Oyster Season in New Orleans

From perennial long time favorites such as baked oysters on the half shell to more current charmers like charbroiled and barbecued oysters, the local oyster industry stays busy keeping up with the voracious demand for the beloved bivalves.

Of course, there’s nothing like beginning a meal—or making a meal—out of ice cold, fresh shucked raw oysters on the half-shell, often the go-to, appetizing starter course for many oyster fans.

At the century-old Acme Oyster House French Quarter location, thirty-year veteran and Master Shucker Stormin’ Norman Conerly reports that on the average 5,000-10,000 oysters are shucked daily.

In Metairie at the original Drago’s, the now much-copied charbroiled oysters, were developed nearly twenty years ago by Tommy Cvitanovich.

“I just got lucky,” said Cvitanovich, who runs the 44-year-old restaurant founded by his parents, Klara and Drago, “I plopped a few oysters on a very hot grill, they popped open and the cooking process sealed in the juices. The sauce is basically the same sauce we were using on our barbecue drum fish.”

The family opened a second restaurant in New Orleans’ Hilton Hotel Riverside about seven years ago and Cvitanovich estimates that the two Drago’s locations serve about three million char-broiled oysters annually.

The three million oysters served figure is about to be reached by another haven of creative coastal cuisine, Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill.

In celebration of the forthcoming milestone, anticipated to occur in the next month, Red Fish Grill is staging a sweepstakes, and some lucky oyster lover is about to receive the ultimate prize.

Anyone can enter and someone chosen in a random drawing is going to win a dozen oysters a day, free, in any style of the winner’s choice from the menu at Red Fish Grill—for the rest of his or her life.

While Red Fish Grill continues its quest to reward the luckiest oyster lover on earth, the eatery is not just sitting back and resting on its laurels. In addition to featuring the highly acclaimed barbeque oysters with blue cheese sauce, newer oyster items have been added to the menu.

The chili crusted oysters nestled in a ruffled leaf of fresh, tender Bibb lettuce with both a sweet chili sauce drizzle and buttermilk dressing is another recent creation attracting numerous oyster devotees.

In looking at close to a hundred popular dishes at eateries in and around New Orleans, we searched for examples of the “best of the best” to share.

Beginning with raw presentations, Dick Brennan Sr. established a lasting local standard by topping raw oysters with caviar while a visiting Russian ship was in port. The concoction eventually evolved into a splash of mignonette sauce over the oyster with the Russian caviar replaced by a Louisiana bowfin variety. The dish is now a staple at Bourbon House.

Dressing up the raw product, Restaurant R’evolution’s Chef de Cuisine Chris Lusk’s oysters on the half shell tops two oysters with a tangerine chile salsa, another duo with a cucumber-lemon granité. The remaining two oysters are bare, with R’evolution’s mignonette and cocktail sauces front and center.

Lusk, who grew up in Texas, attended culinary school in South Carolina, and worked in Key West, declares, “Gulf oysters are the best, hands down!”

Another somewhat similar oyster dish is on-and- off the menu at Owner-Executive Chef Scott Boswell’s highly regarded Stella. The trio of oysters on the half shell features three different granités made with three different vodkas and a trio of varied caviars.

One of the granités is composed of a brunoise of mirliton, shallot, and citrus juices, orange flavored vodka and topped with Louisiana bowfin caviar. 

The second is a combo of cucumber, fresh dill, a fine brunoise of red onion, both red and Champagne vinegars, and a lemon flavored vodka. This was the one originally topped with Russian caviar, but Boswell noted, “I love caviar and was working in Daniel Boulod’s kitchen in 2007 and noticed that he had this one favored caviar that he used on everything.”

Boswell learned that the caviar was a Michigan paddlefish product, and he now commits to a purchase of a hundred pounds of the caviar annually.

The third granité, a Japanese style with pickled ginger, shallot, rice wine vinegar and plain vodka, is topped with tobiko wasabi caviar.

In the category of far-too-many-to-mention delicious po’boys available in this community, Stanley—Boswell’s more casual eatery on Jackson Square—offers an oyster po’boy featuring a house recipe slaw and both Remoulade and cocktail sauces.

Oysters Rockefeller, a New Orleans classic, was created in the kitchens at Antoine’s in the 1890s and so named because of the richness of the sauce. Antoine’s doesn’t reveal its original recipe, however, many restaurants have created their own versions of the popular dish.

Galatoire’s, certainly one of the city’s most desired dining spots, makes a mighty mean Oysters “Rock” as the dish is often referenced.

With the kitchen under the helm of Executive Chef Michael Sichel, preparations of Galatoire’s classic specialties are spot on.

“When I walked into Galatoire’s kitchen on the first day as chef, I was introduced to the long history and traditions of the restaurant’s timeless cuisine,” he said.

Building on what he learned from his studies with the Escoffier style of French cooking at the prestigious CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in Hyde Park, New York, and his experience cooking in France, Sichel notes, “At Galatoire’s, I can practice these techniques on a daily basis.”

Galatoire’s Rockefeller sauce is so seductive that it is served as a side vegetable at the venerable restaurant.

Among the many Galatoire’s dishes that rank at the top of everyone’s fine dining favorites, the oysters en brochette assuredly qualify. Fried oysters on a skewer interspersed with bacon achieve a crusty golden exterior and are then plated and topped with Meuniere sauce.

Of the many other well-loved fried oyster dishes, Le Foret’s Chef Brandon Felder, a Commander’s Palace alum and former sous chef at Stella, serves a delectable dish with truffle-tinged aioli, Ghost Pepper caviar and basil oil.

Grand Isle’s chef Mark Falgoust, a New Orleans native and veteran of Peristyle, Herbsaint and Cochon, cold smokes his oysters, then fries them crisp, and tops with a garlicky aioli.

The area’s most renowned baked Italian oyster dish was originally prepared on the half shell just for family and friends at Mosca’s restaurant. The little clapboard roadhouse opened sixty-seven years ago on Louisiana Highway 90 between Bridge City and Boutte.

Eventually, word got out and customers were clamoring for Mosca’s Italian oysters. To make it easier to handle, the dish was prepared and served in a pan.  A mixture of oysters, breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings, the recipe remains exclusive to the Mosca family.

Another fine example of kitchen ingenuity—and the sleeper in the group—is the panéed oysters with grilled shrimp at Irene’s Cuisine in the French Quarter (539 St. Philip Street; 504-529-8811).

At one of the city’s most in-demand, yet intimate restaurants, Irene DiPietro and son Nicholas Scalco run the tiny kitchen that produces many tantalizing, flavorful dishes.

The oysters are battered with breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings and pan-fried. The result is an irresistible, enviable dish that everyone at the table would wish they’d ordered.

Do go beyond this sampling of selected dishes and check out the many more appetizing oyster creations available at the city’s fine eateries. This is the season!