Chefs Andrew McQuesten and Stephen Sternkopf of Little Friend

By Arielle Martinez Cohen
| June 9, 2025

A Secret Supper Club and a Farm Pop-Up Celebrate Rhody’s Local Bounty

As a food adventurer, I’m always on the hunt for the next exciting bite. When I came across Little Friend, a pop-up by chefs Andrew McQuesten and Stephen Sternkopf, on Instagram, I was more than a little intrigued. The two met while working at North, a popular and now closed restaurant from noted chef/owner James Mark, located inside the Dean Hotel in downtown Providence.

After some digging, I discovered that Little Friend, named in honor of McQuesten’s daughter, offers a tasting menu twice a week and a catering operation as well as a summer pop-up—serving lobster rolls, poke and more—at Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton. They’ve also done collaborations with Bolt Coffee, Glou PVD, Sakonnet Vineyard and even Café Mars in Brooklyn. With menus that have included pickled blueberries, fresh magnolia blossoms and brown butter tamarind dressing, I was excited to book a tasting menu ticket to try it for myself. All I had to do was send a DM on Instagram.

Before dinner, I got to hear more about Little Friend’s humble beginnings. After the closing of the long beloved restaurant North, head chef McQuesten explained he wanted to continue cooking and recipe development on his own terms. So, taking inspiration from pop-ups and supper clubs he had tried in other cities, he created the concept of Little Friend, recruiting chef Sternkopf soon after.

As dinner got started at their top-secret location on the west side of Providence, I chose a seat at the communal table and enjoyed conversation and BYOB wine with the friendly strangers who were my dinner mates. Each dish was brought out and introduced by McQuesten. Then, only “mmms” and “wows” as we ate dishes including pork tongue dumplings with homemade delicata squash miso, star anise and chili oil; and buttery fluke crudo with juiced pea greens, dried maitake mushrooms, preserved lemon and extra virgin olive oil. My favorite dish of the night was probably the Burmese-style chickpea tofu with both raw and grilled asparagus, cumin and brown butter tamarind dressing.

Fluke crudo with juiced pea greens, preserved lemon, olive oil, dried maitake mushroom, and Little Compton Sea Salt.

The chefs are dedicated to sourcing local produce (save for citrus) from farms including Wishing Stone and Four Town. They source chicken, pork and beef from Pat’s Pastured and lamb from Hopkins Southdowns. McQuesten jokes, “There is a very strong possibility that my daughter and I fed the sheep that we served last month.”

The chefs also serve in-season and lesser-known fish species, which is both cheaper for the consumers and more sustainable for the ecosystem. They even harvest their own salt from the waters in Little Compton, which adds another layer of “eat local” to their dishes.

For all their hard work the chefs ask for a recommended donation of $70 to keep their operations going. To anyone craving a good meal and good company, I can’t recommend Little Friend enough. As we gobbled down the last course—a dessert of spinach chiffon roll cake with rhubarb cream—one diner exclaimed, “best meal ever!” Took the words right out of my mouth.