Island Creek Oyster Bar – Number 37

We had actually been to Island Creek Oyster Bar for brunch before venturing there for an evening meal.  The brunch came about because the restaurant comes up as one of the best brunches in Boston.  Our experience was not the best as the crab cakes I much craved had alas run out.  It was also mostly empty, so not a great atmosphere.  In the evening, however, Island Creek Oyster Bar is completely different. It was jammed (in a good way) and buzzing.  We even had to wait for a seat (but not too long). Much better.

Food – Being an oyster bar, we thought a dozen oysters were the way to go, for which we chose 6 different varieties.  We felt we had to order the namesake Island Creek oysters and then we tried a few other local varieties, all delicious.  Our barman also suggested we try something a bit different, which was the “Belon”.  I thought an oyster was an oyster, there are different varieties and that distinguishes the taste, size etc.  No.  Time for Oyster education.

 There are 5 different species of oyster; Pacific (or Japanese), Kumamoto (these are actually native to Japan), Atlantic (or Easterm), European Flats and Olympia (almost extinct and about the size of a quarter).   Here in northern America on the Atlantic coast, the indigenous species is the Atlantic oyster.  It’s one of the larger oyster species and includes varieties such as Island Creek, Aunt Dotty’s, Row 34 and Wellfleet’s.  Basically, almost all of the oysters sold in Boston are Atlantic oysters.

The “Belon” oyster is a European Flat oyster.  As you can tell from the name they are not indigenous to America, but were brought here in the 1950’s and now grow wild in the Damariscotta river in Maine.  The French (those clever people) had the name Belon AOC protected (why didn’t we do that with Cheddar?), so while all Belon are European flats, not all European flats are Belon.  The oyster has to come from the Belon river in France to be a Belon.

So although exactly the same breed is grown here, it shouldn’t be called a Belon (but they do).  It is round rather than teardrop shape, large and has a very strong, minerally seaweed taste with a meaty, almost crunchy texture.  Not one for a beginner and a bit like Marmite in the oyster lover’s world.  You either love it or you hate it.  Mine was massive, a definite mouthful, which made it quite difficult to get my tongue around and the taste didn’t completely disappear for the rest of the evening (Clark mentioned two days.  Unlucky).  I’m not sure I’ll order one again, but I can now appreciate how different it is from other oyster species I’ve tried.

We stuck to small plates after the oysters (although their daily fish selection looks amazing) and tried the delicious smoked salmon pate and a crunchy oyster slider (I know, more oyster, we couldn’t resist) and we were curious enough to try their fish and chips.  A huge portion, we are so glad we only ordered one between us and the chips were actually chips.  Not a “chippy” fish and chips, but pretty darn good, just missing the mushy peas.

We had a really fun night, with a great waiter, made all the better as the spot we had at the bar had the best view of the masterful shuckers, who didn’t stop shucking all night.