Remembering Robert Schuffler, Original Owner of Robert’s Fish Market


Last Thursday, Robert Schuffler, the original owner of Robert’s Fish Market, died at age 97—just 10 days shy of his 98th birthday. 

Schuffler was born in Russia on Sept. 13, 1917, and he was raised in Chicago, where he married, raised a family and worked.

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In 1966, he opened Robert’s Fish Market on Devon Avenue. Arturo Venegas, an immigrant from Mexico, began working at the shop in 1983, when he was just 13 years old.

Jay Shefsky visited the West Rogers Park Fish Market in 2011. Chicago Tonight revisits the story of an unusual friendship that led a Mexican immigrant to own the last kosher fish market in the Chicago area.


Schuffler talks about how he got started in the fish business, how the store keeps kosher and how he helped Venegas take over his shop in the web-exclusive video below.


Venegas talks about how he got started at the fish market and about his relationship with Schuffler in the video below.


To learn how to fillet a fish, watch Venegas teach Shefsky in the video below.

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