It’s Durgin-Park, suburban-style

Blackstone Tavern is a throwback to the basic fish, meat, and apple pie restaurants that used to rule the South Shore dining scene. And I mean that in a nice way.

The restaurant, which opened in May, is run by Kevin Kelley, whose family owned the venerable Durgin-Park restaurant in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace for more than 30 years before selling it in 2007.

Durgin-Park, which dates to the 1820s, is famous for classic Boston cuisine, cramped family-style seating, and surly waitresses.

Luckily, the Blackstone Tavern’s wait staff practices a more courteous craft. And the restaurant’s tables, covered in white cloths, are spaced generously around the pleasantly renovated site. Our table for four had ample elbow room and was high enough to accommodate a diner in a wheelchair.

Close your eyes and open your mouth, though, and you could be back at Durgin-Park. The food at the Blackstone Tavern is hearty, New England fare, the comfort food of a previous generation.

The menu includes a pot roast dinner, New England corned beef, and baked Boston scrod, as well as fried and broiled seafood platters, clam chowder, and appetizers of cherrystones, oysters on the half-shell, mussels, and steamers.

If you’re looking for a break from trendy or exotic eating, you’re in the right place here.

We ordered the crab cakes ($12) to start and they arrived hot, huge, and mild, with a tangy side of coleslaw.

With four kinds of hand-cut steaks to choose from, we picked the porterhouse ($26) - an enormous piece of meat that practically filled the plate. The steak was hot, tasty, and cooked rare, as requested. The accompanying mashed potatoes and butternut squash both had a homemade texture and gentle seasoning.

With so many seafood options on the menu, we felt compelled to try one. The baked scallops ($21) were excellent, bubbling in a buttery sauce that managed to taste light. A side of baked beans was heavy on the molasses, and the mixed vegetables were tender but not mushy.

The roast stuffed turkey ($15.50) came with mashed potatoes and green beans; the thick slices of meat were moist and flavorful.

The only disappointment was the strawberry shortcake ($6), which didn’t live up to its “fresh’’ billing. Other desserts include apple pie, Indian pudding, ice cream, and sundaes.

Blackstone Tavern has a wide range of beers and wines and a large selection of exotic martinis. A bar area is separated from the rest of the dining room.

Entree prices range from about $15 to $30, with hamburgers and chicken sandwiches at $9 and chowders from $4 to $6.

Blackstone Tavern is in the building on Route 3A that was occupied for years by KoKo Island restaurant. More recent attempts to succeed there have been short-lived, first with Acapulco’s and then Pacini’s, which closed after nine months.

Blackstone Tavern opened quietly and its owners recently decided there wasn’t enough business to warrant staying open for lunch.

There were only a few diners in the restaurant on the Tuesday night we were there, but they looked happy with their dinners. We enjoyed ours, too, and the memories they evoked.

JOHANNA SELTZ