Chef Vollmer opens 18-seat Tampa restaurant Fisk, located next to Michelin starred-Ebbe

When diners walk through the heavy doors at 1202 N Franklin St., they now have a choice between two different concepts from the same Michelin-starred chef.

Sweden-born Ebbe Vollmer, who debuted his first Tampa concept Ebbe in 2023, quietly opened an 18-seat bistro right next door in December of last year.

“Fisk” in Swedish translates to “Fish” in English, and it’s on the forefront of Chef Vollmer’s menu, in addition to a few homestyle, Scandinavian classics that reflect the cuisine that he grew up with.

Fresh salmon, cod, red snapper, bluefin tuna and turbot are the stars of Fisk’s constantly-evolving menu, cooked using a variety of both homestyle and high end techniques. Just a few of its fish-oriented dishes include caviar with sourdough waffles, fish pie croquettes and a longtime family recipe of curried cod with pressed potato and cucumber.

“I couldn’t understand why a place like Tampa, that’s located right next to the sea, doesn’t really have any adventurous fish places. You can get fried fish pretty much anywhere, but we wanted to push the boat out a little bit when it comes to flavor and style,” Vollmer tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Fish is truly my passion, and these flavor profiles are ones that I’m very familiar with.”

Vollmer says that Fisk offers more “housewife cooking,” with refined, yet straightforward recipes, simpler plating and larger portions, while its one Michelin star counterpart is a contemporary, tasting menu with several small courses.

While Ebbe’s “prestige menu” runs for $295 per person, Fisk offers a la carte appetizers and entrees at a range of affordable price points—from its $8 smoked salmon eclair and $18 tuna tartare to its $32 red snapper accompanied by green salsa and horseradish. “One of the best parts about Fisk is that guests don’t have to spend two and a half hours to get full like at Ebbe,” he adds.

The Fisk menu is organized by tartares, appetizers, charcoal-cooked entrees, “Classics” and pastry and cheese.

There’s a New York strip if grilled fish isn’t your jam, or you could always opt for a classic Scandinavian dish like Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and cucumber or schnitzel with apple salad. Vollmer says that the classics portion of the Fisk menu will always stay the same, playfully describing them as “dishes that everyone has been asking me for.”

“It’s interesting that in America I feel that people are interested by my heritage. Those six dishes are very similar to the kind of food I cooked when I first started my career 30 years ago. It’s very flattering that the customers take an interest in Swedish food,” Vollmer says.

Another classic entree, Fisk’s fish soup with cream and lemon, is another best seller thus far, despite being a straightforward and approachable dish. But if folks are willing to lean into a higher price point, they can also indulge in caviar with sourdough waffles, a $95 turbot entree or a fancy slab of Vacherin Mont d’Or cheese with a sommelier-recommended bottle of wine.

The newly-opened Tampa restaurant also offers an $85 set menu that starts with a smoked salmon eclair and crab-grapefruit salad, continues with its best-selling fish soup, red snapper entree and finishes with baba au rhum, a syrup-soaked yeast cake with French origins.

While the teams behind Ebbe and Fisk share the spacious kitchen in downtown Tampa, Vollmer says it can be challenging to manage the flow of both an a la carte and tasting menu-style service.

When it comes to the further expansion of either of his restaurants, Chef Vollmer is in a comfortable position running both Ebbe and Fisk, and would rather host exclusive events and encourage his chefs to start their own locally-owned concepts instead of helming more himself.

“My grandfather always said that you can judge the success of a restaurant by how many customers you have on a Tuesday night. Until we’re booked out every single night, it doesn’t make sense to grow,” Vollmer explains. “I’d rather build a platform that is sustainable over time, for sure. At one point back in Sweden we ran six restaurants and had over 150 employees—that is not something I want to go back to.”

“I love cooking and that’s what I like to do,” Vollmer adds with a smirk.

Head to @fisk_tampa on Instagram or for updates on Chef Vollmer’s event lineup for the rest of the year, though the Michelin-starred chef admits that he’s “not great with PR stuff.”

In a few months, Vollmer plans to announce the 2025 rendition of his prized Chef’s Dinner event, where he flies up to a dozen renown chefs from around the world for an ultra-exclusive, ticketed meal in Tampa. Other slated events include pop-ups from Ebbe and Fisk chefs, and perhaps even a special breakfast service.

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This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2025.