Completed by Paul Basile of local firm Basile Studio, the Ironside Fish & Oyster introduces a quirky maritime aesthetic to San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Stacked behind brass ship railings, antique luggage, old trunks, and model ships in glass bottles fashion the feel of an old boat. 

A white, black, and red-letter marquee by the front bar offers a daily oyster pun, such as “The world is your oyster; it’s up to you to find the pearls.”

Vintage boardwalk-inspired seafoam green benches span the dining space and pair with copper riveted tables with cast iron bases.

The octopus reappears in a porthole window near the restrooms.

In one of the space’s more memorable elements, roughly 2,000 faux piranha skeleton heads made from plaster line the south wall of the main dining space.

“We were going to create a museum of oddities with the most obscure fish and only display their skulls,” says Basile. “We ended up seeing the piranha skulls and thought we would recreate the skull wall from Noble Experiment [another Basile-designed restaurant featuring a wall of faux human skulls].”