[5] The Crab Cooker restaurant was founded at 28th Street and Marina when original owner Bob Roubian was offered the opportunity to take over a local fish market in August 1951.

[6] Roubian, a carpenter by trade, had helped remodel the market three years earlier and had an interest in fishing.

[7] In 2019, The Crab Cooker's original location in Newport Beach was demolished after construction of an adjacent condominium complex undermined the restaurant's foundations, causing major structural damage that resulted in the business's insurers declaring the building to be "unsalvageable."

Inside, the restaurant decoration is a pastiche of unique items including paintings by famous artists, theater chandeliers, pots and pans, a wrought-iron gate, nautical equipment and a giant shark.

[12][13] It is common to see patrons waiting in lines in the street;[5] these lines once elevated The Crab Cooker to national headlines when advance staff for President Richard Nixon asked Roubian to allow Nixon to be seated for dinner.