Wilkinson’s Seafood Café

A cheery uptown spot with some of the best fish in town. (1)

Wilkinson’s Seafood Café
1983–c. 1999
Seafood

Alternate Names:

Wilkinson’s Restaurant

Wilkinson’s 1573 Seafood Café (1983–c.1984)

1573 Seafood Café (1983)

Ownership:

Thomas F. Wilkinson & Jim Malmo

Executive Chef:

Melissa Lord (1993–c. 1999)

Andrew Tun (1989)

Shirley King (1983–1985)

Location:

1573 York Avenue

Publications:

Miller, Bryan. “Restaurants: A Loud Yorkville Fish House with a New Chef and a Décor That Takes a Bit from All Over.” New York Times, May 7, 1993: C22. [Miller gives Wilkinson’s two stars, under new chef Melissa Lord.]

Cunningham, Jeff, Tom Jones, et al. “Restaurants—Go, Consider, Stop.” Forbes 152, 3 (August 2, 1993): 26. [Wilkinson’s is rated a restaurant to “go” to.]

Miller, Bryan. “Sunday Lunch: Hearty Soups to Warm Wintry Days.” New York Times, January 14, 1990: A36. [Miller recommends the Wilkinson’s seafood chowder.]

Britchky, Seymour. The Restaurants of New York, 1991. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990: 380.

Miller, Bryan. “Restaurants: A Neighborhood Spot Where the Yorkville Crowd Dines on Oriental-Inspired Seafood Dishes.” New York Times, December 1, 1989: C18. [Miller gives Wilkinson’s two stars, under new chef Andrew Tun.]

“The seven-year-old Wilkinson’s Seafood Cafe needs more publicity about as much as lobsters need mittens.”

Miller, Bryan. “Restaurants.” New York Times, May 9, 1986: C20. [Miller gives Wilkinson’s two stars, under a new, unmentioned chef.]

Britchky, Seymour. “Fish and Chips.” New York Magazine 18, 22 (June 3, 1985): 74-75 (illustrated).

“Come here only once, and the dish to have is the red snapper in a sauce of sake and black beans. The fish…is fresh and firm and of an almost overpowering ocean sweetness, and that sauce, winy and smooth—but with a bit of the sharpness and texture of its black beans—is its perfect foil.”

Lalli, Carole. “The 50 Best New Restaurants.” GQ 55, 3 (March 1985): 267.

“Wilkinson’s Seafood Café.” The Best Restaurants in America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985: 296.*

“Wilkinson’s Seafood Café.” Gourmet 44, 4 (April 1984). [Features an illustration of the restaurant by Marvin Friedman.]*

Draheim, Charlene. “A Vision Realized: Rookie Owner/Designer Transforms a Former Irish Bar in Manhattan.” Restaurant and Hotel Design 6, 3 (March 1984): 68-71 (illustrated).*

Burros, Marian. “In New Restaurant Dishes, Health and Good Taste.” New York Times, February 15, 1984: C1. [Includes a recipe for Wilkinson’s Seafood Café’s broiled red snapper with garlic-vinegar sauce.]

“Shirley King…says she has no quarrel with cream-based or cream-finished sauces, but doesn’t like to drown food in them. ‘I don’t flood the plate with sauce,’ she said, ‘because too much sauce is disgusting.'”

Miller, Bryan. “Restaurants: Neighborhood Cafe for Stylish Food.” New York Times, October 14, 1983: C20. [Miller gives Wilkinson’s two stars.]

Notable Guests:

Tom Cruise (Actor): Joined co-star Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward for a celebratory dinner at Wilkinson’s following Newman’s 1987 Academy Award win. (2)

Dustin Hoffman (Actor) & Barbra Streisand (Singer & Actress): Seen dining together at Wilkinson’s after Hoffman agreed to co-star with Streisand in the Broadway play Nuts. (3)

Paul Newman (Actor & Film Director) & Joanne Woodward (Actress): Newman celebrated his 1987 Academy Award for best actor at Wilkinson’s with wife Joanne Woodward and Tom Cruise and a date (4)

Notes:

Prior to Wilkinson’s, the site was home to Greek restaurant The Three Hours (c. 1973), followed by Irish bar Bannister’s. (5) The location is now occupied by Nirvana Lash and Nails Spa.

---

The decor featured seascape murals by artist Ted Seth Jacobs, (6) though New York Magazine critic Seymour Britchky seemed less than impressed with the restaurant’s visual aspect: “Part bordello, part saloon, and part little-old-ladies’ tearoom, the restaurant’s appointments look as if they were chosen at a council of warring partners: brick walls and pink walls, pink linen on the tables and muted candy stripes on the banquettes, brass trim on the bar and four-bladed fans on the ceiling, a couple of murals done with a makeup-kit palette and a painting of a naked lady with a snake around her leg.” (7)

---

Chef Shirley King later published several cookbooks including Saucing the Fish (1986) and Fish, The Basics: All the Information Needed to Select and Cook Every Kind of Fish and Shellfish (1990).

Recipes:

Broiled Red Snapper with Garlic-Vinegar Sauce

(1) Britchky, 1985.
(2) “Newman Cruisin’ on Victory Lane,” New York Post, April 1, 1987.*
(3) “Juice Club. New York Post, May 12, 1986.*
(4) New York Post, 1987.
(5) Shorell, Irma. “Seen & Heard.” Women’s Wear Daily 127, 53 (September 14, 1973): 14; Draheim, 1984.
(6) Draheim, 1984.
(7) Britchky, 1985.

*Photocopies of these publications can be viewed on this Flickr page.

Cover photo: Background: Photo by Donal Holway in Seymour Britchky, “Fish and Chips.” New York Magazine 18, 22 (June 3, 1985): 74. Foreground: Rich’s Retro. “Rare Vintage Matches Matchbox York Ave New York City Wilkinson’s Restaurant Ex.” Matchbook. Ebay. Accessed June 20, 2025. (Edited by NYCRA, June 21, 2025).