Little Fish Comes Full Circle in Melrose Hill

For anyone who hasn’t had the fish sandwich, take us back to how Little Fish began.

Niki and I met in 2018 at Son of a Gun. He was a sous chef, I was a writer’s assistant but worked as a host on weekends. We started dating, and the pandemic happened a year later. I was still working, but Niki was out of work and restless. I suggested a popup at our house, as was the trend then.

Our former partner who is from the Midwest (and has since opened Penny in New York) liked the concept of Friday fish fries. We started there, and I got involved in the kitchen side of things.  My friend Lindsey Chan, who designed our Melrose Hill space, asked us to turn the Friday fry into a sandwich, and the rest is history.  We sold sandwiches from the house, which led to Smorgasburg, and then to dinner popups with full menus because we missed our restaurant days. Katy Nedwick joined our team running operations, and it started to feel like a real business. We did a residency at Checker Hall, and around then we were approached by our landlords at Melrose Hill.  

The Melrose project took longer than we anticipated, but in the meantime we got our Echo Park space, which provided a runway, unexpected accolades, and new connections. The road to Melrose was a journey well worth taking.

What’s different about the Melrose space?

This space feels full circle for us. It’s what we’d always dreamt of — cooking a full menu in the same space every day, surrounded by our favorite people.  We spent years cooking in other people’s spaces, to whom we are forever indebted. It’s a special and different experience to serve your food in your space, and we recognize how lucky we are to have gotten here.

What does the restaurant allow you to do that you couldn’t do before?

Everything is centered around what fish we can get, combined with our deep love of California. The food, wine, design materials, our service style — we work hard to center California products and inspiration, and this space lets us share that. 

But it’s tough. Fish is seasonal. It was raining the week we opened, so fish was limited because boats weren’t going out in the storm. 

The biggest level up in the new space is how we can interact with the product.  We have dry agers built into the walls, so we can store more fish and offer wider preparations.  We’ve developed amazing relationships with fishermen who basically call us in the middle of the night to tell us what they’ve caught. Previously, we’d have to say no or shuffle things around because we didn’t have space or didn’t want to sell crudo on paper plates. It’s incredibly exciting to be able to say yes now.

We can also avoid waste, literally and figuratively. We have a full menu with space to think bigger, which then helps us use every scrap. That flexibility also benefits Echo Park because we’re no longer limited to one space and menu.

How would you describe your and Niki’s education in fish over the years? 

A whirlwind. Niki worked at Son of a Gun and Shibumi, and learned how to process high volumes of fish with enormous care. Together we’ve learned about the lifecycle of fishing.  We’ve built relationships with vendors who’ve generously taught us about California fish. Their wealth of knowledge is so deep regarding locality, climate, and California species, and we love imparting that to diners.

Let’s get into the food.  What are some menu items that you’re excited about? 

Our food marries Niki’s technical skills with my personality as an emotional cook, so a lot of what we offer is a reflection of us as a couple, which I love. For dinner, the stuffed cabbage with abalone rice is something we created together. I’d describe it as classically seasoned Jewish stuffed cabbage with dill, black pepper, and lemon, and unclassically, abalone, resting in a tomato beurre blanc. It’s a great example of how our brains work together. 

Our cotechino is a sausage and lentil dish with the greatest sausage I’ve ever had, made by Niki. A classic cotechino uses pork, and we add scallop and shrimp — it’s incredible. It has warming spices and is served over lentils cooked in dashi and aromatics, topped with pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers that we made last summer. 

The star of the show is always the raw fish coming off the dry ager. The crudo changes regularly because Niki and our team are so expert at handling it.  You could eat it raw like an apple and it would be better than anything we could cook.  

For lunch, I’m very excited about the tuna melt.  Although I feel it sacrilegious to use white cheddar instead of orange, it’s chic and the best cheese for the sandwich, which is served on rye with peperoncini. 

We also love the Beach Sandwich. Being the emotional one, I recalled being a kid at the beach, eating potato chips in my sandwiches, always getting a little sand inside. The Beach Sandwich is that memory combined with incredible white soy cured mussels that Niki made. We serve little sandwich strips with mayo, peppers, the cured mussels, and Kettle potato chips, and encourage diners to press the sandwich to compact the chips. It’s very fun.

Let’s talk a bit about the wine program.

Kae Whalen is our Wine Director and General Manager. She and Niki have been friends for years. She’s brilliant and has unparalleled knowledge, cares deeply about process, and loves hospitality. 

We serve wine from everywhere, but primarily California, and we write our wines by the glass on the mirrors inside the dining room because they change often. Kae also created our “cellar pour.” She has an extensive wine cellar with bottles that we could never afford or don’t exist anymore.  Each night, she opens one bottle from her cellar and we sell five glasses.  We write it on the mirror, and tally glasses sold until we reach five.  We also have a beautiful non-alcoholic wine and beer from Homage Brewing.

How is it meaningful to be in this area of Melrose Hill that is exciting for restaurants right now?

[Laughs] Oh, The Quad? It’s full of the most supportive, positive people who I am genuinely always excited to recommend. It’s very sweet and feels fake, but it’s not fake at all. You feel the landlord’s effort in curating enthusiastic independent owner-operators who can work together and compliment each other.  Honestly, we’re just having so much fun.