Several Ways to Feast on Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is as synonymous with the Christmas season as gingerbread houses and frostbite. An Italian pastime, the “festa dei sette pesci” arose out of the Catholic ritual of not eating meat on Fridays and certain holy days, and due to the holiness of the holiday season, the feast became a prominent annual fixture, what with seven being representative of its symbolic importance in Catholicism.
Osteria Via Stato continues its annual Seven Fishes tradition with a special menu on Christmas Eve. Executive chef David DiGregorio prepares dishes inspired by his own family’s traditions. The feast celebrates Italy’s rich seafood culture with dishes such as baccala, calamari, grilled octopus, pine nut-crusted swordfish, seafood linguini, seafood stew, and more. There are also side dishes, and dessert is blessedly seafood-free.
Several courses of fish take the plate this Christmas Eve at Filini Bar & Restaurant. Start with Liguria mussel soup with tomato and white wine, followed by Sicilian tuna carpaccio, clam-strewn spaghetti, octopus salad, Vicenza-style codfish, and a Christmas salad flecked with celery, olives, citrus, and pomegranates.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes gets consolidated into a three-course affair at The Florentine. Executive chef Chris Macchia curates a family-style meal chock full of antipasti, secondi, and dolci. Expect items such as octopus carpaccio, mussels awash in marinara, grilled scallops, tuna conserva, spaghetti vongole, and roasted whole sea bass. The restaurant will also be open the next day on Christmas to serve specials in the vein of salt cod fritters, black truffle-laden potato gnocchi, and veal chops.
At J. Rocco Italian Table & Bar, owner Joseph Frasca and chef Steve Chiappetti honor their Italian roots with their very own Feast of the Seven Fishes, available all week long leading up to Christmas. The menu includes cornmeal-crusted anchovies with sage, spicy tuna crudo, seared scallops with truffle honey, pasta calamari, shrimp meatballs, garlicky sautéed lobster, and percha alla Mugnaia.
Osteria Via Stato
620 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 642-8450
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Filini Bar & Restaurant
221 N. Columbus Drive, Chicago
(312) 477-0234
Website
The Florentine
151 W. Adams Street, Chicago
(312) 660-8866
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J. Rocco Italian Table & Bar
749 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 475-0271
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