The restaurant first opened in 2020 as a pop up in a coffee shop on the Lower East Side,[2] and later, on MacDougal Street.

[4] The restaurant's operators, Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski, eventually signed a lease for a permanent location, next to the second pop up venue on MacDougal.

[7] Hannah Goldfield, in a positive review of the restaurant published by The New Yorker, praised the fish and chips as the best preparation of the dish she had ever eaten.

[6] Pete Wells praised the restaurant, writing in his review that it had "a fresh point of view" on presenting seafood.

[8] Wells highlighted Dame's fish and chips as his favorite entrée served by the restaurant.