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They say the bravest person who ever lived was the first person ever to eat an oyster. We can never thank that nameless soul for their act of courage, but we can repay it by respecting the briny bivalves adored for thousands of years across cultures. The salty hit of ocean water connects us across time and coasts.
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Oysters are a bedrock of the Pacific Northwest diet. Long before happy hours, Native Americans living along the coast’s shorelines harvested, ate and traded the delicate shellfish, recognizing them as special among other types of seafood—for good reason. As filter feeders, oysters work in tandem with the land to create dams and prevent erosion. Their small gills clean water while eating plankton, algae and other nutrients, vastly improving the quality of marine life around them. They’re loaded with selenium, iron, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B-12, which are great for heart, brain and bone health.
Nearly all oysters sold in restaurants and stores today are commercially farmed. European colonists developed a taste for abundant Northwest seafood, especially oysters. It was once common to find oysters the size of dinner plates. (Imagine trying to slurp one of those down on the regular.) But with no one consulting Native communities about overconsumption and land management, natural oysters were overharvested, creating a deficit that would be felt for the decades to come before industrial pollution even became a factor.
Though a year-round treat, oysters are still best in winter, when cold water triggers hibernation, resulting in plump, flavorful energy reserves. Historically, some Catholic communities preferred oysters for “meatless” holiday meals—which could also offer a taste of home to immigrants from oyster-rich coastal countries—and may be why oyster stew is a traditional Irish dish on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, the holidays were the time of year that oysters were most affordable by rail through Appalachia, which is why mamaws still serve oyster stuffing as part of their trimmings.
Just about any party plans can be zhuzhed up with a tray of oysters on ice, and Puddletown has plenty of places to go ham on “the rock with a heartbeat” (just ask Jennifer Tilly). Restaurants throughout the metro area take full advantage of the vast selection of oysters at our disposal, from Netarts Bay on the Oregon Coast to the inlet-dotted Puget Sound. We sampled a dozen places around town, with an even variety of dressed, raw and baked options available. Among the nearly 50 places that serve oysters in some capacity around town, there’s something for everyone—whether you’re a seafood-shy novice, or a seasoned pro. We’ve also identified a menu of buck and two-buck shuck deals (harking back to the era when oysters were so plentiful they only cost a dollar each).
There’s a lot we can learn from oysters. We could stand to band closer together, take better care of our environment, and share our resources better, could we not? Hopefully, as we look forward to the new year, we will cloister stronger and live more deliciously.
The happy hour at Jacqueline might be the first one that comes to mind. The line around the block for its $1 oysters, every day during the first hour of dinner service ($1, 5–6 pm; market price all other hours), tells me everyone else in town agrees. The small restaurant next to the Clinton Street Theater serves oysters from all up and down the Puget Sound, sourcing Chelsea Gems from Eld Inlet in the south by Olympia, to Hama Hamas from Lilliwaup to the east. It’s even known to occasionally have Atlantic oysters, which are disappointingly if understandably scarce on this side of the country. The real standouts are the housemade mignonettes and vinegars in droppers, and the Tapatío-copycat hot sauce. After tasting them, it completely makes sense why Jacqueline had to move into a bigger restaurant. 2500 SE Clinton St., 503-327-8637, jacquelinepdx.com. 5–9 pm daily.
Just across the street from Cinema 21 is Négociant, a quaint little French lunch counter that pours glasses of wine with European cheese and cans of tinned fish, and sells many of its offerings to go. Grab a table, though, and indulge in its midday oyster social hour. The small bistro has a rotating oyster menu ($2, 2–4 pm), and on a recent day was slinging Pokitos from Pickering Pass, Wash., with dramatic, deeply grooved shells, light minerality, and pale buttery appearance, texture and finish. These were paired with a simple champagne and red onion mignonette, lemon wedges and homemade nectarine chile hot sauce that’s far milder than it sounds. 655 NW 21st Ave., 503-384-2946, negociantpdx.com. 11 am–9 pm Monday–Saturday, noon–6 pm Sunday.
Ah, wine and oysters, the best match made in heaven since dihydrogen and oxygen. But not every bar always has demand or a professional shucker. In comes Shuck Around PDX, a new mobile oyster bar and pop-up concept from Monet Keating, slinging perfectly shucked oysters and homemade accoutrements at a bar near you. At its most recent event at Everywhere Brewery on Southeast Caruthers Street at 9th Avenue, Shuck Around PDX featured Koku oysters from Hammersley Inlet (six for $18; 12 for $35), an area of the Puget Sound terrible for boating but great for growing shellfish. Koku are noted for their mild, clean taste and ultrasoft bite. Seeing the old-school oyster bars take new form as an ephemeral pop-up gives me hope that the torch will be passed to the capable hands of the younger generation of oyster appreciators. instagram.com/shuckaround.pdx
Long before Voodoo Doughnut began slinging pink boxes, and dancers at Sinferno and Kit Kat Club teased theirs, Dan & Louis Oyster Bar (originally Oregon Oyster) established itself in Ankeny Alley as the state’s first seafood restaurant in 1907. Five family generations and almost 120 years later, the iconic Portland institution sounded the alarm earlier this year that business has been clammy. Paying the Wachsmuth family a first or even long overdue visit could add enough drops to Dan & Louis’ saltwater bucket to help this legendary outpost recover from five rough years. Michelle Wachsmuth, Dan & Louis’ co-owner, tells WW that daily business is now better than it’s been in 30 years, but coffers are nowhere near restored—at this year’s lowest point, Wachsmuth says there was only enough money left for bankruptcy and final paychecks. Fulfill your civic duty to this iconic Portland institution by downing fat, milky oysters sourced from across the Shelton, Wash., area from fellow family-owned producers Salazar Shellfish and Gomez Shellfish (12 for $35; two each of the restaurant’s six varieties) with cocktail sauce—a classic, old-school seafood topping mixed with horseradish paste—to your desired spice level. As the restaurant’s oysters are never out of water longer than five days (usually a day or two, tops), Dan & Louis purges its weekly stock with an all-day oyster happy hour every Monday before its regular two-day midweek break, though the weekly one runs 4–6 pm. 208 SW Ankeny St., 503-227-5906, danandlouis.com. Noon–9 pm Thursday, Sunday and Monday, noon–10 pm Friday and Saturday.
The Williams neighborhood’s New Orleans-style oyster bar EaT feels like stepping into the French Quarter with a curated selection of local raw oysters from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Alaska, and beyond (market price). EaT also cooks oysters, served as oysters Rockefeller and oysters Bienville, the latter glazed in a mushroom bechamel sauce. Die-hards can prepay $125 for a dozen oysters a month for a year, which amounts to roughly the cost of a dozen buck shucks every month. If you’re trying to eat better next year, this might not be a bad way to go about it. 3808 N Williams Ave., #122, 503-281-1222, eatoysterbar.com. 11:30 am–10 pm Monday–Saturday, 11 am–3 pm Sunday.
By day, Coquine’s namesake market next door sells pantry staples like farm-fresh eggs, locally baked bread, and other charcuterie accoutrements. At night, it evolves into Katy Jane’s, a more casual, seafood focused offshoot to its wiser, more mature older sister Coquine. As a proper oyster bar, the petite restaurant offers four different oyster varieties ($3 each), mainly from the Puget Sound, finished off with an optional rotating topping (pro tip: Ask for it only on a few, so you can taste the true unadulterated bivalves). Olympia and Virginica oysters, both from Totten Inlet, Wash., beckon with their coppery, sharp bite. The Olympias perfectly complement the subtlety sweet pomegranate-manzanilla sherry gelée garnish, and the Virginicas were excellent on their own with a lemon squirt. 6833 SE Belmont St., 503-477-9582, coquinepdx.com. 5–8 pm Monday–Saturday.
Oysters are known aphrodisiacs, and these were likely how the true throat goats of the day established their dominance. There’s a certain…something…about the natural saltiness of their brine, their delicately layered shape, and slurping action when consuming. It’s only fitting, then, that the new, buzzy Nob Hill bar The Love Shack would elect to feature oysters on its menu. The mollusks from Hammersley Inlet, Wash. ($3 each, or $1 during first and last hour of service), are noted for their mellow, subtle brine and crisp, cucumberlike finish, making them the perfect blank canvas. Skip the standard sauces (lemon juice, mignonette and Tabasco) and slurp the sea out of its shell. 1645 NW 21st Ave., theloveshackpdx.com. 4–11 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 4 pm–midnight Friday and Saturday.
Walking into the Pearl District cocktail lounge Fools & Horses can feel like a movie-set version of an Old West saloon crossbred with a Prohibition-era speakeasy, with a tinge of diet steampunk sprinkled on top. If you’re an oyster newbie, consider starting with Fools & Horses’ simple offering: fat, meaty traditional West Coast oysters dressed with sweet white wine apple mignonette and lemon wedges (six for $21). This mignonette is not quite a Jolly Rancher, but definitely on the sweeter side, if you aren’t a huge fan of the oyster’s naturally salty smack. 226 NW 12th Ave., 503-894-8473, foolsandhorsespdx.com. 4–11 pm Sunday and Tuesday–Thursday, 4 pm–1 am Friday and Saturday.
Scotch Lodge’s cavernous, subterranean cocktail bar is advertised to passersby with little more than a simple A-frame sign—and a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Bar earlier this year—to signal its existence. Take a beat to soak in Scotch Lodge’s extensive whisky catalog—ask one of the knowledgeable bartenders about rare vintage reserves, some of which fetch for $95 an ounce, if you’re feeling particularly brave. Pair the spicy barrel-aged liquor with sweet, tender Pacifics from Hammersley Inlet, topped with black tobiko and rotating granitas (12 for $44)—currently dragonfruit, yuzu and hibiscus. The juice formed from the melting granita combined with the mildly salty brine creates a third liquid that tastes like overripe strawberries on a metallic, patina-coated silver spoon, in a good way. 215 SE 9th Ave., #102, 503-208-2039, scotchlodge.com. 4 pm–midnight daily.
With its extensive, seafood driven menu, it’s easy to overlook oysters at Momoyama in favor of import meats like uni, hamachi, octopus and otoro tuna. But don’t sleep on these small Kumamoto oysters from Washington, dressed with black roe, negi (a sharper, more pungent scallion sibling), and what the house simply names “Japanese” mignonette (six for $22). The acidic vinegar dressing and floral, herbaceous negi contrast the naturally sweet, almost fruity oyster flesh in a way that’s more complementary than competitive. A generous portion of black roe lends a granular mouthfeel, balancing out the silky smooth, tender flesh. If you want to kick it up a notch, opt for the sea urchin topping. 1022 NW Johnson St., 503-477-9201, momoyamaportland.com. 11:30 am–9:30 pm Wednesday–Thursday and Sunday, 11:30 am–10 pm Friday and Saturday, 5–9:30 pm Monday.
Usually, raw oysters on the half shell are served as an aperitif, meant to prepare the palate and tease the taste buds for the meal to come. Palomar’s oysters (six for $26), though, seem more apt at the end of the meal as dessert. These Carbajal oysters from Shelton, Wash., come dressed with leche de tigre, a sweet sauce reduction used in raw seafood dishes like ceviche, and are topped with tobiko. Palomar’s leche de tigre is served as a gelato mixed with raspberry. The saccharine, berry marmalade notes cut with lime instead of lemon (a notable first for this list) tasted more like pie filling than an oyster topping (the citric lime juice helped my taste buds come back from Candyland). But perhaps the pure novelty of sugar-sweet oysters is enough to entice you after a night of bar hopping on Northwest 23rd Avenue. 1422 NW 23rd Ave., 971-266-8276, barpalomar.com. 4–10 pm Monday–Friday, noon–10 pm Saturday and Sunday.
Quite possibly my favorite restaurant in Portland right now, OK Omens’ kitchen recently changed hands, with chef Joseph Papas now at the helm. The seafood-forward, wine-focused eatery flips high- and lowbrow classics on their head. The true draw is the daily $1 oyster happy hour ($1, 5–6 pm; limit one dozen per diner; six for $24 otherwise), one of the two remaining in town, which dishes up baywater sweets from Thornedyke Bay, Wash., with grated horseradish and Meyer lemon, a sweeter, less acidic cousin to a regular lemon. At less than a third of the regular menu price, the value and quality simply can’t be beat. 1758 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-9959, okomens.com. 5–9 pm Tuesday–Sunday.
