Stumbling across something completely new and fresh in retail is pretty rare nowadays, but walking down Oxford Street in sunny Sydney we came across exactly that, arguably Australia’s first Fish Butchery.
Part fishmonger, part fish’n’chip shop, part cool room and part PR spectacle, the Fish Butchery is the brainchild of highly regarded chef Josh Niland, and it’s located just a couple of doors down from his 2-hatted seafood restaurant Saint Peter.
Unlike any fish shop you’ve ever been to, the Fish Butchery’s exotic seafood is laid out like articles in a museum exhibition, with no ice to be seen anywhere. It’s unabashedly expensive, and the extremely high quality of the seafood, kept at a strict 0.1°C, is obvious immediately.
Both Saint Peter and Fish Butchery operate on a sustainable ‘whole fish’ philosophy where wastage is minimised – oceanic offal is used extensively in Josh’s incredible dishes. Paying homage to this ‘whole fish’ philosophy, the Fish Butchery logo is arresting, bright, fun, cool and perfectly weird.
As far as the store design goes, it’s beautifully minimalist and somewhat reminiscent of a science-lab with only a very small amount of seafood on display at any given time so as not to overwhelm customers and to drive conversation with Josh’s eminently knowledgeable fish butchers.
Customers are also welcome to pick up a copy of Josh’s cookbook The Whole Fish to try their hand at making a splash with ingredients like trout blood, triggerfish eyeballs and even calamari semen.
