{"id":15543,"date":"2018-11-28T19:31:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T00:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15543"},"modified":"2019-08-05T11:07:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T15:07:17","slug":"maine-oyster-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/maine-oyster-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Oyster Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 2018 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucky Shucks –\u00a0<\/span>A new restaurant, The Maine Oyster Company, sparkles with the gems of Maine\u2019s waters.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Diane Hudson<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dec18-Rest-Review-Maine-Oyster\"O<\/strong><\/span>ysters, especially served raw on the half shell, have a concupiscent effect on voracious Mainers. And who can blame us? The preferred aphrodisiac of legendary lover Casanova, oysters are found up and down our coast year-round. (It\u2019s a wonder the state population isn\u2019t booming.) As our lust for the bivalve continues to rise, the quest for the best is a boon for oyster farmers, particularly in Maine with its favorably cold waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

These growers are well-served by The Maine Oyster Company<\/strong>, a restaurant recently opened in West Bayside. Touting itself as \u201cFarm-to-Slurp Certified,\u201d the eatery specializes in serving only Maine-farmed oysters and is \u201can event space and distributor with the vision of building an oyster community through experience and story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A blackboard lists libations, from which we order Prosecco ($9) and East Bayside\u2019s Blue Lobster Chardonnay ($12), both good complements throughout. <\/span><\/p>\n

Print-outs are provided for us to write in our oyster selections. Tonight, we\u2019ll choose from five different mouthwatering mollusks, fished from Scarborough to Casco Bay and Damariscotta. Craving them all, we ask for 10 rather than a dozen ($29), with plans to follow up on the oyster each of us likes most. Adding those two to another half dozen ($15) gives us four more each. We can\u2019t decide on \u201cthe best,\u201d so why not keep indulging?<\/span><\/p>\n

Styled on a tray of ice, the oysters are easy to identify, served clockwise in the order they appear on the menu. Accompanying mignonettes are subtle enough not to mask the nuances of this delicacy. Reading flavor descriptions of oysters posted at the bar is helpful, especially if you\u2019re only looking to try one or two. We can testify that The Wolfe\u2019s Neck, for example, is \u201cbriny, with a smooth, milky finish,\u201d though we didn\u2019t notice the \u201csugar or watermelon\u201d in the Chebeague Island. We did encounter a saltier kiss from the sea than the more subdued Birch Island, however, which boasts a firm texture. If we had to pick a favorite, it might be the toothsome Blackstone Point from Damariscotta or the Nonesuch Pearl from Scarborough, with its superb balance of brine and sweetness. <\/span><\/p>\n

The shucker here is top notch. There are no bits of debris, and each shell contains a full portion of the treasured liquor, allowing for a downright satisfying slurp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continuing, we savor the acclaimed Kamasouptra<\/strong> clam chowder ($6). Rich and creamy without being cloying, it\u2019s generous with clam meat and flavor.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t resist the lobster roll ($17), sourced from a lobsterman who shares Maine Oyster Company owner John Herrigel\u2019s dock in Phippsburg. Served with potato chips, the succulent and lightly dressed meat billows out of bread toasted to a gorgeous gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t crave a plate loaded with oysters (or even if you do), a good way to experience it all is to order the \u201cBoom Shuck-a-Lucka\u201d: six oysters, lobster roll, and soup ($33). \u2018Cause you can always add another dozen, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

On leaving, Herrigel tells us about the photographs gracing the walls. \u201cThese are some of the farmers,\u201d he says. He names each and tells his or her stories. It\u2019s like leaving a friend\u2019s home\u2013we\u2019ve shared in our mutual bounty and will do so again. We\u2019re grateful, satiated, and maybe just a little bit giddy! <\/span>n<\/span><\/p>\n

Maine Oyster Company, 38 Portland Street, Portland. Thurs. 4-10 p.m., Fri. 3-10 p.m., Sat. 4-10 p.m. 650-5383, themaineoystercompany.com.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLucky Shucks\u201d
\nA new oyster eatery hits the spot. By Diane Hudson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[231,157,323,154],"class_list":["post-15543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-december-2018","tag-maine-restaurants","tag-portland-magazine","tag-restaurant-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15543"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16553,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15543\/revisions\/16553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}