Fin Inn, Grafton, Illinois

A catfish glides along the side of its aquarium, peering at a nearby table where hungry customers are dining on its aquatic fellows.

For some customers, the tableside aquariums at The Fin Inn in Grafton, Ill., accent the atmosphere. But for others, the nearby creatures limit dining choices.

“They had turtle pie on the menu, and I’m like, ‘Hmm, eat turtle pie next to the turtle?’” Linda Laws said.

Laws and her friends ate next to a tableside aquarium containing a large blue-fin dolphin catfish.

“[My friend] literally was going to order catfish,” Laws said. “That catfish just kept, like, staring at her, and she thought, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t order catfish. He’s looking at me,’ so she ordered shrimp.”

The restaurant’s four 2,000-gallon wall aquariums, which are divided to separate their inhabitants, feature an array of fish, including tilapia, catfish, cod and suckerfish. The white-and-yellow speckled devil fish draws attention with a huge bubble-like bump on top of its head while carp with their ever-gaping jaws swim in another tank.

The late fisherman Jim Seib opened the restaurant May 8, 1981, with only eight tables. Beauton Seib, Jim Seib’s widow, said the restaurant originally was only one room seating 20. After multiple renovations, the restaurant now seats about 214 people.

“He had the name ‘The Fin Inn’ picked out even before he built the restaurant,” Beauton Seib said.

Twenty-five years later, both the name and the restaurant are a successful reality.

When children come to the restaurant, their eyes fill with excitement. They stare. They point. They scurry to all the different aquariums to see the fish, and they hardly seem to notice the wait until the food arrives. They barely can settle down to nibble at their dinner.

After a 20-minute wait standing in line on a wooden staircase, 8-year-old Erica Behl sat with her grandmother, Marsha Heckert, next to a long-nosed gar. The gar eyeballed Erica while she waited for her food to arrive.

“He’s staring at me!” she exclaimed with a wide smile.

As Heckert ate her tilapia dinner and Erica her cheeseburger, the gar snuck up to the glass of the aquarium. Throughout the meal, the gar dominated their conversation.

Most of the aquarium fish residing at The Fin Inn come from the Mississippi River or South American rivers. The St. Louis Zoo donated fish to the restaurant when it temporarily closed its aquatic house for remodeling.

Turtles, like the alligator snapping turtle from Louisiana, are always a favorite attraction. The loggerhead turtles weigh more than 100 pounds and are more than 100 years old. Each turtle requires its own tableside aquarium, accompanied only by small fish.

Catfish, which is the most popular dish, and buffalo fish are restaurant guests both in aquariums and on platters. However, waitress Kayla Churchman emphasized that the fish and turtles in the aquarium never make it to the grill.

Alaskan walleye, cod and tilapia are other menu options.

The restaurant also features four homemade soups and seven desserts, including blackberry cobbler and Kentucky Derby pie.

The eagles’ nest onion, one of the most sampled appetizers, is a large onion deep-fried to look like a nest and served with BBQ horseradish sauce or ranch dressing. The appetizer is a tribute to the area eagles, which draw customers to Grafton as well as The Fin Inn.

Customers often make their stops at The Fin Inn after a day of eagle watching. The winter eagle-watching season fills the restaurant’s tables just as quickly as they fill during the summer and fall.

“They’ll have a line on the steps when they open, and it has been out through the parking lot, waiting to get in at 11 [a.m.],” said Beauton Seib, who added that rising gas costs have decreased the line.

But the line bothered neither Erica nor her grandmother as they waited inside the restaurant. Erica’s fascination with their tableside gar made the wait seem to be only a drop in the aquarium.

Photos by Chris Waller