Where to celebrate Feast of the 7 Fishes in Delaware, region

Patricia Talorico
The News Journal

The Feast of the Seven Fishes, or Festa dei sette pesci, is an Italian-American custom where seven different kinds of seafood are served during a meal, usually on Christmas Eve.

Why seven? No one has ever really answered this question for me, though conventional wisdom is that the number relates to the seven sacraments or to the seven days of the week. It's also part of the longtime Catholic practice of feasting on seafood the night before Christmas.

We found some area restaurants serving variations of the seafood dinner – one eatery is even offering a "Feast of the Seven Fishes sausage" – and not all the meals are on Christmas Eve.

Consider these places: 

Maiale Deli and Salumeria, 3301 Lancaster Pike, near Wilmington, is making seafood sausage to help customers celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

"Enjoy an Italian holiday tradition in on simple bite," Maiale owner Billy Rawstrom says. 

The deli will start taking orders Friday through Dec. 22. The cost is $9.95 a pound, and the sausage includes shrimp, scallops, tilapia, crab, whiting and lobster. Call (302) 691-5269. 

Mrs. Robino’s, 520 N. Union St., Wilmington, offers its annual Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. Entrees include jumbo crab cakes, lobster-filled ravioli, smelts and calamari. The cost is $19.95 to $35.99 depending on the seafood selections. The restaurant also has its regular menu available. Reservations are recommended. Call (302) 652-9223 or go to Mrs. Robino'sFacebook page.

Piccolina Toscana, 1412 N. Du Pont St. in Wilmington, offers a fishes feast on Christmas Eve from 4 to 9 p.m. The cost is $59 per person. Reservations are recommended. Call (302) 654-8001. The menu was not set when we contacted the restaurant Wednesday. Go to piccolinatoscana.com

Fish on the menu is popular on Christmas Eve, especially for Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes dinners.

Stone Balloon Ale House, 115 E. Main St., Newark, is hosting a five-course Feast of the Seven Fishes on Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. The cost is $68.

The menu includes espresso smoked salmon, bacalao fritters, Calabrian chili shrimp, crab and mascarpone agnolotti with lobster sauce, and pan-roasted bass and mussels.

Call (302) 266-8111 for reservations or go to the Stone Balloon's Facebook page

V&M Bistro, 1717 Marsh Road, Brandywine Hundred, will offer a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner all month-long.

The menu for the three seafood dishes they'll be offering includes house made traditional baccala stew; fried calamari, smelts and shrimp; and sundried tomato and mascarpone infused gnocchi in vodka blush sauce with shrimp, scallops and salmon or shrimp, clams and mussels sautéed in garlic with marinara sauce and house made cuttlefish ink infused capellini.The cost is $49.95 per person. Call (302) 479-7999 or go tovmbistro.com.

In New Jersey:

DiPaolo’s restaurant at 28 S. Broad St. in Penns Grove, New Jersey, offers a traditional seven-fish buffet dinner on Christmas Eve. Seating times are 5 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $49.95 per person, and 6.625 percent tax, plus 20 percent gratuities. Children, ages 5-12, eat for $25, and children younger than 4 eat for free. Call (856) 299-4645 or go todipaolosrestaurant.com

Girasole,an Atlantic City Italian restaurant at 3108 Pacific Ave., also is serving the traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner of Seven Fishes. The three-course tasting menu includes grilled octopus, chickpea puree, fennel; homemade black tagliolini with jumbo lump crabmeat, mussels artichoke; and Atlantic halibut, baked in banana leaf, artichokes, mushrooms, olives, thyme and sundried tomatoes. The cost is $65 per person. The fish dishes can also be individually ordered. Reservations are suggested; the regular menu also is available. Call (609) 345-5554 or go to mygirasole.com

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Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico