New restaurant showcases sustainability, owner says
TROY, N.Y. » A new type of dining experience is available in the Collar City with the opening of The Little Rice Ball.
This small dinner and late night eatery opened its doors last week at 6 Franklin Pl. in Troy, at the corner of Fourth and Liberty streets just south of the city’s downtown district.
The Little Rice Ball is owned and operated by JP Tucci, a Troy resident and Averill Park native. Matt Baumgartner, a wellknown area restaurateur, is also a partner in the business.
Tucci, who has worked in the city’s restaurant scene for the last few years, decided to start his own entrepreneurial endeavor with a focus on sustainability.
In college at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Tucci studied environmental biology with a special interest in aquatics, including sustainable seafood.
Something else Tucci did during his college days was he started making little rice balls, which he and his friends enjoyed eating on a regular basis.
Rice balls on the menu include fillings like egg salad, tuna, salmon, crabstick and vegetables, or customers can choose their own combination. These are made with sushi rice and a bit of seaweed that makes them easy to pick up and eat by hand.
The most popular sellers so far are the Albacore Avocado Ball with spicy mayo, the Sweet Salmon Ball with mango and sushi sauce and the Vegan Ball with avocado, sweet potato and
sushi sauce.
These rice balls cost $2.50 each, and a total of about four make a full meal.
Other items on the modern Japanese-inspired menu include a different type of pan fried balls called takoyaki, seaweed salad, miso soup, crab croquettes and dumplings.
Additionally, The Little Rice Ball serves wine, beer and a large selection of sake as well as some soju-based cocktails. Regular guests can join the restaurant’s sake club, through which they get discounts for buying their own personal bottle of sake to be kept at the bar.
Along with unique food and
drink offerings, “This restaurant really showcases sustainability,” Tucci said. From bamboo plates and paper straws to the eatery’s steadfast compost efforts - it’s a big part of the business.
Sustainability is also a concentration within the restaurant’s seafood. Tuna is pole-andline caught from the Pacific. The wild-caught pink salmon is from a sustainably managed fishery in Alaska. All seafood served at The Little Rice Ball is either certified by The Marine Stewardship Council or classified as good on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.
“I love seafood,” Tucci said,
“and I definitely like to preserve it in such a fashion that it’s sustainable both for customer enjoyment but also to keep biodiversity and ocean health alive and well.”
The Little Rice Ball’s ecofriendly product practices are a way to help the ocean too, as that’s where wasteful plastic products often end up.
“The more I can do to reduce plastic, the better,” Tucci said.
Looking ahead, Tucci aims for The Little Rice Ball to be a casual and fun place for people to eat, drink and hang out.
The recently renovated space, which was long-vacant, has been
revamped and decorated with custom terrarium tables as well as a one- of-akind lighting fixture that’s a map of Troy hotspots.
The Little Rice Ball is open six days a week, from 4:30 to 11 p. m. Monday through Thursday and 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Take out is available, and delivery will start soon through Grubhub and Seamless.
More information on The Little Rice Ball is available online at www.facebook.com/thelittlericeball.
The Little Rice Ball can be contacted directly by calling (518) 953- 0200.