Santino’s Seafoods’ Alfred Mac Crescini – along with his wife Cherry May and sister Lou Angel – attempt to fish for a living during lockdown – and end up landing a loyal customer base.

Alfred Mac Crescini was running a moderately successful business – Santino’s (named after his only son), supplying premium seafood and meats to high-end restaurants. He still remembers his first official client – “Open Kitchen by 48 Concept, under Chef Miguel Pacheco,” he whips out instantly. Then the lockdowns happened. And with restaurants as well as the entire hospitality industry shutdown – Alfred found himself high and dry, profit-wise.

The First Bite

“We originally thought of starting an online (cooked) seafood business,” he says, “we’d take orders and deliver to houses…but it felt short-term.” Instead, he and his wife opted to focus on their best products. “We went for salmon and tuna sashimi – because those were our top sellers, and we knew how to handle them really really well.”

They planned on starting after the lockdowns, but fortunately, an order from their sibling upped their time table to April 30th. ”We didn’t want to start, because of the virus,” Alfred confesses, “but our savings were evaporating, stocks as well, so we left our kids with our parents and with my wife and my sister who handles everything online – we prepared our first order. It would be salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, a mixed tuna and salmon sashimi platter, with Kilawin (tuna ceviche). This would also be the first photos for their social media pages.

Alfred took this as a blessed first sale, a “Bueno Mano” – as they say in Tagalog.  “The very next day, we had another order!” He says, “then…nothing.”

The profit drought would last for five days. Alfred and his wife would be up til 4:30am waiting for orders, sleep, then wake at 6am to prep stocks. “My wife and sister were in tears!” He recalls, “We called ourselves ‘legends’ for getting just two hours of sleep but honestly we were so exhausted.”

Then suddenly, it rained.

On the sixth day, order poured in from morning til afternoon. “It just went on and on,” Alfred recalls, “word got around and people just kept ordering.”

To cope, Alfred hired more slicers for the fish, as well as eight motorcycle couriers. “Our riders are well-trained, honest, safe, and fast,” boasts Alfred, “they know how to make sure the platters arrive in exactly the way we prepared them (in iced boxes for quality.” Alfred shares that deliveries sometimes reach as far as Laguna, Bicol and Tuguegarao.  “They don’t arrive as fast, but they do get there fresh!”

Currently, Santino’s Seafoods’ most popular product is their salmon sashimi tray, though Uni platters are catching up. “My personal favorite to prepare though, is our Trio Platter (salmon, tuna, uni). The arrangement looks nice on a (table) spread.” To date, their biggest order is from a lady who had food worth 51,000 sent to relatives. “And Father’s Day was our strongest day yet,” says Alfred.

When asked what values does he abide by for Santino’s he quips “We value…people!”

A Captain is only as Good as His Crew

Alfred believes in “no labels, no name, no position.” And despite his amazing wife and social-media savvy sister being his only blood relatives – everyone in Santino’s is family. “And when it comes to employees, we hire not for experience but for demeanor.” For Alfred, someone with a good head, who’s keen to learn and eager to work will be “sharper than any knife we have.”

For Alfred, their slicers, riders, and helpers are what make Santino’s products special. “We can’t live without them,” Alfred says, a touch of emotional, “they’re the reason we keep going, to keep growing. You can even see the joy in their eyes when we have high sales.”

And in part, those sales are credited to the other special people in Santino’s lives – their customers. “If we make (customers) happy that the sashimi is fresh – they tag us and help promote! FB is a boon to the business!” Alfred says.

Still, not all is perfect, and Alfred is grateful when customers sometimes give feedback, which they can act to improve on. “This is important. We aim to always do better. We want to keep their trust in us high.”

Looking to the future, Alfred ponders on moving to a larger space, and hiring more workers. “We’re also adding two new new products, including the ‘quad mixed!’” Alfred excitedly says, “But it’s a surprise. People will have to wait.”

And for now, while the world waits for the tide to turn on the Covid calamity, connoisseurs of great seafood will indeed continue to wait safe at home, for Santino’s tuna, salmon, and uni platters.

For more information, visit Santino’s Seafoods on Facebook and Instagram.
You can also reach Alfred at santinosseafoods@gmail.com or 09178778860.