Little Octopus Swims Westward to a New Location in the Gulch

The excellent Little Octopus — the restaurant from the POP Nashville team of Sarah and Brad Gavigan, helmed by chef Daniel Herget — is moving from the POP space on Gallatin Avenue to a new home in the Gulch.

In her announcement today, Sarah Gavigan notes that Little Octopus has just wrapped up a year in the POP space, and she says it's time to try a new restaurant experiment in what is something of an eatery incubator.

For Little Octopus, the Gulch is "more central to its core customer base and near its sister restaurant Otaku Ramen," the announcement says.

Construction will begin in June on Little Octopus' new home; it's taking over the former location of Ru San's at 505 12th Ave. S. In the interim, Little Octopus will continue to operate in its POP spot at 614 Gallatin Ave. until July 31.

Little Octopus describes its concept as "fresh, clean, vibrant food with global flavors served in small plates," and that has proven to be a wonderfully accurate statement. I reviewed Little Octopus back in July, and I was mightily impressed by the concept, which the Gavigans and Herget launched after their success with Otaku Ramen.

Instead of drawing inspiration only from the rich broth of Japanese izakaya tradition, Little Octopus chef Daniel Herget (a Johnson and Wales grad who comes to Nashville from Miami) cleverly plucks perfect flavors from a range of cuisines — Asian, Latin and Mediterranean — while honoring the influence of classical French technique.

Little Octopus tied for

in the Writers' Choice section of Best of Nashville 2015. (The other winner was Fifty First Kitchen.)

Meanwhile, Gavigan expects a quick turnaround before opening a new concept in the POP space. She declined to give details; that restaurant is expected be announced in the next few weeks.