The popular seafood market in Lakeside has a new owner with culinary experience who was born and raised in New Buffalo. It reopens April 22.

Rachel Collins, the longtime owner of Flagship Specialty Foods and Fish Market in Lakeside, has been trying to retire and sell her business for a couple of years. A deal that looked promising fell apart late last year, and Rachel found herself back to square one.

A new potential buyer appeared in a stroke of luck. Collins had taken a pet to New Buffalo Animal Hospital, then-owned by The Sorenson family, and was telling the vet about Flagship. He had an idea: Talk to my sister.

His sister is Leslie Sorenson, who had recently returned to New Buffalo from Seattle, where she was a sous chef at an upscale retirement home.

Leslie toured Flagship the next day, and “I fell in love,” she says. She decided she wanted to buy the business.

“One thing I like most about the entire situation is the serendipity involved in how it all came about,” Rachel says. “The connection was of course, my dog Bella! And her very kind brother, a veterinarian who helped me care for her. It was a one-in-a-million chance that what he and I spoke about last November was the fact that I could change her food to help her as a senior dog by including more fish! To which I answered “well that’s easy since I make fish pet food at my shop. One thing led to another rather quickly and here we are today.”

Leslie asked Rachel to reopen Flagship for a month around the holidays so she could shadow Rachel and get a handle on how things operated.

“Leslie has some great experience in the culinary industry, including having graduated from cooking school many years ago.” Rachel says. “We got together early on and cooked dinner together at home, to create and perfect one of the holiday menu items to offer last December. I could immediately see she had the palate and the technique required to head that department.”

Leslie was sold. And now, as the ink dries on their deal, Flagship is set to reopen April 22. Rachel has agreed to stay on for a month to help out and answer questions. The market’s three longtime employees also are returning.

Leslie, who attended culinary school at Kendall in Chicago, says she’s not planning to change anything for a while until she gets her sea legs (couldn’t resist).

In addition to fresh fish and oysters, Flagship has a big selection of ready-to-eat grab-and-go items as fish and chips, chicken tender baskets, shrimp salad, quinoa bowls, crabcakes, baguettes, whitefish spread, clam and corn chowder, and more.

Once she settles in, Leslie says she’d like to expand the patio to add more seating, and perfect a recipe for gluten-free fried fish. She also hopes to nab a liquor license.

As for Rachel: “As we get closer to opening, it’s interesting to realize just how deeply Flagship had become my life’s work over the last decade. I can say with tremendous gratitude that this community has made it very special for me, in particular our regular customers. For that I will always be grateful.”

Flagship Specialty Foods & Fish Market, 14939 Red Arrow Highway, Lakeside, 269-231-5432. Open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 am – 5 pm and Sundays 10 am to 3 pm.