NEWPORT FOOD SCENE: National Oyster Day is here, slurp them down across Newport County
If you thought there were no holidays worth celebrating in August, think again. Grab your shucking knife and your mignonette sauce, Friday is National Oyster Day.
While we take all of our shellfish seriously here in Rhode Island, the oyster is a mollusk that deserves its own day of recognition and celebration. After 164,000 years (there’s evidence that early man was shucking and feasting on them), oysters continue to be enjoyed and are featured prominently on restaurant menus today. That’s quite a shellfish legacy. The oyster has set itself apart even from other seafood appetizers. Restaurants often have bars where they display their fresh oysters like exquisite jewelry. They employ highly-skilled workers for the specific job of shucking each oyster as it is ordered. Oysters even come on their own special platters, served atop a bed of finely chopped ice with little flags denoting its sea-bed of origin. They sure don’t do that for chicken wings.
It was the ancient Greeks who took the oyster to the next level. They were the first to cultivate and grow them. In fact, the Greeks so loved the oyster that they believed Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty and Love, was born from the sea in an oyster. In almost every seaside civilization the oyster has become both an important resource and a delicacy. Here in our own backyard, oysters were an important food to Native Americans. In his notes from 1643, Roger Williams described the Narragansett tribe fishing for oysters. And once the European settlers got a taste, the popularity of oysters continued to grow. By the time the 20th century rolled around, oysters were the most dominant and wildly plentiful shellfish in Rhode Island. There were over 50 shucking, shipping and processing plants in full operation along the shores of Narragansett Bay in its heyday.
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Oysters even played a role in the Underground Railroad, as discussed recently at The Preservation Society Of Newport County’s Eaddo and Peter Kiernan Lecture series. Research Fellow Adrian Cato is investigating the history and socio-ecological connection of oysters on the Atlantic coastline, from Chincoteague, Virginia to Newport. She discussed George T. Downing, a successful African-American caterer from New York known for his oysters, who followed the city’s elite out to Newport for summers in the mid-1800s and brought his catering talent and oysters with him. Downing eventually provided his restaurant in New York as a rest station on the Underground Railroad. He would also help those seeking safety while traveling a place to hide amongst the jars of pickled oysters he shipped back and forth between New York and Newport on the famed Fall River rail line. Downey was a hero who also worked to integrate Rhode Island public schools and his efforts and triumphs were born of the success he had selling the bivalve mollusk we all love.
But the history of the oyster also includes how it was over-harvested in the early 20th century. At the same time, pollutants were starting to harm and kill oyster beds. And suddenly oysters were hard to find. Then came the hurricane of 1938 which dealt a near-fatal blow to Narragansett Bay’s oyster industry, wiping out the shucking houses, shipping wharves and oyster boats. But the industry held on. Current oyster production is based on batter practices and sustainability. Thanks to the efforts of conservationists and dedicated oyster farmers, oysters are back and here to stay, hopefully for another 164,000 years.
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That’s why National Oyster Day is really worth celebrating. Make it your mission this Friday to enjoy one or a dozen. Let the briny taste of each unique variety slide down your throat. Order a sampling at Midtown Oyster Bar or the Gulf Stream. Get shucking at The Mooring or at the Bristol Oyster Bar. Enjoy the featured local selections at Benjamin’s Raw Bar or at the Lobster Bar. Top them with Vodka Cocktail Sauce at The Black Pearl or Harissa Cocktail Sauce at Cabana Newport. Get them fried at The Landing or baked at Brick Alley Pub. You don’t have to look too hard to find fresh and delicious oysters in Newport. The Clarke Cooke House has them. The Red Parrot too. So this Friday, go out and celebrate. Raise your oyster shell to the air and give a toast and a slurp to this most storied shellfish.
Dan Lederer is a Middletown resident with 30 years experience in the food service industry throughout New England. He continues to work locally behind the scenes within the industry and remains a devoted fan of all things restaurant and hospitality related. His column appears on newportri.com and Thursdays in The Daily News. Cheers!
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: National Oyster Day: Celebrate in Newport County restaurants
