Del’s, the new restaurant in the back room of Anastasi Seafood, wants to hook more than crab cake fans
A fishmonger and a chef think that the Italian Market is ready for curries, too.
The new restaurant operating out of the back of Anastasi Seafood offers what diners might expect to find at a restaurant in the back of a seafood market in South Philadelphia: fried shrimp platters, a crab cake BLT, a salad topped with poached ahi tuna.
But fishmonger Albert Delvescovo and chef Dan Elliott are also offering South Indian-style curries with made-to-order paratha at Del’s.
The eatery opened in February as 9th Street Crab Shack, a nod to the corrugated-roof streetery out front at 1039 S. Ninth St. This week, they renamed it, thinking that Delvescovo’s nickname better reflects a broader menu that goes beyond crustaceans.
“We were getting no action at all online [on the delivery apps],” Delvescovo said. “I think people see ‘Crab Shack,’ assume we’re just doing crabcakes, and scroll.”
Del’s operates separately from Anastasi’s, the century-old seafood market run by siblings Salvatore Anastasi and Janet Anastasi Stechman, great-grandchildren of the founder. In addition to the streetery, there is seating for about a dozen people along the wall opposite the fish counters. Delvescovo and Elliott also hope to expand seating into the covered area at the shuttered Giordano’s produce stand next door.
Stechman said she brought them in to create a business that would complement her seafood market rather than duplicate it.
“We feel that by doing that, we’re going to drive new customers to the store because it’s a different venue,” she said. Anastasi’s had a restaurant along with its fish counter in its former longtime location on the southeast corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue; it moved in 2022 to the smaller storefront a hundred yards away.
Delvescovo and Elliott said they are not looking to compete directly with neighboring restaurants, especially the pasta houses. They plan to offer ready-to-cook seafood packaged for home use with sauces or curries on the side, and possibly a subscription service.
Its most unusual offering is a lineup of seafood curries made with blue crab, scallops, black cod, rock shrimp, and mixed shellfish. There’s a version with chicken as well as a vegetarian curry with eggplant and potato. Each comes with jasmine rice, yellow dahl, and paratha, the pan-fried Indian flatbread. They’re also offering jasmine rice bowls, topped with seared salmon, fried chicken, or grilled chicken.
Fish curries are not common on Philadelphia menus, in part because seafood generally costs more. Delvescovo said his experience as a fishmonger gives him access to pricing that many restaurants cannot match.
Elliott said curry was central to the concept from the beginning. His father served in the Peace Corps in India in the 1960s, and Elliott said those flavors shaped his childhood.
“Where you may grow up smelling pancakes and coffee for breakfast, I remember cardamom, coriander, and curries,” Elliott said.
Elliott, a 1997 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, trained under Jean-Francois Taquet at the Wayne Hotel in the late 1990s. More recently, he worked at Spice Finch near Rittenhouse Square. He also spent six years farming in Potter County, an experience he said sharpened his focus on ingredients and sourcing.
Delvescovo has worked across several corners of the food business. Before wholesaling fish and specialty mushrooms, he ran two pizzerias, owned Joco Juice & Taco locations in Washington, D.C., as well as in Media and West Chester, and founded an Italian restaurant in Naples, Fla.
Del’s, inside Anastasi Seafood, 1039 S. Ninth St. Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday.
