YORK — For 50 years, Nick’s Seafood Pavilion in Yorktown was as much a legend in the community as the nearby centuries-old battlefield.
Greek immigrants Nikolaos Matheos of Arkasa and Mary Pappamihalopoulou of Sparta, known affectionally as “Mister Nick” and “Miss Mary” Mathews, turned a small café on the waterfront into a large restaurant known the world over.
Thousands of patrons, including governors, U.S. senators and a vast array of celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Tony Bennett, enjoyed the excellent seafood and the artistic décor of the eatery from its construction in 1952 until it closed in 2003.
In recognition of the 80th anniversary of the opening of Nick and Mary’s original restaurant, the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown will hold a vintage dinner party on Sept. 7. The “History Makers Dinner: A Tribute to Nick’s Seafood Pavilion” will also include a preview of the scheduled March 2025 exhibit, “Patrons & Patriots: The Legacy of Nick and Mary Mathews.”
As a fundraiser to support the upcoming special exhibition, tickets are $200 per person and include a three-course seafood dinner based on Nick’s original menus, including Lobster Bien Dien, seafood shish kabobs (Nick’s own creation) and a trio of desserts.
The restaurant opened in 1944 when, after visiting Mary’s sister who lived in Yorktown, the couple became enchanted with the community and decided to move south from New York City.
“Nick found a site he wanted and made the owner an offer he couldn’t refuse,” recalled longtime employee Jim Krikales.
Nick called his new eatery the Seashore Pavilion and operated there until he built a new building eight years afterward on adjacent property. Three expansions later the building included a large dining room at the rear — the Nile Room — with a running water feature.
Through the years, Nick and Mary were extremely successful, according to Krikales. “They were successful because of hard work, long hours and good food. Mr. Nick always said, ‘Give them what they paid for plus a little extra.’”
Many local friends received complimentary meals from the Mathewses. “Miss Mary often picked up their checks,” said Anne Krikales, Jim’s wife and also a longtime employee. “The customers would say you can’t do that and she would say, ‘OK, next time,’ but there was never a next time.”
The Krikaleses live in York County, just a few miles from their old workplace.
Nick Mathews was generous wherever he went, Jim Krikales remembered. “When he played golf, he would always tip everyone, invite them to the restaurant and then pick up the tab.”
There was an occasion one weekend when a Boy Scout troop was visiting after they had biked through the area. “While they were eating at Nick’s, three boys had their bikes stolen. Mary was so upset that she called the sheriff to find someone to open a bike shop so she could buy replacement bikes. They always did little things like that.”
In addition to operating a restaurant, Nick and Mary Mathews also were philanthropists, honoring many events and people in their beloved United States and Yorktown, which she called “the beginning of our freedom.” Krikales added, “They both loved the military. If you came into the restaurant with a uniform on, you didn’t pay.”
In 1971 the proposed Yorktown Victory Center, one of the state’s three planned bicentennial centers, was to be built in Newport News because no property could be obtained near the Yorktown Battlefield.
Nick and Mary, upset that Yorktown was not going to be the center’s location, decided to donate 23 acres of real estate overlooking the York River near the Yorktown waterfront. “They went to Richmond a number of times to try to get the state to accept their gift. They just couldn’t believe they had to work to donate the land,” said Krikales, who for the last 18 of his 40 years at Nick’s was general manager.
Krikales recalled when a group of businessmen came to Nick wanting to buy the land. “They wanted to build a hotel,” Krikales said. “He said, ‘no,’ and they upped the price. Finally, they offered about $700,000 and he still refused to sell.
“’What are you going to do with that land?’ they asked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘maybe I’ll go up there and hunt deer.’” Krikales said Nick went back into the kitchen. The businessmen said, “‘He’s crazy,’ then just got up and left.”
The Victory Center operated for more than 30 years before it evolved into a new building and new concept — the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown — that was dedicated to the Mathewses, who are buried in a marble tomb on the grounds.
Upon her death in 1998 at age 82, Mary Mathews left her entire estate, including Nick’s Seafood Pavilion, to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Trust, a fundraising and development arm of the state agency that ran the Victory Center.
Nick died on April 14, 1983, during an airplane flight to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the couple was going for the christening of the U.S. Navy’s new guided-missile cruiser, USS Yorktown. Although grief-stricken, Mary asked that the program continue, completing her assigned task of christening the ship.
Nick’s closed in 2003 after it was effectively destroyed by Hurricane Isabel and its drastic storm surge.
The decor of the restaurant, which included large paintings, massive chandeliers and Nubian statues purchased by Mary, often attracted as much attention as the food. “Mary would hear about an antique store going out of business and would go there and buy everything. She really never knew all she had bought until the truck rolled up with everything inside,” Krikales added.
One writer described the decorations as “over-the-top gaudiness” but admitted that to the restaurant’s fans, “it was one of its main attractions.”
Wilford Kale, kalehouse@aol.com
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If you go
Where: In the lobby of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, 200 Water St.
When: Sept. 7, 6-9 p.m.
Price: $200 a person, available online at jyfmuseums.org/nicks-seafood. Sponsorships available.
Details: Proceeds from the fundraiser support the upcoming “Patrons & Patriots: The Legacy of Nick and Mary Mathews” exhibition scheduled to run March 5 through July 27, 2025, and future exhibitions at the museum. Guests are encouraged to share memories of the restaurant through written accounts or images at jyfmuseums.org/nicks-seafood.
![If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]](https://www.pilotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6SCYSOUXX5GSHC7UWSYZ2RSEAU.jpg?w=408 "If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]")
