Joe's Fish Market and Crossbay Seashell Market
The Feast of the Seven Fishes—festa dei sette pesce, in the original Italian—is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it’s a feast; and yes, there’s a lot of fish. There just aren’t always seven fish, and there’s not only fish. For Giuseppe D’Aguanno—the eponymous Joe of Joe’s Fish Market, in Middle Village—seven is practically just an appetizer; it wouldn’t be Christmas Eve without “15, 16, 17 kinds” of fish, he said.
Though Joe’s Fish Market first opened a year ago, D’Aguanno has been alternately catching and selling fish since he was a teenager working for the Mancino pescheria—fish market—in his native Sicily. His family immigrated to New York City in 1970; he’s been in Queens ever since. Joe’s Fish Market is the latest in his series of ventures across Brooklyn and Queens over the past 47 years—D’Aguanno, now 66, came out of retirement to rehabilitate a storefront whose previous tenant was another, much-maligned fish market.
Since arriving in New York City, D’Aguanno has adopted the festa, which emerged in the second half of the 20th century among Italian-American immigrant families, for himself. “I’m a very good cook,” he said, “of fish. I don’t know anything else—but fish, I can cook.”
Despite its mythical name—which, according to varying theories, might symbolize the seven days of the week leading up to Christmas or the seven sacraments—it’s not so consistent as one might believe: “It might be more than seven; it might be less,” said Vincent Marinelli, the co-owner of Crossbay Seashell Fish Market in Howard Beach, “as long as they get fish for Christmas Eve.”
After immigrating from Sciacca, a small fishing town in Sicily, Marinelli’s father and uncle took over Crossbay Seashell from its previous owner in the early ’80s, and Marinelli stepped in 10 years ago. The shop does booming business around the holidays; recently, his own Christmas Eve celebrations have been sidelined as a result.
And despite its origins among southern Italian emigrants, the Feast of the Seven Fishes is “as Italian as veal parmesan. That is, not at all,” one expert told Saveur last year. Instead, it’s an Americanization of the Italian-Catholic tradition of eating primarily seafood on Christmas Eve—back in Sicily, varied fishes were just one element of a meal that might also include pasta, lamb and vegetables like broccoli rabe, D’Aguanno said.
Here’s what the feast looks like now: Marinelli opts for a shellfish-loaded cornucopia of mussels, clams, shrimp, baked lobster tails, scungilli, octopus and flounder; D’Aguanno’s family also enjoys king crab salad and a seafood spaghetti. For Vincenzo Cerbone, the restaurateur behind Manducatis in Long Island City, the menu varies based on what’s fresh that day but might include fried filet of sole, mussels, grilled scallops with mushrooms and scallions, baccalà and eel vinaigrette, a Neapolitan specialty.
As the festa set down roots in Queens, its adherents have made it their own—or, in some cases, started abandoning it. In the intervening years since taking over Crossbay Seashell, Marinelli has noticed younger families drifting away from the tradition, while Cerbone’s family has incorporated Jewish, Russian and American details into their spread, including gefilte fish, smoked salmon and roe with vodka shots “if we’re really crazy.” For those who celebrate, Crossbay Seashell and Joe’s recommend submitting orders just a week or two in advance.
For fishmongers like D’Aguanno and Marinelli, seafood isn’t simply a holiday tradition—it’s part of the family. Last summer, D’Aguanno visited Sicily for the first time since he left as a teenager. This year he went back. There’s only one thing to do when you’re in Sicily in August: Go fish.
