Nicholas Gillespie
Dune Brothers Seafood | Providence, RI
SEPTEMBER 2023
Cooking seafood runs in Nicholas Gillespie’s blood—his father was the chef for a marine biology lab in Woods Hole on Cape Cod. He spent his youth cooking with his father, and when Gillespie told his dad that he wanted to cook professionally, his father said, “absolutely not, but you can start in the dish pit.” In high school, Gillespie hopped around several spots on the Cape, prepping and working the line. He attended the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont and completed his externships on Nantucket working at Languedoc and at Rising Star alum Gabriel Frasca’s Straight Wharf—his first real deep dive into seafood. After graduating culinary school, Gillespie relocated to Boston, where he worked the line at Rising Star alum Tony Susi’s Sage. He then moved on to Rising Star alum Gabriel Bremer’s Salts, this time working on the pastry side.
In 2010, Gillespie moved to his wife’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, and while helping some friends manage Pollo Norte, started doing fish and chips pop-ups under the name Dune Brothers Seafood. Looking to return to the East Coast, but not to one of the bigger cities, Gillespie and his wife Monica settled on a plot of land on the riverfront in downtown Providence and built out their characteristic red shack and lawn. Now in its sixth season, Dune Brothers serves as a bastion for local seafood and sustainability, and has a second location set to open on Cape Cod in late 2023. And while his beef tallow-fried butterfish and chips served with peri-peri mayo are indulgent and classic, it’s dishes like his pickled beet salad with cucumber, sour cream, and horseradish that complete the experience at Dune Brothers.
2023 StarChefs Coastal New England Rising Stars Award Winner
