Olde Silver Tavern Celebrates First Anniversary Since Re-Opening

MANALAPAN, NJ — Olde Silver Tavern is officially celebrating its first anniversary since reopening in Manalapan.

Known for its gastropub menu and traditional American tavern fare, the restaurant was previously closed in 2009 due to damages from a fire.

In January 2014, the Manalapan Planning Board approved the site’s final plans to reopen, and in September 2024, the tavern celebrated its first year back in the Manalapan community.

For restaurant owners, Vanessa and Gus DiFiglia and James and Sandra Lawson, the tavern’s first anniversary is one that’s close to the heart. Olde Silver Tavern is a town landmark, and James Lawson said he knows how much the space means to Manalapan residents.

“I’ve lived in the community since 1999,” Lawson said. “I visited the old place [before the tavern was closed], my children all went to Manalapan High School — we were in the old venue at least once a week.”

When the opportunity presented itself for Lawson to buy the tavern with his wife Sandra and fellow couple Vanessa and Gus DiFiglia, Lawson said it was “a no-brainer.”

“I think we brought a beautiful building and facility back to life,” Lawson said. “The old place was kind of collapsing on itself, and I think now we have a facility that suits the area and can handle the amount of people.”

For the Lawsons and DiFiglias, revitalizing Olde Silver Tavern was about more than just physical repairs.

According to James Lawson, many of the restaurant’s patrons grew up in the tri-state area. As someone who worked in Brooklyn for almost 30 years, Lawson said he wanted to re-create the sense of community customers were familiar with at establishments back home.

“I think what we’re trying to do is recreate what made it really good without the structural and physical deficiencies the old place had,” Lawson said. “Many people that live in this area now are from the New York tri-state area, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and we want to re-create that sense of community, where, you know, the tavern becomes a meeting place — it’s a public house.”

According to Vanessa DiFiglia, the tavern’s “public house” function can have multiple purposes.

"We do celebrations, we've had baptisms, baby showers, birthdays, retirements," DiFiglia said. "Plus, we're very sports-oriented. We have televisions around the bar and on the patio, so people can come and watch games."

Whether it’s a birthday celebration, town meeting, or just a group of friends who want to watch a game, the restaurant's owners want Olde Silver Tavern to be the first option for community gatherings.

“We want to be that place where people are like ‘Oh wow, they have space,’ or ‘Oh, they have that extra room,’” Lawson said. “And not just community in Manalapan, but the surrounding towns also. There’s value to being able to sit down and talk face-to-face that you can’t get on Zoom.”

More than anything, the owners want customers to know that, to them, they’re more than customers. When people visit Olde Silver Tavern, James Lawson and Vanessa DiFiglia said they want them to feel like they’re at home.

“They’re not customers,” Lawson said. “They become friends. We know their names, we know their kids’ names, we know what schools their kids go to. We know what team you root for because that’s what we've done for almost 30 years.”

“Running the restaurant is something we love,” Lawson continued. “But what we love more is getting together and having people enjoy themselves.”

To learn more about Olde Silver Tavern, you can visit their website.

Olde Silver Tavern is located at 149 Freehold Road, Manalapan.

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• Olde Silver Tavern Restaurant To Come Back to Life