Little Fox is a medium sized place with brick walls, lower lights, wood decorations and music in the background where you are given 2 hours to complete your reservation.  This might be due to the increased popularity since the restaurant was listed in the The New York Times article on the Restaurants for 2021 to be excited about.  Lucky as they opened in Dec. 2019 just before the pandemic closed many places and they had to adapt business to new restrictions.  Now the kitchen is on one end of the room and plexiglas dividers are between each table even though the use a shared bench for one side’s seating.  Along the opposite wall are more small lightwood tables that also accommodate 2 people.  There is a full bar in the other room and tables are set with cloth napkins.  It is a small menu of mostly small plates that sound more interesting than they are.

 

While we made decisions about the meal we enjoyed a Negroni cocktail.

 

Crispy Artichokes are served with sauce au vert and are about 4 pieces to an order.   There  was quite a bit of lemon on each stalk and it took over.  In addition the sauce was way too strong to pair with the delicate taste of the artichokes.  They were not very crisp and would have been better if their delicate taste had not been dwarfed by the seasonings.

 

Delicata Squash was masarepa-battered delicata rings paired with lemon, provolone piccante and scallion and sauced with Hawthorne honey and aleppo pepper.  This was a very heavy coating on the thin rings of squash that were also heavily surrounded by cheese.  The sweet, sticky sauce was good and nice with the crispy coating but the squash essence was buried by it.

 

Short Ribs were thin-cut short ribs tossed with Calabrian chili and Italian fish sauce on top of grilled cabbage.  It was mildly spicy and really tasty.  The meat had excellent flavor and was fairly tender.  These were the best so far, really full of flavor.  The cabbage underneath was a weird touch but it was good as it soaked up a bunch of the sauce.

 

Little Neck Clams were in a broth of amontillado sherry, shallot, garlic and Tuscan olive oil alongside some grilled housemade bread.   The good sized bowl was filled with tasty little clams and a good broth.  The grilled bread was very nice with wonderful flavor of its own but also good for soaking up a bit of the tasty shallot/onion/garlic filled broth.

 

Herb Cavatelli was housemade mixed with fennel, roasted cauliflower and parmeasan, and topped with toasted breadcrumb and gremolata.  The pasta were thick and the cauliflower was a mix of white and purple varieties.  The pasta not cooked properly and there was not enough sauce on the dish.  This one was okay but on the dull side.

 

Half Chicken was prepped in an anchovy and rosemary marinade and served on braised escarole and castelvetrano olives then topped with spring onions.  The sauce on the dish tasted heavily of rosemary and was a bit salty.  The chicken was moist (white as well as dark) and nicely browned.  The fresh olives were a fun touch with the escarole.  If you like rosemary this was a good dish.