A Roving Seafood Pop-Up Drops Anchor in Pacific Beach

A new restaurant and seafood market operated and stocked by local fishermen has docked just steps from the sand in Pacific Beach. Nico’s Fish Market is the permanent location of a roving outfit that’s been popping up around town since 2022, including regular weekend residencies at Oceanside’s South O Brewing and the Shanty in Cardiff.

The Emerald Street space is the fruition of a dream that founder Nico Gibbons has held since he was a teenager. At 18, the San Diego native started as a bus boy at El Pescador Fish Market, working at the 50-year-old La Jolla institution even while attending college at UCLA and eventually becoming a fishmonger. Through family connections, Gibbons spent several months living in Mexico City, training in the kitchen with chef Federico Rigoletti (Contramar) while spending nights cutting fish in the city’s main seafood market. After returning to San Diego, he learned the wholesale side of the business at Hawaiian Fresh Seafood, where he graded tuna for the poke experts.

Photos of the local fishermen who fuel the market and restaurant, including Gibbons himself, are displayed next to the retail seafood counter, where sashimi plates and containers of poke sit on ice next to filets of fresh fish, from bluefin tuna to local halibut and swordfish.

Gibbons, who lives in Pacific Beach, worked with the owner of a neighborhood taco shop he used to frequent to take over its lease with help from Dino De Salvio of Next Wave Commercial.

The menu includes poke bowls plus tacos, burritos, sandwiches, and plates featuring the day’s fresh catch always cut to order. Gibbons tells Eater that they’ll also be running specials featuring seasonal local seafood and are working to secure a beer and wine license.

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Candice Woo