reviews

21st and 5th Avenue, Avalon NJ (609) 967-7553

"Sylvester's in Avalon takes my prize for the lumpiest simple crabcakes of the year (try the baked ones)."

Craig LaBan Philadelphia Inquirer Restaurant Critic

The following review is from The Press of Atlantic City

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com

August 9, 2002

Catch yourself some seafood at Sylvester's

By Cindy Nevitt

If it weren't for the sign out front, you'd drive right by Sylvester's Fish Market and Restaurant.

Located in a residential area of Avalon, at the corner of 21st Street and Fifth Avenue, Sylvester's appears to be an oversized bungalow. But behind a 4-foot-high fence running alongside and behind the bungalow, beneath a green canopy, there's seating ample enough for 175.

Hordes of people have been finding the place since 1978, when brothers Fred and Steve Sylvester added the restaurant onto the fish market. Tom Shute built the original fish market in 1944, using wood scavenged from a flood.

Into this highly successful business has stepped Bill Selgrath, a 36-year-old sales specialist originally from Montgomery County, Pa., with a rental property in Avalon and a hankering to own his own restaurant. Assisted by much of his family - wife Bernadette, brothers Chris and Matt, sister-in-law Elizabeth and father-in-law Bill Kugler - Selgrath has had his wish granted.

He bought the place in May of this year, retaining key personnel. Dave Borak has been with Sylvester's about 10 years, handling the prep crews and expediting orders at night. Steve Sylvester Jr., involved in the business from the start, helps manage the place. Mike Quinn has been in the kitchen for 15 years.

Selgrath is determined not to mess with Sylvester's winning formula. He's using the same purveyors the Sylvester brothers did. He's ordering the same quality and amount of fish that the Sylvesters did. Employees continue to cut the huge tuna fish and swordfish that come into the fish market into fillets and steaks that are then displayed on ice.

"Sylvester's has always had fresh, large portions, the kind of meals that people want to sit outside and eat with family and friends," Selgrath says.

It's a concept that appealed to him when he ate at Sylvester's during his stays in Avalon and clearly appeals to the people who wait patiently in line for a table at the first-come, first-serve restaurant.

One of the restaurant's strong points is its attached fish market, a quaint and nautically decorated room.

"Seeing what you're ordering, like at a steakhouse where you can see the cut of beef before it's cooked, is important to people," Selgrath says.

Sylvester's signature dish is its crab cakes, available as a dinner entrée for $18.95 fried or broiled. The restaurant also sells the crab cakes, which are brimming with jumbo lump and jumbo backfin crab meat, for $9 to take home. Selgrath knows of one couple that buys enough crab cakes to last them through the winter, doling them out two a month from the time Sylvester's closes in late September until it reopens Memorial Day weekend.

This is how popular these crab cakes are: Sylvester's sells 300 a day, which translates to 10,000 for the season. That's a lot of crab cakes.

And it does it without fuss. In an area where wealth is a fact of life, Sylvester's is a reminder of a simpler time, a place where you can tuck your sandy feet beneath a picnic table and not worry too much about how loudly your little ones talk. All you need to do is bring your own beer and a big appetite.

Prices for dinner start at $6.95 for a chicken fillet and range up to $32.95 for filet mignon with a South African lobster tail.

WHAT: Sylvester's Fish Market and Restaurant

WHERE: 503 21st St., Avalon

WHEN: Open 4 to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday to Sunday. Last seating in the restaurant 8:45 p.m. Fish market open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday to Sunday.

SERVICE: No liquor license; BYO. Diners Club, Discover, Mastercard and Visa accepted. Children's menu (eight choices, $4.95 to $9.95). Disabled access. Smoking permitted.

PRICE: Dinner entrees $6.95 to $32.95

FURTHER INFORMATION: (609) 967-7553

BETWEEN YOU AND ME: Sylvester's Fish Market and Restaurant in Avalon takes its seafood seriously: The back of the takeout menu contains the tide chart for summer 2002.