A new Oyster House opening on Sansom

Tonight is the scheduled opening of Oyster House - representing the top-to-bottom redo of Sansom Street Oyster House - at 1516 Sansom St. (215-567-7683).

It's open for dinner Mondays through Saturdays. Lunch, same days, will follow in about 10 days.

SSOH, under different ownership, closed last summer.

Founder David Mink, who owned the bricks, is behind the moderate-priced seafooder with his son, Sam, who most recently was a manager at Distrito and Amada.

A little history: David Mink opened SSOH in 1976, the year that Sam was born. David's father, Sam, got into the seafood biz in 1947 - the year David was born - when he bought Kelly's on Mole Street. (The younger Sam has no children.)

Kelly's, just off Market Street near 16th Street, closed in 1969 to make way for Centre Square. Kelly's briefly moved into 1620 Ludlow St., now beneath One Liberty Place. David Mink sold the business to Cary Neff in 2000. Mink took it back after the business filed for bankruptcy protection last summer.

For Oyster House, Brett Webber Architects gutted the interior down to the wainscoting. The space is wide open and vaguely industrial (thanks to exposed steel), with a white-subway-tile-backed drinking bar and oyster bar toward the front. The white bar and oyster bar tops are made from marble landscaping salvaged from Independence Mall. Whitewashed brick walls are adorned with the Mink family's collection of oyster plates. Tables and part of the floor were made from 19th-century oak salvaged from the roof of the Academy of Music.

Chef Greg Ling has a rotating selection at the L-shaped raw bar (where some original shuckers are working), plus updated classics: grilled sardines with slow-cooked tomato, sea-urchin butter, and crostini; "dirty shrimp" steamed in beer and Chesapeake-style spices; grilled bluefish with cucumber salad, skordalia, and roasted lemon sauce. Dishes will be served at the raw bar between lunch and dinner.

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