This article appeared in the May 21st Issue of TV Times
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By David Maull
TV Times

Scott Fornwalt's big break came on a winter day in 1983 while he was standing on the roof of Warren's Station restaurant in Fenwick Island. Fornwalt was helping friend and Warren's Station owner Jeff Mumford with an extensive remodeling of the restaurant when a realtor drove into the parking lot and asked if anyone wanted to purchase the Fenwick Crab House.

"That was my goal, to own a restaurant here in Fenwick Island," Fornwalt recalled. "He was looking to sell it to Jeff." But it was Fornwalt who bought the Crab House, which had been a Fenwick institution since 1962, and transformed it into one of the finest restaurants on the Delaware Coast.

In April, he began his 16th season as the restaurant's owner. "I feel very proud to have done what I've done," Fornwalt said. "We like Fenwick, we like catering to the people of Fenwick. We see generation after generation of families coming through the door." Fornwalt's career in restaurant management began with the teenage years he spent working for Mumford at Warren's. "I saw how easy Jeff had it and thought I wanted to do that," he joked.

Fornwalt eventually earned a four-year restaurant management degree from Michigan State University, where he also owned a catering service. After graduation, he spent three years working in a restaurant on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. "It was a wild time," he said. "Oh man, it was crazy." A severe motorcycle accident, however, brought Fornwalt back to Delaware for two years of recovery. In 1981, we went to work as a kitchen manager at the Rusty Rudder in Dewey Beach before purchasing the Crab House two years later.

One of his first tasks was to jazz up a restaurant that had only concrete floors and cinder block walls. "The restaurant was pretty plain when I went in there," Fornwalt said. "It was pretty spartan." Fornwalt and his wife Cathy spent the next 16 years remodeling the dining room into one of the most unique on the Eastern Shore. Most of the items adorning the walls were purchased during the couple's vacations. "Over the years we've collected stuff," he said. "It was a blast. It was a lot of fun."

Today, along with the stained-glass windows Fornwalt made himself, the dining room features advertising posters from decades past; autographed pictures of celebrities such as Paul Newman, Tom Selleck and Bob Hope and an electric train that runs on a track suspended from the ceiling. "We want to make it more of a dining experience," he said. But the decor is only secondary to the cuisine.

The menu features a large number of crab, lobster, shrimp and fish entrees along with chef's specials that include chicken, veal and beef. The menu has a cajun flavor, as evidenced by the Louisiana barbecued shrimp, jambalaya and blackened fish selections.

"When you're in a resort area, you have to cater to as many people as you can," Fornwalt said. "I feel like we do that pretty well." If he didn't, Fornwalt probably wouldn't be thriving as owner of a restaurant that is a favorite among both visitors and locals. "I'm very happy and have a nice life," he said.