Half a block from Crystal Pier, Nico's Fish Market is a seafood market and restaurant at 745 Emerald St in the 92109. Owner Nico Gibbons is a lifelong San Diego native who caught the seafood bug as an eighteen-year-old busboy at El Pescador Fish Market in La Jolla, eventually rising to fishmonger before heading to UCLA for business and film school. After graduating, Gibbons moved to Mexico City to train under acclaimed seafood chef Federico Rigoletti at Contramar, then returned stateside to grade and deliver tuna wholesale at Hawaiian Fresh Seafood. He launched Nico's as a roving pop-up in May 2022, selling line-caught fish at breweries, restaurants, and farmers markets across San Diego for nearly two years before signing a lease on the former La Perla Cocina Mexicana space on Emerald Street. The brick-and-mortar location opened in November 2024 with 1,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining, a fresh fish case with cuts made to order, and a rotating menu built around whatever his crew of rod-and-reel fishermen haul in from local waters, Baja, and San Clemente aboard their boat FV Winnebago. Regulars praise the ahi tuna poke bowls, white fish ceviche, local catch burritos, freshly harvested oysters, and the house habanero-guava-carrot hot sauce. Seafood lovers who also want to browse retail cuts on the same block can compare notes with The Fishery, another Pacific Beach institution dedicated to sourcing traceable fish. The market carries a 4.9-star rating across more than 530 Google reviews, with guests routinely noting that Gibbons and his team will tell you exactly where each fillet was caught, who caught it, and how. Tripadvisor reviewers single out the Thai fish green curry as an addictive sleeper hit on the menu. Neighbors heading to dinner along Emerald Street often pair a stop here with a meal at Costa Brava, just steps away.