A fresh start for the annual Seafood Festival

For 17 years, the New Jersey Fresh Seafood Festival was a staple at Gardner's Basin, a picturesque spot on the bay side of Absecon Island. But housing was taking away precious parking space, so its nonprofit sponsors saw little hope of continuing it in 2007.

Tony Sbarra, though, thought that was just what he didn't want to see in his version of what Atlantic City should be.

"I hated that we lost Miss America, and that we're going to lose the rides on Steel Pier after this summer," said Sbarra, who runs Off the Wall Productions, an entertainment and marketing company in nearby Hammonton. "To lose a family event like a seafood festival, well, it just was not going to be right."

Sbarra, a board member of the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce, decided to act in March, and this weekend he is presenting the first Atlantic City Seafood Festival on the grounds of Bernie Robbins Stadium along the Black Horse Pike.

"That's not a lot of lead time, and people assumed we weren't going to do this before 2008," he said. "But I said that if we wait a year, we might as well fold it up. You don't do these things every year, and people find something else to do."

Fortuitously, said Sbarra, Phillips Seafood came to town with a new outlet on Level 3 at the Pier Shops at Caesars and wanted to establish a presence in Atlantic City.

"They want to get their name out, and a seafood festival was right up their alley," said Sbarra.

Phillips will be highlighting its soft-shell crabs and crab cakes at the festival, which will have 25 food vendors on the parking lot areas around the stadium. Among the other vendors will be Hooters, which will have Buffalo shrimp and scallops; A Dam Good Sports Bar from the Quarter at the Tropicana, featuring crab, clam and shrimp dishes; and Atlantic City Bar and Grill, with its signature snow crabs and U-peel shrimp. Despite the seafood emphasis, Sbarra assured that there will be some barbecue and burgers, too.

The $5 entrance fee for adults ($3 for kids 3-12) includes all-day entertainment each day, with both local classic-rock cover bands like the No Relation Band, out of Collingswood, and Eddie's Garage, from Mays Landing, and headliners Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, making its only South Jersey appearance of the summer in South Jersey at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon.

There will be a kiddie corner with magicians, clowns, face-painting, speed pitch, soccer challenges and other interactive games. Each night, the festival will end just before the Atlantic City Surf game in the adjacent stadium. The New Haven Cutters will be in for a weekend series in Can-Am League action. *

Atlantic City Seafood Festival, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. today and tomorrow, Bernie Robbins Stadium, 545 N. Albany Ave., Atlantic City. $5, $3 ages 3-12, under 3 free, www.acseafoodfest.com, 609-561-8994.