An early evening belief in the beauty of bivalves
By Ari Weinzweig
If you’re up for a bit of an ocean-based boost, between 2 and 6 pm, Monday through Friday, here you go. This Roadhouse Happy Hour slot is when we have East Coast oysters on special for the very low price of just $2 a piece!
The story behind the oyster.
While the Roadhouse Happy Hour is still relatively new in the grand timeline of things, oyster fossils have been found from as far back as something like 530 million years ago. Here in North America, First Nations people on both coasts were consuming great quantities of oysters long before Europeans arrived. On Manhattan Island, the Native people traded oysters to the Dutch; there are still massive, covered-over “middens” of oyster shells all over Manhattan. Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book The Big Oyster addresses this New York City history in great detail.
By the end of the 19th century, many natural oyster banks were already exhausted. Happily, over the last 20 years, there’s been a lot of work done to restore the quality of the watersheds and un-dam some of the waters, and the oysters have come back nicely. The folks at Foley Fish, from whom we have been buying these for over 20 years now, have been at the forefront of that ecological restoration work! All of these are raised sustainably and are carefully checked by Foley to maintain their 100-plus-year tradition of having incredibly high-quality fish and shellfish. Here are four long-standing favorites that could be available for a couple bucks per piece every Happy Hour day!
Blue Point
While the “Blue Point” name is widely (mis-)used, authentic Blue Points of the sort we buy come only from the estuaries of Long Island. Ours are from one oyster farm in the aptly named Oyster Bay, named by the Dutch colonists back in 1615 due to its abundance of shellfish.
Chebooktook
These come from New Brunswick in the Canadian Maritimes, north of Maine. Harvested in Bouctouche Bay, the Chebooktook oysters generally bring a softer salinity with a lovely sweet, nutty finish.
Savage Blonde
From Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province. These are harvested at the beautiful Savage Harbour on the far eastern end of the island, and have a wonderful meaty flavor.
Wellfleet
Harvested, eaten, and enjoyed for many centuries from Wellfleet Bay about two-thirds of the way out on Cape Cod. Wellfleets are known for their sweet/salty flavor.
As with fresh fruit and vegetables, the flavor of any particular oyster will be different from week to week—more rain will make the merroir (the oceanic equivalent of terroir, i.e.,the flavor that the soil imparts to what grows in it) less salty; less rain will increase the salinity. As a big oyster eater, I will say from first-hand experience all of these always taste great! It’s no accident that the Roadhouse rolls through a LOT of oysters each week.
If you love oysters, $2 high-end oysters are a totally terrific way to break up your day! If you don’t love oysters, there are also other great offerings on the Happy Hour menu, as well as a plethora of drink specials. While the Happy Hour oyster offering will be different from week to week depending on what’s available, more often than not, it’s one of these four. All, I will say from firsthand eating experience, are fantastic!