A Familiar Table, A New Kitchen

There is good news for anyone who has missed dinner by the boardwalk.

The Harbor House is reopening this week under new ownership, and the first thing the new owners, Claire and Michael Bennett, want everyone to know is that they have no intention of turning it into something unrecognizable.

For more than twenty years, Tom and Evelyn Parker made the Harbor House one of those places Silverdale families returned to without really thinking about it. The same warm dining room, the same slightly mismatched framed photographs on the walls, the same view toward the water, and the kind of menu where everyone in the family could find something they already knew they liked.

The Parkers retired earlier this year, closing the restaurant while a new owner was found.

“We knew pretty quickly that the room itself didn’t need fixing,” Claire Bennett said. “People have memories here. We wanted to respect that.”

Most of the dining room has therefore been left exactly as regulars remember it. The old wood paneling remains, along with the photographs collected by the Parkers over the years. Even the small brass bell near the kitchen door, which Evelyn famously used whenever Tom was taking too long to notice a waiting table, is still there.

Behind that kitchen door, however, almost everything is new.

The Bennetts used the closure to completely rebuild the kitchen, replacing the cooking line, refrigeration, ventilation and prep areas while improving the space for the restaurant’s staff. The menu will remain familiar, with seafood, grilled dishes and several Harbor House favorites returning, although a handful of new seasonal dishes will be added over the coming months.

And yes, the fried shrimp are still on the menu.

The Bennetts also asked us to pass along a proper thank-you to Tom and Evelyn Parker, not only for the restaurant they built, but for helping them through the transition.

“They could have handed us the keys and walked away,” Michael said. “Instead they spent weeks explaining where everything came from, introducing us to suppliers and telling us which things we absolutely weren’t allowed to change. Evelyn was particularly clear about the chowder.”

Tom and Evelyn, thank you for twenty years of dinners, birthdays, first dates, family arguments, reconciliations and far too many baskets of fried shrimp.

The Harbor House opens its doors again Thursday evening.

Same view. Same bell.

Much newer kitchen.