Plates served at Bissell Brothers’ Feast of the Seven Fishes on Dec. 16. All seafood was locally caught and each course was paired with a Bissell Brothers’ brew. Contributed / Bissell Brothers

Restaurants in Portland regularly serve a variety of seafood, but it is rare for a single diner to consume seven varieties of seafood in one night. Unless it is a Holy Night, that is.

Two Portland restaurants put together creative menus to celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traditional Italian American celebration of Christmas Eve that involves eating a variety of seafood dishes. In Portland, the abundance of local seafood and restaurants that are skilled in preparing it made the event a special experience for diners who were lucky enough to reserve a spot at the seven-course meals.

Plates of local fish were served to 50 diners at Bissell Brothers. Contributed / Bissell Brothers

Small-plates seafood restaurant Regards is run by married partners Kimberly Lund and chef Neil Zabriskie. The pair orchestrated their first Feast of the Seven Fishes menu this year and were inspired to do so by their previous Christmas Eves in Portland. On Christmas Eve in 2015, Lund first took Zabriskie to Portland and the two restaurant lovers found that few restaurants were open. In the years since, they have not found much luck dining out on Christmas Eve.

“Oftentimes we just end up getting pizza slices. And (Zabriskie) just really wanted to make something for the community, to be able to come out and eat,” said Lund.

Zabriskie also has a nostalgic connection to Feast of the Seven Fishes events that he brings to hosting the night at Regards.

“(Zabriskie is) from L.A., and his family used to do this pretty regularly. They’re not Italian American; he’s Afro-Cubano and Polish, and Polish people traditionally only eat fish as well on Christmas Eve. So they kind of adopted that,” said Lund.

Regards’ Feast of the Seven Fishes menu included crab legs, tuna tartare, some squid a la Plancha, and grilled octopus. About 100 guests were scheduled to enjoy the feast on Dec. 24 for $85 per person.

Lund emphasized that they were also inspired to host this event to support local fisheries during this season.

Chef Dave Rinaldi’s uni carbonara made with squid ink and served with the Umbra stout. Contributed / Bissell Brothers

“A lot of fishermen have been coming to us lately saying that it’s been very, very slow with restaurants purchasing. (Zabriskie) said ‘Let’s see what we can do to try to boost revenue for you guys, as well as revenue for us, as well as offer something for the community,” said Lund.

While Portland brewery and taproom Bissell Brothers does regularly also serve food, a seven-course plated meal was much more elevated than their usual fare, said Bissel Brothers chef Dave Rinaldi.

“It’s really fun for me. I enjoy cooking this kind of stuff, and it’s cool to kind of break out of the mold of the day-to-day things we do at Bissell and be able to put out something that’s, like, really special for people for one night,” said Rinaldi.

The menu was also exclusively made from local Maine seafood and included scallop crudo with charred lemon and Calabrian chili oil, uni carbonara, and cod over parsnip puree and king trumpet mushrooms. Even dessert included fish, as the creme caramel’s caramel was made of fish sauce. They had one seating of 50 people on Dec. 16, with the experience costing $100.

Despite new levels of elevation in its food that evening, Bissell Brothers stayed close to its roots. Each Feast of the Seven Fishes course was paired with a beer from Bissell Brothers’ taproom.

“It was definitely a lot of work (that) went into it, and it was a challenge, but it’s super rewarding,” said Rinaldi.