Oyster Flight Nights at Blue Plate Oysterettes 11/17 & 18

Nov 10, 2015

I’ll be hosting “Rowan’s Choice” nights at the spectacular Blue Plate Oysterettes in Los Angeles (Nov 17) and Santa Monica (Nov 18). They’ll be offering my hand-picked “Oyster Flight” of six of the world’s great oysters (plus a bonus Olympia) for the insanely good price of $15. All the oysters are being airlifted in for the event, so they’ll be super fresh. Swing by, grab a beer with me, and catch your flight. Here’s the rundown:

Blue Plate Oyster Flight Night

Island Creek

Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts

The quintessential Northeast oyster. As briny as it gets. Tastes like a New England clambake in a shell.

Moon Shoal

Barnstable Harbor, Cape Cod

Highly coveted oyster farmed in tiny quantities by full-time fireman Jon Martin in Barnstable Harbor, which was named Port aux Huitres (“Oyster Harbor”) by Samuel de Champlain when he discovered it in 1606. Deep-cupped oysters with a lobster-bisque finish.

Puffer’s Petites

Wellfleet Harbor, Cape Cod

The most famous oyster ground in New England is Wellfleet, known for intensely briny, earthy, full-flavored oysters, and the best are grown from wild-caught spat by father-and-son team Irving and Jake Puffer. Two freshwater streams balance the classic Wellfleet brine with a sweet minerality.

Northern Cross

Fishermen’s Island, Virginia

A unique hybrid cross of two royal lines of oysters: Island Creeks from Massachusetts and Chincoteagues from Virginia. Farmed oceanside near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay by a man named (I kid you not) Bubba Frisbee. Very salty and vegetal with a walnut finish.

Kumamoto

Chapman’s Cove, Puget Sound

Kumamotos are a small, notoriously finicky species of oyster from Japan. They grow happily in only a few places on earth, and their favorite place of all is a tiny little bay tucked into the very, very bottom of Puget Sound called Chapman’s Cove. These are them. Amazingly sweet and fruity with a melon-rind finish.

Shigoku

Willapa Bay, Washington

The latest innovation in oysters is tumbling: The oysters are grown in bags attached to floats that spin in the tides, tossing the oysters around and polishing their shells into smooth, gleaming gems. It also gives the oysters a workout, resulting in plump, firm, extra-sweet nuggets with a clean cucumber bite. Shigokus are the tumbling stars.

Olympia

Totten Inlet, Puget Sound

The only oyster native to the West Coast, Olympias used to grow from BC to Baja. Now they are found in just a handful of places and are one of the rarest oysters in the country. They are tiny, but pack a powerful punch of tomato water, celery salt, and Worcestershire sauce, like pint-sized Bloody Marys.

Posted in New Discoveries