Long John Silver's / A&W
Cressona Mall Road - Pottsville, PA
I've written about how getting food from Long John Silver's has been a Christmas Eve tradition in my family, but it has been more challenging to keep it going in recent years. The restaurant in Hazleton that we've gotten our food from for most of my life closed in early 2022, and the building is in the process of being converted to a tobacco and vape store.
Thankfully, there's another Long John's about a half hour away in Edwardsville where we were able to get our food for the past two years. That location is still in business to the best of my knowledge, but their website was showing that it would be closed on Christmas Eve. The only one that we could find within a reasonable driving distance that was open on December 24th this year was a LJS and A&W combination restaurant in Pottsville.
I've never been inside of a hybrid LJS / A&W restaurant before now. It looked pretty much like any other Long John Silver's that I've been to over the past few years, but with a few instances of Rooty the Great Root Bear and A&W Root Beet mugs here and there. The thing that caught my attention was the music.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes, I heard a hip hop holiday song that I didn't recognize. The vocals were pretty low from where we were sitting, but I could have sworn I heard the man singing about "Fishmas Eve". I thought that I couldn't possibly have heard it right and that my mind must be playing tricks on me while I sat there smelling all of the delicious deep fried fish waiting for ours to be read to bring home... but I kept hearing it. Eventually, I stood up and moved closer to one of the restaurant's overhead speakers. Sure enough, it was a Long John Silver's seafood hip hop Christmas carol.
As if this isn't enough, The Fishmas Album is the second release from Fish Yeah Records. Their first album was released earlier in 2020 with music by the Washington DC band Coral Benders. It's called The Ballad Of Long John Silver's.
I've never been inside of a hybrid LJS / A&W restaurant before now. It looked pretty much like any other Long John Silver's that I've been to over the past few years, but with a few instances of Rooty the Great Root Bear and A&W Root Beet mugs here and there. The thing that caught my attention was the music.
We ordered our food online, but we got there a bit earlier than expected so my dad and I got a couple of drinks and settled into a booth to wait for our food to be ready to pick up. The restaurant was playing a mix of modern Christmas music. Some were songs that I didn't recognize, while others were familiar tunes sung by newer artists. This included a Backstreet Boys cover of Dan Fogelberg's holiday classic Same Old Lang Syne which did not impress my dad one bit.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes, I heard a hip hop holiday song that I didn't recognize. The vocals were pretty low from where we were sitting, but I could have sworn I heard the man singing about "Fishmas Eve". I thought that I couldn't possibly have heard it right and that my mind must be playing tricks on me while I sat there smelling all of the delicious deep fried fish waiting for ours to be read to bring home... but I kept hearing it. Eventually, I stood up and moved closer to one of the restaurant's overhead speakers. Sure enough, it was a Long John Silver's seafood hip hop Christmas carol.
The morning after Christmas was spent doing what any sensible middle-aged man would do; I opened my laptop to see what I could learn about this festive fishy tune. It turns out that the song is called Oh Fishmas Sea. It was released in 2020 with vocals by South Carolina lo-fi hip hop artist Rashun Fortune.
It's also not the only Long John Silver's Christmas carol. They put out a whole album of these in 2020 called The Fishmas Album on Fish Yeah Records. There are seven songs, including We Wish You A Merry Fishmas by Donnell Isaac, Jingle Shells by Nolä, I Smelled The Smells On Fishmas Day by Medium Heat, and Shark! Harold The Angler Sings by Mr. Chenier, and your life will not be complete until you have listened to each and every one of them and saved them for your future holiday playlist.
As if this isn't enough, The Fishmas Album is the second release from Fish Yeah Records. Their first album was released earlier in 2020 with music by the Washington DC band Coral Benders. It's called The Ballad Of Long John Silver's.
I don't think I could possibly love this more!
