enough to legally work, then got his official Hagen's timecard at 13. He left Chicago for a few years to attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but came back and has worked at the shop full-time for about five years.

When he realized his parents were ready to step away, he spent that time learning every department of the business, from the smoker to the register.

"I didn't necessarily plan on taking over, but I could not stand the thought of Hagen's going to someone outside the family," Johnson said. "It was either step up to the plate, or let it all crumble."

The market's roots trace back to 1946, when the Hagen brothers and their wives moved to Chicago from Washington Island, Wisconsin. Their father, a commercial fisherman, mortgaged the family home so his sons could open their own store. The only land they could afford at the time sat on the outskirts of the city, in an area that was still mostly farmland. The brothers built a smokehouse and a small storefront there and started selling fish.

That smokehouse is still running today, and it's one of the last natural hardwood smokehouses left in Chicago. The only other one still operating in the city is at Calumet Fisheries in South Chicago.

Local fishermen still bring their own catch to Hagen's for smoking, though Johnson said less of the shop's wholesale fish now comes from the Great Lakes. Invasive zebra and quagga mussels have cut into food supplies for native fish, and their numbers have dropped over the years as a result. Hagen's now brings in fresh fish shipments from around the world every week to keep up with demand.

Johnson said he wants to build on what his family started rather than just maintain it. He's considering a shipping operation that would send Hagen's smoked fish across the country, possibly through some kind of subscription box. He's also looking to partner with other local businesses and host more events at the shop, including pop-ups in the parking lot.

The market will hold its 80th anniversary celebration from noon to 9 p.m. on Aug. 29 in the parking lot, with live music and food. Johnson is treating the event as something of a test run, with hopes of turning it into a regular summer gathering starting next year.

"My list of things I want to do doesn't get shorter no matter what I cross off," he said, laughing.

For now, Johnson said his focus is on keeping the shop rooted in what made it last this long while pushing it toward something bigger.

"What we have here is unique, it's super magical and I want to take it to its peak," he said.

The anniversary party on Aug. 29 will be the next chance for longtime customers, some of whom watched Johnson grow up behind the counter, to see where he plans to take the shop next.