Photos by John Arundel - Eugenio Gomez has cooked at The Fish Market since 1976.

By JOHN ARUNDEL
Managing Editor
 
Beginning at about 10 pm Friday, Oct. 31 -- Fright Night -- a giant congo line of raucous, masked and costumed revelers will form at City Hall and snake its way down King Street, with hoots, hollers and catcalls thrown into the mix. They will end up at The Fish Market at the foot of King and N. Union Streets, for a Halloween celebration one can only imagine.
 
And what would "Mr. Roy" think of all the hubub?
 
The late Roy Giovanni, the legendary Old Town restaurateur, was famous for serving "shrimps, a few crabs, tall people and a lot of nice people too" over the years, satisfying perhaps millions of Old Town tourists with his "world famous" Fish Market recipe clam chowder, Blue Point oysters and fish stew.
 
But would he serve "Borat" in a Lycra Makini costume?
 
"Of course he would," professed Matt Ammon, a manager at The Fish Market for 19 of his 20 years at the Old Town seafood institution. "Mr. Roy had a real sense of humor. He would love what we're doing."
 
The Fish Market was purchased a year ago by their neighbor restaurant at the tail end of King Street, Franco Landini and his son, Noe, and the restaurant has decided to mix it up a bit, with 12 new TV's being installed in the bar area and even a DJ on some weekends.
 

Photos by John Arundel - William Temaj serves up some fried oysters.

This Halloween, in an event being billed as "Nightmare on King Street, a promotion will be held that would make even P.T. Barnum blush. There will be a costume contest with cash prizes (of course), an apple bobbing contest (oh no!) and something called "a scary scream contest" (Lord, help us).
 
"It's just for adults," said Ammon. (Would Rulers of the Night have it any other way?)
 
As a Secret Service detail huddled with their earpieces around a full table of Jordanian diplomats which came in for the fresh soft shell crabs, Ammon did some explaining. "When the Landinis took over we changed the menu a little bit from how Mr. Ray had it," he said. "What Franco and Noe have done is bring a lot of fresh fish into the restaurant...They're putting the fish back into The Fish Market."
 
This means that on any given night diners can find more exotic fish delicacies like Cobia, Corvina, Mahi Mahi, Halibut, Rockfish and Wahoo on the menu.
 
The Fish Market still carries only one kind of oyster, the very plump, juicy kind of Blue Point with meat on it "the size of a Silver Dollar."
 
Since the last hurricanes blew through the Gulf Coast, the restaurant has been getting its oysters from Delaware Bay and Oyster Bay, NY, exclusively. "Mr. Ray wouldn't have it any other way."
 
Of course not.