Most diners never think about how the fish on their plate got there. For a NYC restaurant kitchen, that journey typically runs on a tight, well-worn 24-hour cycle.
Midnight to 4 AM: landing and receiving
Day boats land their catch at regional ports throughout the evening and overnight; trucks carrying whole fish, live shellfish and crab arrive at Hunts Point distributors in the early morning hours, where receiving staff check temperature and quality against purchase orders.
4 AM to 7 AM: grading and staging
Product is graded — lobster and crab sorted by weight class, fish broken down to order specs, shellfish checked for live count — and staged by delivery route in refrigerated holding areas while overnight orders are finalized.
5 AM to 10 AM: delivery routes run
Trucks depart on scheduled routes, often starting with Manhattan restaurants that open early for breakfast or lunch prep, working outward toward outer-borough and suburban stops through the late morning.
Late morning to evening: kitchen prep and service
Once product reaches a restaurant, it typically moves straight into that day's prep — portioned, cooked or held for evening service, often the same day it left the water or, for shellfish, within a day or two of harvest.
Why the timeline matters to buyers
Understanding this cycle explains why order cutoffs exist and why last-minute changes are hard to accommodate — every step, from boat to your walk-in, is scheduled tightly enough that a late order can mean missing the truck entirely.