Oyster Week
Best oysters delivered, Le Baron Rouge, Oyster Shack & Seafood Bar, Eventide, The Jolly Oyster, Grassy Bar Oyster Co., MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Oyster Week
FOUND’s first-ever Oyster Week unfurled across FOUND’s six cities this week. If you haven’t had the chance to explore FOUND in its individual markets, Oyster Week is an especially good time to do so: NY, LA, SF, Miami, London, and Paris await, and the delights are myriad (and mostly ungated for your reading pleasure).
Here at FOUND Global, we begin with an appreciation of the love of oysters from one of our most lyrical writers, FOUND Paris’s Candice Chemel. Pour yourself a crisp glass of Muscadet and dive in.
GETAWAYS • Oyster Week
Rites of passage
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to love oysters. The idea of standing at a bar table with a dozen oysters and a small glass of white wine was my vision of French romanticism, the nonchalance of a good product that needs nothing else.
I loved the idea of oysters. I loved Ponge’s idea of them. I loved watching my father order them at the bistro, and I wanted to savor them, too. I wanted to understand them, and I eventually got there by roundabout means. I already loved rye bread, butter, and red wine vinegar with shallots. I would make myself soaked slices of bread, and that was my first way in.
When in Paris, I love going to Le Baron Rouge next to the Marché d’Aligre. There, I find an atmosphere very close to the spirit of the markets in Normandy, with a hint of the Southwest in its conviviality. Right after getting my groceries, I head there, order some oysters, and stand at the counter, making my way through the whites by the glass. I love the ambiance — surrounded by barrels, popular and packed — from an old man having his usual order of oysters and Muscadet, to groups of friends, and the last time I went, a father teaching his daughter about wine, each one ordering blindly for the other. We ended up talking about Réunionnais cuisine for hours. This is the place where I could spend all of my Saturdays. They even let you take a little piece home by filling liters of wine directly from the barrel.
My ideal pairing, though, comes from my own cellar. A Ladiv 2015 from my favorite Swiss-Piedmontese winemaker in Dogliani, Marcello Reichmuth, both pirate and magician. From his favorite color, he produces a macerated Vidal of unusual breadth and depth. Just as comfortable with the freshness of the oyster as with the iodized bitterness of a violet. In fact, I think I never really understood the meaning of the word “iodized” until I tasted sea figs, which lie somewhere between the sensation of swallowing seawater, and the undeniable understanding that bitterness is an acquired taste.
I don’t really remember my first oyster, but I must have drowned it in vinegar and lemon to make sure I liked the taste. Little by little, I reduced the seasoning until today, when I prefer them naked or enhanced with the slightest drop of lemon. Lemon isn’t even really necessary, but it gives the (slightly cruel?) satisfaction of checking the oyster’s freshness by watching it retract its lips.
I didn’t, however, want to move on to tasting them hot, fried, or gratinéed. I quickly associated that with the customs of warmer countries, where I feared they might spoil, and preferred to avoid that kind of interaction altogether.
Until last summer in Brittany, that is, when I discovered steamed oysters. Tossed closed into a steamer basket, three minutes later, they emerge transformed. They must be eaten immediately so they don’t become rubbery. Without adding anything, they are already seasoned: the water trapped inside their pearly enclosure concentrates during cooking until it develops notes of soy sauce, a deep salinity that transforms the entire aromatic profile of the product, while remaining the simplest recipe in the world. –Candice Chemel
→ Le Baron Rouge (12th arr, Paris) • 1 Rue Théophile Roussel • Mon 5-10p, Tue-Thu 10a-2p & 5-10p, Fri-Sat 10a-2p & 5-9p, Sun 10a-4p • Walk-ins only.
GETAWAYS • Oyster Week
Select answers to the Oyster Week query, what’s the coolest oyster experience you’ve ever had?
→ MARY ATTEA, executive chef, Raf’s, The Musket Room, Cafe Zaffri (NY): There’s a small boat rental called Jetty Fishery and Marina along the coast of Oregon, on the Nehalem River. Before (or after) you embark on a leiLe Nasurely boat ride up the coast, there’s a seafood shack attached where you can get live oysters, clams, crabs, and more. Pass the time by shucking your own oysters while they steam up a seafood boil. Along with an ice cold beer and the picturesque views, it can’t be beat.
→ MAX VENNING, co-founder of Three Sheets (LDN): Fresh oysters in Port Talbot, Wales right by the beach, lingers long in the memory. But my absolute favourite is mid-September in Cap Ferret, cycling between the oyster cabins with my fiancée, drinking some amazing wines overlooking Le Bassin. It’s an experience that’s hard to top for anyone really into oysters.
→ ABRAM BISSELL, culinary director, Pauline at The Shelborne by Proper (Miami): Fried oysters piled into a po’ boy will always be hard to beat for me; crisp, briny, and dripping onto good bread. The Big Easy in Raleigh, NC makes an incredible one; pairing it with fried green tomatoes and a bourbon lemonade is my go-to. But some of the most memorable oysters I’ve had were wild ones in the Carolinas, pulled straight from the water with a little splash of spicy vinegar eaten right there. No frills, just the oyster and the place it came from.
→ JOHN MCDONALD, restaurateur, Lure Fishbar & Seahorse (NY): About 20 years ago, I went to a restaurant just outside of Normandy for a friend’s wedding. The place, Au Pied d’Cheval, still sticks in my memory. We walked out into the ocean with the oyster farmers, opened oysters, and ate them precisely at the moment they were pulled out.
GETAWAYS • London
Woodland oysters
Tucked into the marvellous ancient woodland of Epping Forest on the fringes of London, the semi-legendary Oyster Shack & Seafood Bar is essentially a lean-to, propped up between the grand King’s Oak Hotel pub and its carpark. But don’t let the endearingly tumbledown nature fool you. The dedicated and wonderfully chatty team serves up the finest and freshest seafood for miles.
On a sunny day, the queue might be an hour long for the shiny silver platters of oysters ferried to al fresco picnic benches and tables under the shack’s well-loved tarp. I like to visit on a bleaker, chillier day, when instant oyster gratification is guaranteed. Either way, the oysters are served simply — tangy pink mignonette, a wedge of lemon and a bottle of Tabasco — and are half the price of any Mayfair raw bar, with the cheapest half dozen going for a mere £12. ––Leonie Cooper
AROUND FOUND • Oyster Week Intel & Recs
→ OYSTER GETAWAYS: More oyster-focused ideas for your next journey:
The Dunlin, a serene South Carolina coastal escape surrounded by oyster beds — and the oystercatchers to match
The secret sauce (well, ice) that makes Portland, Maine’s Eventide one of the best pure oyster counters on the East Coast
A truck-turned-seaside-shuck-shack, permanently parked at Ventura’s San Buenaventura State Beach, The Jolly Oyster is one of Calfornia’s top oyster destinations
The Grassy Bar Oyster Company, also on the California coast, to watch boats spilling oysters onto the dock that are then shucked on the spot
The oysters raised in the Bay of Mont Saint Michel, France that are some of the very best in the world — and the two essential ways to enjoy them
The Sportsman in Kent, England, where the signature oyster is poached with pickled cucumber and Avruga caviar
→ OYSTER ROUTINES: Notable people in the oyster trade shared their Routines with us this week, ranging from Bobby Groves, the head of oysters at London’s Chiltern Firehouse (“it’s wet business shucking on the cobbles”), to Christopher Sherman, CEO of Massachusetts’ Island Creek Oysters (“Yes, I do get to eat a lot of oysters and caviar for work, but it is almost always early in the morning standing over a stainless steel table in a walk-in refrigerator”), to John Finger, co-founder and CEO of California’s Hog Island Oyster Co., who checks in from his oyster farm “right on the shore of Tomales Bay and where our company started back in the ’80s.”
→ OYSTER NINES: All the oyster that’s fit to print.
MIA: Best oyster spots
RESTAURANTS • Oyster Week
Select answers to the Oyster Week query, what’s your go-to spot for oysters and seafood?
→ CODY PRUITT, owner, Libertine & Chateau Royale (NY): My personal favorite oyster ritual in New York City is to pick up a couple dozen from Lobster Place in Chelsea Market, meet a date or a friend along the Hudson River Park, and simply shuck and chat for hours. Truth be told, I’ve been waiting eight months to do it again. If I have to choose a restaurant, though, there’s still not much better — or more New York — than sitting at the bar at Balthazar with a proper shellfish tower, fries, and a bottle of Meursault. Although the city has many newer seafood spots, none of them are remotely as comfortable or as chic, and they’re often just too cheffy when all I want is unadorned perfect shellfish. Beyond New York, it’s all about J Sheekey and Scott’s in London, Le Duc and Clamato in Paris, The Ordinary and Chubby Fish in Charleston, and Found Oyster in LA.
→ CONNER MITCHELL, chef & owner, Dudley Market (LA): Typically we eat ‘em at our spot Dudley in Venice Beach, but elsewhere in Los Angeles, I go to Found Oyster (East Hollywood), Queen’s Raw Bar & Grill (Eagle Rock), and Scopa (Venice Beach) — with a shoutout to its surprisingly good presentation.
→ LOUISE PERRY, chef, L’Oursin (Paris): First, La Mascotte in Monmartre. It’s very nostalgic for me. My parents used to go there for day drinking, and I remember the tanks with lobsters and langoustines. Going back today really reminds me why I got into cooking in the first place, and where my love for seafood, fish, and beautiful products comes from. Then there’s Poissonnerie Kennedy in Marseille. After a swim, it’s the perfect place to sit on their terrace in the courtyard, have some seafood, and drink one of their amazing bottles of white wine. Simple, but kind of perfect.
→ ROBERTA HALL MCCARRON, owner, The Little Chartroom, Ardfern & Eleanore (Edinburgh): Newhaven Fishmarket on a warm summer evening overlooking the water and enjoying some of the most delicious seafood in Edinburgh.
ABOUT FOUND • Oyster Art
This week’s special Oyster Week headers are by Dair Massey, who also designed the original FOUND headers. He shared this note on his inspiration for the project:
For the style, I went with a watercolor look that I think spans the FOUND colors well. I got inspired by a Vietnamese spot, Cyclo, that Xiaoye and I used to frequent in LIC. One of the waitresses there illustrated the menu using a mix of watercolor and colored pencil, which felt peak for this. Clay pot ginger chicken is killer.
Here’s the full set, along with an alternate batch we considered:
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Oysters, delivered
Hama Hama Company (WA, above), family-run shellfish farm w/ beds in cold Washington State rivers w/ oyster selection including pre-frozen shucked and monthly CSA, from $75 for 36