Good food, fish, and family give this riverside restaurant a loyal following.
In Alaska, the ocean is an unforgiving place, especially when storms rage with winds clocking 100 miles per hour.
That did not deter Jonathan Smee, owner of Smee’s Alaskan Fish Bar in Downtown Reno, from moving to Alaska right out of college in 1976 and launching a successful fishing career.
By working at a local fisherman’s bar, Solly’s Office in Kodiak, 22-year-old Smee quickly learned who the best fishermen in the area were. Within 30 days, he became friends with the best highline fishermen and was headed to the Bering Sea on one of the finest boats in Alaska to fish for king crab. At a young age, Smee was asked to become the captain of a fishing boat.
“I probably wasn’t very qualified, but I jumped at the chance,” Smee says. “I was 24 years old and here I was, captain of a boat. It was little experience but a lot of confidence and ambition.”
From captain to cook
Smee worked his way up through the industry from captain to owning his own boat, remaining in Alaska for 40 years, until 1994, when he and his wife and three children moved to Reno to escape Alaska’s incessant ice, wind, and snow, which he says essentially kept them housebound.
When Smee retired in 2016 from commercial fishing, all he wanted was to open a little fish-and-chips restaurant. He could not find a suitable location from which to start his business, so he decided to launch Smee’s Alaskan Fish Bar from a food truck.
Smee bought a state-of-the-art, 35-foot trailer he found for sale in Florida and drove, by himself, three days there and three days back to his new home in Reno.
“The trailer was fun, but it was a lot of work. In retrospect it got us started,” Smee recalls.
In 2018, Smee snagged a commercial space formerly occupied by a sushi restaurant that had gone belly up. Over a period of eight months, the site was gutted and renovated from floor to ceiling, with all new refrigeration units, a more cohesive kitchen layout, and updated ductwork. Finally, his dream had come true: a 3,700-square-foot seafood restaurant in one of the most coveted locations along the Truckee River in Downtown Reno.
Smee’s Alaskan Fish Bar officially opened in May 2019 with fish and chips being its No. 1 seller. The tartar sauce is Smee’s own recipe. The Pacific cod is sustainably caught in Alaska by fishing boats he co-owns. (He still is a business partner in the commercial fishing enterprise, which sells seafood to Whole Foods Market, Costco, Raley’s, and businesses in many countries.)
“It’s all about fish, and it’s all about good food, good fish,” Smee says.
Fishing for quality
The quality of Smee’s fish is a direct result of the fishing methods his boats embrace and practice.
Unlike other fishing operations that use nets — which diminishes the quality of fish by bruising their skins — Smee’s Alaskan fishing operations are longliners. This means fish are caught one at a time, which allows the crew to release species that might be threatened or don’t fit their criteria. Once caught, the fish are processed and headed to the freezer within one hour.
This commitment to quality can be observed not just in his food, but in the management of the restaurant overall. Smee is at the restaurant seven days a week, working alongside 22 staffers, eight of whom are immediate family members, including daughter Ashley.
“We’re not out to be the best or No. 1,” Smee says. “We just want to be good at what we do. And we try hard every day.”
Ashley Johnson is a Lake Tahoe-based freelance writer focused on enjoying and dishing out the latest local on trends, tech, and wellness-focused businesses.
For details about Smee’s Alaskan Fish Bar or its Alaskan fishing operations, visit Smeesalaskanfishbar.com or call 775-622-8829.
