photo by Megan Peck
Ah, Grand Central Oyster Bar. Nestled like a pearl in the architecturally stunning Grand Central Terminal, it’s a veritable temple to the briny shellfish that is so quintessentially New York. And on Tuesday August 5, the Oyster Bar is celebrating National Oyster Day with a special oyster menu and some fun oyster events.
Aficionados at the Oyster Bar slurp down more than 4,000 oysters a day, choosing from a long list of mostly North American varieties, like the wild Beion from Maine and the briny Chincoteague from Virginia. Executive Chef Sandy Ingber does all kinds of delicious things with them: broiled, Rockefeller-style, and in pan roasts and stews. To celebrate the day and “pay homage to the bivalve,” he said, he has created a pair of specials: Roasted Malpeque Oysters with Citrus-Ginger Butter and Chilled Wellfleet Oysters with Verjus Mignonette and Citrus Caviar.
If you want to do the local foodie thing, you can choose Long Island-grown oysters from Widow’s Hole, Mecox Bay, Shinnecock, Pipe’s Cove, Setauket, Oyster Ponds, Peconic Bay, Crane’s Neck, Asharoken, Duck Island, Fire Island, the Great South Bay and more. There’s a serious wine list to go along with them that includes, as one would expect, lots of sparklings and rieslings, and, interestingly, the Paumanok Grand Central Oyster Bar 100 Years 2012, a special bottling commemorating the Oyster bar’s 2013 centennial celebration. At that event, one lucky patron sucked back the Oyster Bar’s official 100 millionth oyster.
One could think of this as an educational excursion, because the thing about oysters is that they are very hard to open. Do you go in from the hinge, or the side? Where is the line between the two shells anyway? It’s definitely a skill that takes practice. The Oyster Bar’s champion shuckers will demonstrate their shucking techniques at 2 p.m. in the Lounge, so this is your chance to learn from the experts.
And if you prefer to wear your oysters and are feeling lucky, at 5 p.m. there will be a drawing for a beautiful necklace and earrings, sponsored by Staten Island’s Casale Jewelers. Visit the Grand Central Oyster Bar online for more information, at www.oysterbarny.com.
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