At Little Fish Brewing Company in Dayton, chef keeps ‘local food mentality’

Growing up, Morgan was very athletic. He played soccer, basketball and football and had an interest in becoming a sports writer. He ended up going to Baldwin Wallace University to play soccer, but broke his collarbone, dislocated his kneecap and tore his MCL all in his freshman year.

He transferred to Ohio University and worked as a short order cook at a diner. This wasn’t his first time working in the hospitality industry.

“My grandma had a catering business,” Morgan said. “Me, my older brother, dad, grandpa and whoever, were always helping her do these catering events.”

As his grandmother got older, Morgan and his brother took a more active role in the business — working events and following her direction.

“My grandmother and I always bonded in the kitchen,” Morgan said.

At Ohio University he studied restaurant, hotel and tourism. A love for travel helped point him in this direction. Morgan had already been to Europe twice with his dad, who is a high school German teacher.

“I got to try all these different foods and experience a different culture,” Morgan said. “Not many kids that I grew up with really had that experience coming from a very small town.”

During his senior year of college, Morgan worked at the Ohio University Inn & Conference Center as a line cook. At 22 years old, he was offered the position of sous chef.

“It made me grow up pretty fast,” Morgan said.

A farm-to-table concept

Morgan has always had an interest in the farm-to-table restaurant concept of sourcing ingredients from local farmers. From helping pick corn and beans and selling those products roadside as a kid to raising pigs and goats in 4-H, supporting local farmers was always at the forefront when he was growing up.

Little Fish had opened in Athens in 2015 and two years later, the owners worked with Becky Clark to add a farm-to-table restaurant to the brewery.

In 2019, Clark reached out to Morgan to join her team.

“That local food mentality has kind of always been with me and that’s what attracted me about Little Fish and what Becky was doing,” Morgan said.

From Athens to Dayton

He hadn’t worked at the brewery for very long when the coronavirus pandemic started. Morgan said everyone was laid off besides himself and the taproom manager.

“It was just me in the kitchen for I don’t know six months just rockin’ it out,” Morgan said. “That was also a really good time for me to be by myself and work on some of my knife skills and work on organization and things like that.”

At Little Fish, they were offering a weekly meal subscription, as well as beer to-go.

In 2022, the brewery opened the Dayton location in a former railroad warehouse at 116 Webster St.

About a year prior, Morgan moved to the area to find local farmers to team up with and research the Dayton restaurant scene. He recalled visiting a wide variety of restaurants in the region to figure out what Dayton was lacking. They wanted to be an addition to the restaurant scene instead of another competitor.

“In the beginning it was a little more Becky. She’s extremely creative and when I first started that was my weakest point, but as I’ve gone on, I’ve had to step up,” Morgan said.

Clark left as executive chef in 2023.

What to expect at Little Fish

The food menu and chef’s menu at Little Fish is based on what’s available from their local farmers. For example, Morgan works with his brother and sister-in-law who own MoSo Farm in Athens. They raise grass-fed beef and pastured pork. If they have a surplus of pork, he makes a dish to highlight it.

He said the menus change about every two months or so.

At the brewery, customers can order from the food menu or the chef’s menu. The food menu is more casual and features dishes that can be shared with a group. The chef’s menu features dinner entrees with suggested beer and wine pairings.

Morgan likes to have a variety of proteins offered, as well as a plant-based option.

“Right now we’re ending the summer crop season and moving into the fall harvest,” Morgan said.

Last week’s menu featured a Fried Green Tomato BLT featuring green tomatoes from Patchwork Gardens that they pickled and then fried. They used seeded sourdough from Good Hands Bread Co and topped it with garlic aioli, bacon, shredded lettuce and tomatoes. Morgan described it as the perfect end of summer sandwich.

During the fall, customers can expect a focus on comfort food like stews, soups, pasta and risotto. Last year, he did a butternut squash risotto with bacon, pomegranate seeds and molasses that was top with fried sage.

Another item he hopes to offer this fall is steak with mashed potatoes or fries.

“Sometimes it doesn’t have to be overly complicated,” Morgan said.

In the past, he’s offered a T-bone or ribeye steak served with charred onion, fries and steak sauce. He said it’s a simple dish, but it sells really well.

“I try to balance my menu between some things that I know are going to sell really well and then having a few fun, experimental dishes that allow myself and the chefs to express their creativity,” Morgan said.

The customers and local farmers make it worth wild

As the executive chef and general manager of the brewery, a typically shift for Morgan is “lending a hand wherever and making sure that everybody has the tools they need to have a successful shift.”

His favorite part about being a chef is getting to work with local farmers and seeing their reaction when their products are presented in a dish.

Morgan also loves interacting with his guests. He said working in the restaurant industry can be tough physically and mentally, but when someone compliments a dish they’ve served, all the stress, worry and pain goes away.

When Morgan isn’t at Little Fish, you can find him playing soccer in the local leagues or playing pickleball at J.F. Kennedy Park in Kettering. He also enjoys reading science fiction and post-apocalyptic novels or playing bar games like pool or billiards.

His favorite restaurants in the region include (in no particular older) Speakeasy Ramen in Springfield, Silver Slipper in Dayton, Fatback’s Barbecue in Dayton.

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Something he is excited about are the beer dinners they plan to continue to host every three to four months at the brewery. He said the specialty dinners gives him and his team the ability to be creative and showcase the different products Dayton has to offer.

Little Fish also has a monthly pizza night on the third Thursday of each month featuring its Detroit-style pizzas.

For more information, visit littlefishbrewing.com or the Dayton location’s Facebook (@littlefishdayton) or Instagram (@little_fish_dayton) pages.