Manufacturer: Shenango China
User: Sharf's Restaurant
Pattern name: St. Marie, underglaze transfer print pattern, #6259
Date of butter pat: 1930s – 1948

1941 exterior, interior

bar/soda fountain

1941 grand opening

1941 opening ad announcing soda fountain

The address in 2026

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Notes: No so-called smoking gun has been found to tie this butter pat directly to Sharf's Restaurant in Phoebus, Virginia – now part of the present-day city of Hampton at the convergence of the James River and Chesapeake Bay – but that said, it is the only likely candidate found thus far. This information can then serve as a placeholder until such time as it is either confirmed or new information leads us in a different direction.

The first mentions found of Max Sharf, the proprietor of Sharf's Restaurant at 38 Mellen Street, were ads since at least 1930 for a market or grocery that he operated at a different Mellen Street address.

Then a want ad appeared in the May 3, 1940, Daily Press seeking a "reliable girl over 21 to work in Max Sharf's Sandwich Shop, 38 Mellen Street, Phoebus." And that is the location that would become Sharf's Restaurant.

An ad, shown above, in the Feb. 16, 1941, Daily Press shows the plain exterior of Sharf's as well as its interior with a center bar/soda fountain rimmed with stools and with booths on at least two sides, and this gives the address as 36-38 Mellen, indicating they had expanded from their start as a sandwich shop. An additional photo shows the interior in clearer detail.

By 1946, the Daily Press also ran ads for Sharf's Delicatessen, but it seems to have been short-lived and was for sale in January 1947 and was sold in June of that year.

Back to Sharf's Restaurant, however, by 1947, Max Sharf's wife Fannie J. Sharf was the restaurant's proprietor. And 1947 was the last ad or news story found for the restaurant.

In 1953, a bankruptcy notice was published for Max Sharf and the sale of a "1951 2-door Plymouth Business Coupe."

He died at 49 on Jan. 9, 1954.

It is not known when Sharf's closed, but it is now – 2026 – Fuller's Raw Bar, and in the interim has been the home of numerous bars and restaurants.

Contributor:
Susan Phillips, butter pat photos