Little Fish

Meoooow!! Meoooow!!

"Hello there, Desire. What are you doing up so late, kitty cat?"

I had just arrived home from a work dinner, and what, I wondered, had roused my old New Orleans street cat from her usual slumber?

I'd been to Little Fish, that's what. And this BYOB in Bella Vista is so tiny, with 23 seats and an open kitchen, that I'd spent the evening just feet away from a stove full of seafood in flashing pans. No wonder my cat was circling me with hungry eyes like I was the CEO of Fancy Feast.

The sardine-can-close quarters, of course, are part of the charm that's made Little Fish one of the city's most enduring BYOs. And given the surprising ambition and freshness of the menu here, a changing array of dayboat-fresh seafood so concise it's scrawled nightly on a few bookmarks, the impressive run of recent accolades is no surprise.

Granted, expectations might be a tad jumbo-sized ever since this shrimp was tapped in December by Bon Appetit as the third-best "new style" seafood restaurant in the country. (What? No Le Bernardin or Michael Mina place on that list?) It's the kind of overstatement that explains why I loathe the false rankings of national mag "Best of" lists. And yet, set against the Philadelphia scene, where the demise of Striped Bass left a sudden dearth of restaurants focusing exclusively on seafood, Little Fish really does make a notable splash.

It isn't perfect by a long shot, and entree prices that bob in the high $20s are a bit steep given the bare-bones setting. But Little Fish has continued to be a worthy draw, and even stepped up its game a bit since Mike Stollenwerk bought it two years ago from chef-owner John Tiplitz, whose son, Ian Moroney, also made his name there before launching his own Pumpkin.

Stollenwerk, 32, an Ocean City, N.J., native who owned Cafe Loren in Avalon for five years before heading to Philly (Davio's, Latest Dish, Avenue B), builds his success on great ingredients. He even fetches much of the seafood himself on early-morning pilgrimages every Thursday to his favorite fishmonger in Manhattan. And there is a simplicity to the best dishes here, plus a knowing tweak or smart seasonal pairing, that allows this bounty to really shine.