With the new state restaurant mandate in place, plans to dine is out for the remainder of the holiday season. But that doesn’t mean you need to be anchored to the kitchen to have a Feast of the Seven Fishes.
You can still feast on a chef-quality dinner of baccala Venetian style, fried smelts, shrimp scampi loaded with garlic, lobster bisque, fried calamari or seared scallops with lemon butter without having to shop or cook them. Just order takeout.
Some of the restaurants, struggling to keep their businesses afloat during this pandemic, were planning to offer takeouts even before Gov. Tom Wolf issued new restrictions last week banning dine-in service from Dec. 12 through Jan. 4.
However, takeouts weren’t their first preference. Fish, especially if it is a whole one, is not easily transportable and does not quite taste the same when reheated.
“We won’t have done a takeout for the Feast of Seven Fishes if not for restrictions because it is much, much harder to do,” said co-owner Dave Anoia of DiAnoia’s Eatery in the Strip District. “Normally, we would just plate the dishes. But now on top of cooking, we need to pack items and store them until they are picked up.”
So chefs have come up with menus featuring dips, cold salads and fish dishes that travel well and can be packed in deli containers and breathable wraps. To help diners enjoy a restaurant-style experience, they will be including heating instructions in the takeout packages.
A couple of restaurants have decided to completely shelve the feast this year. Roman Bistro in Forest Hills had planned on holding a buffet-style feast, which included calamari, smelts, smoked salmon and the house favorite — linguine with clam sauce — from 3 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 24. Now it will be closed on Dec. 24 and 25.
“We have been holding the fish feast since 2013 and it is the first time we have had to cancel it. It is 100% because of the mandate,” assistant general manager Ian Parsons said.
Chef and owner Ray Mikesell of Cafe Raymond in the Strip District heard about the state’s restrictions literally when he was buying seafood for his four-course feast with five types of seafood that was to be held last Saturday and Sunday. He, too, canceled the feast.
Other restaurants are going forward, offering takeouts that feature multiple fish courses ranging from two to seven. Some even have dessert as part of the deal.
Stagioni on the South Side traditionally holds a family-style dine-in fish feast on its first and second floors every Sunday in December leading up to Christmas Eve. On Dec. 6, about 40 people dined in for the first of its three dinners. The second one last Sunday was takeout only because the dine-in restrictions had gone into effect just the day before. But Stagioni didn’t have to change its menu because it featured dishes that carried well and could be easily reheated.
“We had already executed a menu that would work well for both dine-in and takeout,” said Cara Felder, who co-owns Stagioni with her husband and chef, Stephen.
The restaurant did lose some reservations, especially from diners who had a long commute.
Here’s a sampling of restaurants offering the Feast of Seven of Fishes as a takeout:
Bar Marco, Strip District
It’s the fifth year that the restaurant is offering the feast fish but it is the first time it is doing it as a takeout, which will be available for three days.
There will be six dishes with seven types of seafood. Dessert is the bonus seventh dish and will be ice cream from Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream and biscotti.
The feast starts with a baccala prepared Venetian-style and comes with a polenta square. The next course is a cold calamari salad with chickpeas, arugula and parsley. Fried smelts, a regular on the FOSF menu, will be accompanied with a salsa verde dipping sauce. The fourth course is a lighter version of a Caesar salad featuring chicory, lobster and poached shrimp tossed in a lemon vinaigrette with anchovies. Thick and chewy gnocchi sardi is the pasta dish and will be served with red clam ragu. The feast ends with a white fish stuffed with buttery Castelvetrano olives and pecorino cheese.
The cost is $125 for two or $70 for one person and includes tips. Pickup is from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Dec. 22. Orders can be placed now on Bar Marco’s website or by calling 412-471-1900.
The takeout package will come with heating instructions, general manager Andrew Heffner said. Wines and cocktails will be available for an additional cost.
Senti, Lawrenceville
“With not knowing when things will shut down, we decided to go with two fish courses for Christmas Eve,” owner Franco Braccia said.
The first course is capesante scottate. Seared scallops are served with potatoes, pearl onions, capers and a lemon sauce reduction. Capers are featured in the entree, halibut in padella, too. Halibut is slow cooked and topped with farro, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes. It is finally drizzled with lemon butter studded with capers. Dessert is lemon cheesecake with cranberry sauce.
“You can either plate it and eat it when you get home,” he said. “Or we can half cook it so that you can heat the two courses at a later time. We will work with the customer.”
The prix fixe dinner is $60 per person and can be picked up anytime before 9 p.m. on Dec. 24. It can be ordered online or email eat@sentirestaurant.com or call 412-586-4347.
DiAnoia’s Eatery, Strip District
When co-owner Dave Anoia chalked up the menu for the FOSF, he sought to include dishes that could be easily reheated and served family-style, especially since he was going to offer takeouts for six days.
“Fish is not one of the better things for takeout,” he said.
So he came up with dishes that are takeout-friendly. His octopus salad is braised in olive oil and white wine for about four hours and served cold with blanched potatoes that are tossed together with celery, onions and lemon juice. “It was a no-brainer as it travels well,” he said.
A salmon crudo, served cold, is cured with salt and sugar to last longer.
Seared with garlic and loads of butter, his shrimp scampi comes with a side of bread and needs to be reheated at home. Other dishes that require reheating are: scallop sausage that comes on a bed of leeks and onion, and with a tuna fish sauce; branzino amatriciana (sea bass is cooked in a spicy red sauce) served with pasta (which requires to be cooked); and lump crab in lemon cream sauce.
The final course is a whole branzino stuffed with fennel and garlic and served over a potato-fennel-tomato mixture. The fish will need to be baked in a 500-degree oven.
Dinners are already sold out for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Christmas Eve. But they are still available for Dec. 22 and 23 and need to be picked up between 4 and 8 p.m.
The meal is $65. A wine pairing is optional and includes three whites, one red and a bubbly and ranges from $30 to $80.
Orders need to be made on DiAnoia’s website.
1905 Eatery, McKees Rocks (Stowe)
This FOSF meal includes lobster bisque; fried calamari served with a spicy sauce; fried smelts; baccala (salted cod) cooked in marinara sauce and served over spaghetti; shrimp cocktail; and mussels in white wine sauce with garlic and cannellini beans. Also featured is grilled branzino with a side of risotto, along with spaghetti aglio e olio (pasta with garlic and olive oil).
“All you need to do when you go home is to place them in the microwave and give a quick zap,” owner Carmen Cupelli said. “They will come in microwave-safe containers.”
The feast is $75, including tips, and a $40 nonrefundable deposit needs to be placed at the time of the order. It can be picked up curbside Thursday through Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m.
Call 412-771-1777 to place the order.
Stagioni, South Side
The Italian restaurant’s last Feast of Seven Fishes for this holiday season will be on Sunday. It features Prince Edward Island mussels in a marinara sauce with dill; whipped cured salmon rillettes with pickles and saltine crackers; garlicky shrimp scampi cooked in white wine; fresh tuna confit cooked in olive oil and served with pureed cannellini beans and pickled zucchini; squid ink arancini with octopus; and crab soup. . The main course is a fish stew. Baked or seared cod comes with chickpeas braised in saffron broth.
The dinner is $60 per person and it will include assorted homemade cookies such as dried fruit and spice cookies, pizzelle, jam thumbprints, sugar cookies and lavender shortbreads.
Orders for Sunday’s dinner can be made now online or by calling 412-586-4738; pickups will be from 5 to 7 p.m.
Luke Wholey’s Wild Alaskan Grille, Strip District
The feast is all about choice here, and diners have nine seafood options. The grab-and-go feast is $100 for four entrees or $25 for one, which can be shared by two people.
The choices are jumbo lump crab stuffed with sockeye salmon that is glazed with a honey-mustard-garlic-ginger soy sauce; breaded Icelandic cod with tarter sauce; Maine lobster cocktail with cocktail sauce and clarified butter; all-natural Baja shrimp cocktail platter (16 shrimp); coconut shrimp with an orange marmalade chili sauce; lump crab cakes with lobster beurre blanc; lobster, shrimp and crab mac and cheese; Caesar salad with shrimp, salmon or crab; and seafood lasagna with shrimp, bay scallops, lobster and calamari combined with a five-cheese filling and served with a tomato basil cream sauce.
Orders need to be made online by Sunday and the meals will come with reheating instructions. They need to be picked up by 4 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1494.
First Published: December 15, 2020, 5:00 p.m.
Updated: December 15, 2020, 5:40 p.m.
