The 21 Best Oyster Bars in the Country
By: Liz Childers and Kevin Alexander
Credit: Sara Norris
Now that it is oyster season, it’s time to celebrate that delicious food you promised yourself you’d never eat after watching the movie Dick Tracy, by highlighting some of the best places to get bivalves in the country. In order to keep things fresh and fair, we tried to stick almost exclusively to the coasts, and highlight the best from each of the main oyster-harvesting regions. Of course, we will have missed some, and we fully expect you to enlighten us in the comments, but until then, please peruse our list, and join us in daydreaming about ducking work to sit out by the water with a cold beer, a dozen oysters on the half-shell, and at least one to three personal bottles of hot sauce.
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Credit: Flickr/Nolan Williamson
Apalachicola, FL
Apalachicola is a quiet, sleepy fishing village in the old-school sense: the population is below 2,500, and, with 90% of Florida’s seafood harvest coming from Apalachicola Bay, it’s an easy guess what all of those boats are doing on the water as the sun rises each morning. Keep an eye out for one boat specifically: Boss Oyster. And then follow it when it heads from the oyster beds back to the seafood shack of the same name. Grab a seat on the deck and start slurping the oysters that just arrived. Then move onto an oyster po’boy or a bowl of oyster gumbo, or pile on the basically infinite number of oyster toppings they have, like bacon or artichokes or roe. You may actually need to practice to prep yourself for all the oyster options.
Credit: Scott Gold
New Orleans, LA
Tucked away on Magazine Street, Casamento’s is blessedly removed from the Quarter’s touristy oyster hubs, and it holds every aspect of a classic Southern oyster spot: the completely tiled space is reminiscent of a bathroom, the spot still shuts down in summer months, and a bizarrely fast shucker sits behind the counter when you walk in. Your only problem will be figuring out how many dozen you can have along with your squat glass of Dixie beer, before you have your oyster loaf: oysters fried in lard (because of course) and sandwiched between Texas toast.
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Credit: Eventide Oyster Co.
Portland, ME
It shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing Eventide on this list, as it made our best new restaurants list last year, and continues to be the best place in the Old Port to get amazing seafood, which is really, really saying something. Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley very much care about their oysters, which is why they offer up an extremely well-curated list from Maine and “Away”, and allow you to pick accoutrements, including three types of ice (get the Tabasco), and two mignonettes (get the Mimosa one). Also, if you like looking at things, we do recommend checking out that granite shellfish display while drinking their celery gimlet, which as they say, is “practically health food.”
Credit: Flickr/rainchurch
Davidson, TX
When you sell as many oysters as Gilhooley’s does, you don’t have to bother with trivial things like fancy ice, or refrigerators, or what not. You just pull the oysters out of the water, bring them over to patrons, and serve them right from the bag. Or you can opt for the namesake special (which we put on our iconic American foods list), which features roast oysters brushed with garlic butter and Parmesan, and then tucked into an oak and pecan-wood BBQ pit until the crust bubbles. Do yourself a favor — go in the winter, when the oysters are best. But save the ice to cool down your beers.
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Credit: Flickr/Jazz Guy
New York, NY
The OG of the East Coast oyster scene has sat deep in the belly of Grand Central since 1913, and, while its neighbor is now a Shake Shack, the dramatic, tiled & arching ceiling, commuter-filled bar seats, and famous oyster stew are still all old-school New York. And with a 30+ oyster selection — the best in the city — an impressive booze list, plates that draw from the best of Northeastern seafood and beyond (think ginger-steamed sole filet or grilled Maine scallops), and that same, 100+ year-old creamy oyster stew, the Oyster Bar remains worth a visit to commuter central, even without a train ticket.
Credit: Indian Pass Raw Bar
Port St. Joe, FL
Indian Pass Raw Bar is located halfway between Apalachicola and Port St. Joe. In other words, it is smack in the middle of nowhere. If you did happen to be traveling through this particular stretch of the Florida Panhandle, you would drive right on past. It’s a faded, boxy building with clapboard siding and a peaked roof, formerly housing the company store run by the current owner Jimmy Mack’s Grandmother. Drive slowly down these county roads so you can find the spot and stop in for a few dozen. Don’t expect anything fancy: it’s just shrimp, crab legs, gumbo, the basic meat rotation of hamburgers & corn dogs, and the giant, briny oysters that get pulled from the bay each morning. Which, really, is all you need anyway.
Credit: Sara Norris
San Diego, CA
As if Consortium Holdings couldn’t get any cooler, the people behind Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine created this beautiful gem in an old Little Italy warehouse, and have made it into one of the best oyster spots in SoCal. Aside from delicious bivalves from the likes of Kusshi, Fat Bastard, Minter Sweet Select, and Kumamoto, they’ve got Old Bay Mexican shrimp, Baja summer clams, and chowder fries. Yep. Chowder. Fries. And best of all, on top of having damn chowder fries, they’ve got one of the baddest-ass (it’s a word!) bar programs to ever match with a raw bar, including 50 cocktails, like one made IN A KILLER WHALE TIKI MUG.
Credit: Maison Premiere
New York, NY
Since it opened as a cocktail and oyster haven, the NOLA-inspired Maison Premiere has expanded to a full seafood-based menu. Which is great and all, but you’re still coming for the amazing cocktails (the program was James Beard-nominated this year) and the extensive East Coast oyster lineup. The 33-strong list ranges from Massachusetts’ Wellfleets to PEI’s Malpeques to Rhode Island’s East Beach Blondes. If you can elbow your way through the hoards for $1 happy hour, do. It’ll be the best price-for-selection deal you can find in NYC. Then save room for that full kitchen and, like, maybe eleventy cocktails.
Credit: Flickr/mylerdude
Marshall, CA
As you get up to Tomales Bay, you will be tempted to stop at one of the other great oyster bars you can hit before you get to the Marshall Store on Route 1. Don’t. Marshall is the smallest, and the best: just a tiny little storefront from which you order oysters pulled from the bay in one of six styles. Our move is to get a dozen fresh, and then sample all the others (Chorizo will blow you mind, and the Kilpatrick with bacon and Worcestershire might even be better) while perched out overlooking the bay from one of their few wooden tables sitting atop barrels sipping some cold beers. But do yourself a favor: tell everyone else it’s probably worth it to stop before the Store.
Credit: Flickr/Todd Van Hoosear
South Kingstown, RI
After earning a masters in aquaculture and fisheries technology from University of Rhode Island, Perry Raso took out a one-acre lease in RI’s Potter Pond. That was 2002. He now has seven acres, two oyster varietals — Matunuck Oysters and Potter Moon Oysters — and, since 2007, an oyster bar whose dock juts into the pond where Raso hauls out his Rhody oysters. Continuing the mission of promoting local seafood and sustainability, the bar serves its own small, light oysters alongside others from RI, so diners can taste the subtle differences between each of the mollusks.
Credit: Merroir
Topping, VA
It takes effort to get to Merroir, the tasting space from the Rappahannock Oyster Co. folks. You have to skip out on DC’s Rappahannock Oyster Bar or bypass Richmond’s Rappahannock, the upscale spot from the team, and take a winding, one-hour drive. But going to the Topping spot lets you return to the basic of these restaurants: you’ll be seated on a patio staring out at the Rappahannock River, where the crew grows their trio of oysters. The small-plate menu has seasonal goods, like pan-seared scallops, plus a stellar double cheeseburger, but it’s all centered around the three oyster varietals — each is cultivated in a different area of the river, so the texture, flavor, and salinity varies. And booze choices don’t slack just because you’re an hour from the fancier branches of the company’s eateries: there’s 10 craft beers on tap, plus a solid wine list for all the sunset, river-side sipping you can handle.
Credit: Flickr/Tim Sackton
Boston, MA
Back 10 or so years ago, when Neptune opened on a side street in the deeply Italian North End of Boston, I didn’t understand what was happening. Why is this tiny seafood spot opening amongst all the red-sauce and cannoli places, I wondered aloud to my food writer friend who first took me there. I dunno, she said, but just shut up and eat. And that I did, and was forever changed by their amazing selection of oysters from both coasts, their Wellfleet clam chowder, and a famous lobster roll I’ve long publicly swooned over. Ever since those days, the place has been packed nightly with people overflowing along their long bar or tucked into one of their few tables, but all gladly doing what I eventually learned to do: just shutting up, and eating.
Credit: Squire Fox
Charleston, SC
It already frustrates me to no end that I always want to eat everything I see coming out of Charleston, but Mike Lata’s Southern-style ocean eatery might just make me the hangriest. Already on our 33 best restaurant openings from last year, they win for their creative oyster moves, including bivalves done crispy alongside beef tartare, broiled with hotel butter and Parm, and — our favorite — smoked with saltines and hot sauce. We could mention everything else on the menu, but that will just put me too far over the edge. I’m already looking at real estate.
Credit: Thrillist
Washington, DC
You might argue that a second-floor bar with a bocce court and solid booze selection is the star of the 14th Street spot. And cocktails, like the Four Roses, grapefruit, and ginger maple syrup Maple Derby, and a solid beer lineup do make Black Jack the best waiting spot. But the bar sits above Pearl Dive, a three-year-old seafood spot with an oyster program so impressive you can order their own varietal: the beautifully balanced, buttery, yet salty Old Black Salt Oysters grown with the help of the folks from Rappahannock Oyster Co. You can slurp them alongside bivalves from both coasts, but hopefully you can work in a game of bocce upstairs before you get a seat at the tiny raw bar.
Credit: Scott Gold
New Orleans, LA
The NOLA ode to Gulf seafood is only a year old and their unconventional spins, most notably with the tip-to-tail fish dish, earned Peche the Best New Restaurant James Beard title for last year. But the simple raw bar is just as impressive as their hot dishes, bringing a wide selection of oysters from across the country to a region known for being passionately dedicated to their own huge, briny bivalves. Those are, of course, readily on order, but so are the famous crisp, cuke-flavored Blue Pools from Washington and salty Massachusetts Wellfleets.
Credit: Kevin Alexander
Harwich, MA
Sitting on Route 28 in Harwich Port in one of those buildings that seems like it was built specifically for a movie location scout who needs to show a “quaint, but beautiful Cape Cod town”, Harwich natives Judd and Griff Brackett’s seafood spot has quietly been around nearly a decade, and goes through more oysters in a summer than most restaurants do in five years. Our move is to go sit directly at the raw bar in the front during happy hour to get dollar Chatham oysters, then splurge on some Stony Island and Wellfleets, and watch the mix of locals, summer tourists, and those pesky movie location scouts hungrily pack in.
Credit: Morgan Ione Photography
Boston, MA
The guys from Island Creek in Duxbury produce some of the best oysters in the world. In fact, they’re my (Kevin’s) favorite ever. And once they created the best oysters, they decided, maybe that isn’t enough, so let’s go ahead and create some of the best seafood places in Boston too. And so Island Creek Oyster Bar was born. And then came Row 34 along Fort Point channel, which has a narrower focus than the original spot, and nails it, with the best local selection of oysters and beer in Boston. So do me a solid, and order up a dozen Row 34s, and a dozen Island Creeks, and throw in some Nauset, and then call me up and tell me in excruciatingly specific detail about all of them. I promise not to weep openly out of jealousy until we’ve hung up.
Credit: Flickr/Jyri Engestrom
San Francisco, CA
It is so damn old school. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. Tourists flock. The lines at lunch are too long. It’s only bar seating. Tough sh*t. This open-since-1912 SF legend is past an institution and on its way to hallowed hall territory, and it’s not just because of history, but also because they continue to serve some of the best raw seafood in the city, including an oyster selection that is impressively varied, and their famous twice-cracked crab, which you can plunge in a special sauce, which tastes like glorious history (and maybe a little mayo).
Credit: Thrillist
Seattle, WA
The Taylor family is famous in these parts, having harvested shellfish in the Puget Sound for over a century. Their oyster bars (there are three now) do not mess around, so you shouldn’t either: just get in there and order up a beer from their impressive list (Elysian Men’s Room Red!?!?) plus a variety of whatever they’re pulling out that day, from the famous Kumamotos and more obscure Shogoku styles, to local Pacifics and Olympias. They’ve also got geoduck, but do yourself a favor: don’t get the geoduck.
Credit: Thames Street Oyster House
Baltimore, MD
In 2011, Candace Beattie brought to Fells Point, a historic waterfront Baltimore ‘hood, what should’ve been a long-obvious move: a casual seafood spot with a stellar raw bar program. You’ll have your choice of local Chesapeake Bay oysters, plus plenty of New England, Canada, and West Coast varieties, like Elkhorn out of WA’s Willapa Bay, that’ll contrast those simple, buttery local flavors. If you’re staying for more than the raw selection (and you should, because there’s a pan-fried crab cake sandwich with housemade remoulade that you need to eat), the right move is grabbing a window seat upstairs for a view of the Charm City harbor.
Credit: Thrillist
Seattle, WA
Chef Renee Erickson is the real deal, and when she wanted to create an oyster bar in her own neighborhood that blended the “elegance of France with the casual comfort of a local fishing pub” she just went ahead and did that thing, and it became a local, and then national success, and, man, isn’t life easy when these sort of things work out? Her raw oyster selection is small, but unique, offering up mostly locals, with a few random selections thrown in (last week she had some from Glacier Point from Alaska); and she also cooks up extremely legit fried oysters (cilantro aioli, y’all) and steamed clams with grilled bread, which are particularly delicious if you happen to catch Seattle on a brisk sunny day when you can sit on the heated patio.
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