This Oyster-and-Caviar Pop-Up Is Shaking Up Boston’s Culinary Scene
Unruliness runs deep in Boston’s food scene. It might not seem that way to a newcomer visiting the city’s well-worn Back Bay brasseries, or tasting a consistently good lobster roll. But every so often, a disruptor comes along that forces Bostonians to wake up, smell the chowder, and remember that this is where one very well-known revolution began. Right now, Alexis Cervasio is that disruptor—and her East Boston Oysters pop-up dinner series is stirring up serious buzz with the city’s in-the-know foodies.
Cervasio grew up in Boston’s North End, an historically Italian neighborhood that is one of the city’s best areas for a good meal. “I don’t remember not being involved with food,” she says. Her family owns the Italian restaurants Antico Forno and Terramia. “My dad also owns vending carts, and I was on the Freedom Trail from the tender age of 10 scooping slush for tourists.” As she puts it, the hustle has been real for as long as she can remember.
Having spent the better part of her twenties managing restaurants in Boston, Cervasio started to feel an entrepreneurial urge. Something about all those staid Back Bay dining rooms and formal Bostonian restaurants seemed a little tired. Then she had the idea to throw a “meet the farmer” event where foodies could sample local oysters, and meet the Bostonian who harvested them. “It really all started because of a love for oysters… I wanted to make things like oysters and caviar more approachable,” Cervasio says. “I thought, let’s put them all out in an all-you-can-eat manner, something that wasn’t really done in Boston with delicacies like that.”
Given her experience in the food industry, finding the right local oysters and chef partners wasn’t the issue. The question was where, and how to produce the abundant event she imagined.
Oddly enough, the answer came to Cervasio while walking through East Boston, one of the city’s post-industrial, somewhat forgotten neighborhoods. Much like Manhattanites’ often snobbish opinions of Brooklyn or Queens, East Boston has long had a reputation for being impossibly hard to get to. But the neighborhood offered a level of charm and flexibility that Cervasio likely would never have found in the city’s more developed and well-worn areas like Beacon Hill or even the South End. East Boston’s landscape is a dream for pop-up events—warehouses, bowling alleys, and auto body repair shops abound. With some delicious food on offer and a little bit of creative decorating, Cervasio thought she could create something the city hadn’t seen before.
East Boston Oysters began as little more than an Instagram account, a Facebook page, and an email list. Events are announced with just a few weeks’ notice, and guests are not told precisely where they are going until 24 hours before. Sometimes a few details about the event are shared in advance, but sometimes not. “We’ve been selling out since day one,” Cervasio says. “I don’t know how. I think we tapped into this oyster thing. People want to learn more about oysters. They’re mysterious. They’re this mermaid-esque thing down there in the sea. And the farm-to-table movement has gained so much traction in recent years. People were getting into farmshares, but nobody thought about where their oysters come from… We definitely created something that tapped into Boston’s community of adventurous eaters.”
Cervasio keeps EBO’s dance card filled with about one event a month, either a full-fledged dinner extravaganza or a low-key “Meet The Farmer” oyster and cocktails party, but always with an emphasis on highlighting chefs and oysters farmers from the Boston area.
For EBO’s “Fried Chicken, Caviar and Comedy” dinner last year, Cervasio called in 4 of Boston’s best comics to do bits while guests snacked on fried chicken by chef Alex Saenz (the “friend chicken king of Boston”), and spooned caviar in a secret basement space in East Boston. For EBO’s third anniversary, Cervasio threw a disco-themed “EBO 54” party complete with a mirrored tray holding a kilo of caviar. There’s a sense of decadence to the way EBO celebrates oysters and caviar, but absolutely no pretense.
EBO’s event roster has piqued the curiosity of some of Boston’s most dedicated foodies, including Nicole Kanner, founder of All Heart, a hospitality PR firm. Kanner scored a coveted ticket to the yacht party EBO threw last summer, at which she boarded “the biggest, fanciest yacht,” and cruised around Boston Harbor while snacking on oysters and rosé. “Part of what gives EBO its cool factor is that everything is a secret until 24 hours beforehand,” Kanner says. “You’re totally relinquishing control; you might end up at an underground billiards club in Eastie or kicking off your shoes on a super-luxe yacht. It’s a little wild, and Boston could always use more of that.”
Cervasio was able to leave her job last year in order to focus on EBO full-time, so Boston area foodies can count on more parties, more collaborations and more secret pop-ups. And while Bostonians certainly love their lobster rolls, clam chowder, and steakhouses, the success of EBO indicates that the city’s rebellious side is alive and well—there might be more space in this city for adventurous pop-ups than previously believed. “Restaurants will always be relevant, but we are trying to break down expectations,” says Cervasio. “Bostonians are tough and know what they want and have high expectations, but I feel like a lot of them deep down want to have some fun.”
