During the holiday season my husband and I enjoyed a Feast of the Seven Fishes dining experience at one of our favorite local restaurants, Hearthside. Available for only a few select seatings on four nights in December, it’s a hot reservation to get in our town, and we were excited our friends snagged a table for four.

While I didn’t grow up celebrating the Christmas Eve dining tradition, I appreciate the ritual of gathering for a special holiday meal. We arrived early for our reservation, along with a few different bottles of wine to enjoy with our meal. Hearthside’s version was served family style, with three courses plus dessert.

We opted to start with a sparkling wine from the Finger Lakes that our friends contributed. As it was a set menu and no one in our party had food allergies, we were able to relax, enjoy our sparkling wine and let the restaurant handle everything. The first courses arrived swiftly: tuna sashimi with sun-dried tomato and pistachio, warm Caesar salad with lump crab meat and shrimp, mussels with red sauce, and fried calamari. The second course featured two dishes: fregola with bay scallops and Calabrian pesto, and linguine with clams. The final main courses were herb-crusted branzino and an elegant cioppino. What is a Christmas celebration without cookies? Dessert was a delectable assortment of cookies and cakes.

The meal was fabulous overall, from the service to the variety of dishes. My favorite bites of the night were the fregola with scallops and linguine with clams. We might need to make this our new holiday tradition.

— Katie Skrzek, vice president/digital director