Erin Shea, a native New Englander, grew up two miles from Silvershell Beach in Marion, MA. She spent her summers splashing in the ocean and eating her fill of fried clams and steamers. The Georgetown University grad met Chizmar while working at a restaurant in Boston and relocated to the Lehigh Valley over a decade ago with him to open their first restaurant, Bolete, in 2007. Their second restaurant, a ramen concept called Mister Lee’s Noodles open in Easton, PA, in 2015. Shea and Chizmar share a love for the quintessential cuisine of the Northeast, and thus, Silvershell Counter + Kitchen was born.

Lee Chizmar, originally from Allentown, Penn., has always had a strong relationship with food, ever since his introduction to oysters (still his favorite food) at the ripe age of three. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park in 2000, he traveled to San Francisco to work at Bradley Ogden's Lark Creek Inn in Marin County. There he developed his love for, appreciation of, and dedication to serving locally grown, seasonal ingredients. He visited farmers' markets where the tomatoes were enjoyed like apples and the back door of the kitchen was a rotating door of local farmers peddling their perfect produce. He spent four years there being mentored by Chef Jeremy Sewall and was thrilled to get the call when Sewall was putting together his "dream team" to travel back East and open Great Bay in Boston, for Chef Michael Schlow and celebrated restaurant guru Christopher Myers. Great Bay received great accolades upon opening, including "Best New Restaurant in the Country" by John Mariani of Esquire magazine. After quickly being promoted from sous chef to chef de cuisine in the first nine months, the young Chizmar was then asked to take the reins when Sewall left to open his own restaurant. It was in Boston that Chizmar was introduced to New England's bounty of the sea—access to some of the world’s freshest oysters, lobsters and fish—but more importantly, Erin, his future wife.