D’Amatos Seafood

D’Amatos Seafood, a family-owned business, has been a Fair Haven institution for four generations. In 1933 Pascual D’Amato, an immigrant from Italy, began selling seafood from a push cart in the Wooster Square community. Everyone loved his food, because it was always fresh. Building on this early success, Pascual's son opened a take-out restaurant on 456 Grand Avenue in the Fair Haven community. At the time, Fair Haven was mostly populated by Italians, and the Quinnipiac River was known as Oyster River. The best oysters came from the Quinnipiac River, and were shipped all over the country. The restaurant was surrounded by many family-owned businesses, including bakeries, shoe stores, a theater, grocery stores, etc.

Pascual’s son kept the business open for forty-five years, until it was passed down to the third generation of the D’Amato family. Anthony D’Amato, Pascual’s grandson, took charge of the successful business, and thirty years ago opened another take-out restaurant across the street from the original D'Amatos. He operates this restaurant with the help of one of his sons, Rico D’Amato. Just recently, his other son, Toma D’Amato, opened D’Amatos Seafood 2, another take-out restaurant on 423 Whalley Avenue in the Edgewood neighborhood of New Haven.

Anthony, or Tony as he is more often called, is well known in the community. He often helps children in the community with fundraising, and helps out many charity organizations. He has been in the neighborhood for thirty years now, and although he himself grew up in West Haven, he considers Fair Haven to be his home. He is very friendly person, and has never had a problem with anyone in the community. His recipe for success, he says, is “If you treat people with respect, you will more than likely be treated with just as much respect.”

Things haven’t been going so smooth lately for Anthony; in the past two years, business has been decreasing. He believes it has a lot to do with today’s economy. He hopes things will eventually start to change for the better, or else he might be forced to close down the original D'Amatos location due to lack of customers. Anthony’s goal for the future is to one day open a new location in downtown New Haven. He wants to make this location differently the others, creating a sit-in restaurant, with waiters, and waitresses, nice tables, etc. He feels that if he ever has the opportunity to open this location it will give New Haven’s visitors a unique dining experience.

- Fred Berrocales