
DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706270209

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ON THE TOWN 

TYPE: RESTAURANT REVIEW 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

PORCH IS THE PLACE TO DINE AT BENNETT'S CREEK MARINA

Ask Linda Frazier a question about the view across Bennett's Creek from the seafood restaurant she and her husband Tommy own, and she'll likely know the answer. She is the fourth generation of her family to live on Bennett's Creek, dating back to 1898.

``This was originally the Milteer property,'' she explained. ``That's the Harlow property,'' she said, pointing across the creek, ``and there is the Eberwine property. Growing up, we basically all went to the same church, so we all knew each other. My aunt and uncle ran a grocery store, so they knew everybody.''

Bennett's Creek Marina and Seafood Restaurant sits just off Route 17, down Knott's Neck Road past the acres of potted plants growing on Lancaster Farm Nursery land, down a winding country lane. Nestled between the remains of two long-gone bridges that once spanned the creek, the white-walled eatery, with its glassed in ``porch'' overlooking the water, is a far cry from the tumble down building the Fraziers renovated over a dozen years ago.

``My great-grandfather had a gas station and general store here, and this was a marina and snack bar, but it was in very bad shape,'' Frazier said. ``The marina was dilapidated, and the bulkheading was collapsing. The building itself was made out of cypress, so there wasn't any rot.''

Tommy and Linda Frazier set about remodeling, first the landward side of the building, then the middle portion, and finally, four years ago they added what the customers call ``the porch.'' ``We have a lot of customers who won't eat anywhere but the porch,'' she said.

Tables inlaid with nautical charts face the marina on Bennett's Creek, with 27 slips, some of which are available to boaters who wish to visit and dine. Frazier said the restaurant is about a 20-minute run by power boat from the Hampton Roads harbor.

Frazier said she never expected to return to Bennett's Creek. ``I lived most of my adult life in Virginia Beach, where we had an auto parts business,'' she explained. Now she and Tommy live in the restored bridgekeeper's building, on the site of the earliest automobile bridge across the creek, built around 1920.

He was a cook in the Air Force, but neither had restaurant experience when they decided to do the eatery, she said. ``I worked in the kitchen when we first opened, and occasionally help out if we're short-handed, but I really work out front now, and he does all of the ordering, maintenance and clean-up, and takes care of the marina,'' she said.

As for the menu at Bennett's Creek, appetizers include steamed shrimp ($5.95); a half-dozen fried oysters ($6.95); a dozen steamed clams ($8.95); deviled crab ($2.50); and a crab cake ($5.50). Sandwiches, served with french fries, cole slaw and hushpuppies, include a flounder filet, grilled tuna, fried oyster, or crab cake ($6.95); a grilled chicken breast with Swiss cheese ($5.95); and a cheeseburger ($4.95). Baskets of fried shrimp, clam strips, and chicken, are $5.95.

Steamer offerings include a cluster of snow crab legs ($13.95/$16.95 for two); steamed shrimp ($12.95), and a steamer combo of shrimp, clams and crab legs ($15.95). All entrees come with two vegetables and hushpuppies.

Fried seafood includes a dozen shrimp ($12.95); oysters, flounder or crab cakes ($12.95); fried scallops are $14.95. Broiled shrimp or flounder, stuffed with crab meat, is $15.95,; broiled shrimp, $13.95; and broiled scallops, $14.95. Grilled tuna is $13.95, and crab cakes cost $12.95. A grilled chicken breast is $9.95. Seafood Pasta Marinara costs $14.95.

Frazier said that the combination dinners are very popular. You can combine fried or broiled crab, flounder, oysters, scallops and shrimp, with any two for $14.95, and any three for $16.95. Tuesday offers all you can eat oysters, Wednesday, steamed shrimp, and the same goes for flounder on Thursday, all priced at $13.95.and there are nightly specials such as black beans and rice with tuna and broccoli ($12.95). ILLUSTRATION: Photo by SAM MARTINETTE

Linda Frazier, co-owner of Bennett's Creek Marina and Seafood

Restaurant, says ``We have a lot of customers who won't eat anywhere

but the porch.''

Graphic

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Bennett's Creek Marina and Seafood Restaurant

WHERE: 3305 Ferry Road, 484-8700.

FOOD: seafood, steak specials; sandwiches; full ABC.

PRICES: entrees $9.95 to $18.95. Early Bird specials daily (4-6)

and Sunday (11-2).

HOURS: 4-9 p.m., Mon.-Sat.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sunday.