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Posted 01.03.08 Top Shellfish Raw oysters and cocktails, long-celebrated aphrodisiacs, together on local menus. By Freda Moon A recent episode of Mad Men, television's retro romp through 1960s Manhattan, celebrated a cocktail hour tradition as seemingly long-gone as the unambiguous gender roles of that buxom, post-war era. Glamorous, decadent, a little naughty, the marriage of raw oysters and booze speaks to a time when the rules of social life were strict, but food and drink flowed guilt-free. This was before the Atkins diet, veganism and locavores. Before organic food, slow food, Fair Trade food and raw food were movements, not just how things were done. Madison Avenue's men, we're to believe, lived in a world of beautiful women, magnificent, slippery oysters and three martini lunches-a world to toast to, as one flesh-and-blood woman of the era, the famed food writer M.F.K. Fisher, did in her 1941 treatise Consider the Oyster. Depending on your comfort level with red-baiting and institutional racism, post-war America may not have been as glamorous as TV land's rose-colored glasses make it seem. But the raw oysters and cocktails tradition, then in its Golden Age, is everything lacking in that full skirt, suit-and-tie era. With its hedonistic, even sensual undertones (raw oysters and booze are both celebrated as aphrodisiacs, after all), it's a tradition that's paradoxically out-of-place and right-at-home in the chilly, Puritanical but seafood-loving Northeast. Now more than half a century after the oyster was fêted by Fisher and enjoyed by fictional Mad Men, restaurants all over Greater New Haven have elegant, inventive drinks sharing a menu with fresh oysters from far-flung locales. The range of options seems ever-growing-from nuevo latino Pacifico to high-gloss 116 Crown to the classy, loungy oyster bars along the shoreline: New Haven's Sage American Grill and Liv's Oyster Bar in Old Saybrook. Of these, two have opened in the last year. But when the cocktail menu reads like poetry, how does one know what exotic-sounding cocktail goes with Blue Points, Kumamotos, Wellfleets or Canadian Malpeques? Or what, for that matter, separates a Southern oyster or Western oyster from a Northeastern oyster? Fortunately, Fisher takes us off the hook-at least on the first point. "Oysters, being almost universal, can be and have been eaten with perhaps a wider variety of beverages than almost any other dish I can think of...and less disastrously," writes Fisher. "They lend themselves to the whims of every cool and temperate climate, so that one man can drink wine with them, another beer, and another fermented buttermilk, and no man will be wrong." That may be, but in Fisher's era "a cocktail or so before a meal, or in an oyster-bar to have a couple of quickies while the shells are being opened" was still the American custom. As the boomers became drinkers, that changed. Cocktails began to fall out of fashion and by the 1980s, they were nearly a dead art-a fact lamented by New York Times food writer William Grimes in his 1993 cultural history of cocktails, Straight Up or on the Rocks. When Grimes updated his book a decade later, it was in celebration. The cocktail had been reborn: "The restless rediscovery of past American styles came to the rescue," he wrote. "Fascination with Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, and with jazz singing from the same period, coalesced in lounge culture and the swinging lifestyle of the Vegas Rat Pack. Drinking-a specific kind of drinking-was central to the swinging image, and frozen daiquiris were definitely not part of it." * * * Nowhere embodies the marriage of oysters and cocktails better than the newest of the bunch: the swanky tapas restaurant cum cocktail bar, 116 Crown, where the drinks get as much attention as the food, and both are intoxicating. Each weekend for the last three weeks, 116's alerted its faithful via email to special "limited time" oysters, along with drink suggestions to go with them. They've featured Island Creeks, Kumamotos and Watch Hills, with suggested accompaniments ranging from $80 bottles of French Larmandier champagne to their invented cocktail, the Grand Prix (Hendrick's Gin, pink grapefruit juice and black pepper). Their descriptions belie their passion for oysters. Kumamotos, they write, have an "ivory meat that is the sweetest imaginable" that's "redolent of cucumber and melon." Watch Hills, meanwhile, are "full-bodied" with "strong oyster flavor with sweet-butter notes." It should come as no surprise that 116's owners, John and Danielle Ginnetti have made Considering the Oyster required reading for the restaurant's staff. On their regular nights, one can expect regional Blue Points. Everything an oyster should be, they're a dozen gulps of the ocean, each one a salty, subtle shot. Without the Ginnettis as your guide, pairing 116's artisanal cocktails with oysters can be a challenge. The former are often flavorful to the point of absurdity (one drink on their multi-page cocktail menu was described by a patron as "fermented Yoo-Hoo" for its use of raw egg and chocolate), while the latter can be delicate and easily dominated. Fermented Yoo-Hoo sounds awfully close to Fisher's buttermilk, but contemporary gourmands may be less open-minded. New York-based food writer and educator Kara Newman says there are plenty of drinks that don't go well with oysters. The frozen daiquiri-the slushy demon of the 1980s, cited by Grimes for its lack of cocktail sophistication-would be "atrocious" with oysters, Newman says in a phone interview. As would many cocktails currently en vogue: the spicy and smoky set as well as the sweet and fruity. "Anything that's going to coat the tongue and the palette so that you're not going to get the taste of the sea" is out. Instead, Newman recommends trying Pimm's No. 1 Cup-the famed English cocktail invented by oyster bar owner James Pimm in London, circa 1941-or a classic martini. The martini's bracing bite and the brininess of the raw mollusks, says Newman, is a "great combination." If ever there was a joyful journey to be had, it is the quest for the right cocktail to go with a fresh, raw oyster. At 116, there's the "Scottish" (the uncommon cucumber and rose hips-infused Hendricks gin, and the Italian orange bitters, Aperol, $7) and the more common, though technically foreign, mojito (116's version has the odd, hard to place taste of a high-end Brazilian sugar cane liquor, Leblon cachaça, $8). Both were fine, though the orange Aperol in the Scottish is a bit too fruity for oysters, and the cachaça a bit overwhelming. On the recommendation of a pair of 116 regulars who know their booze, two cocktails not for the faint of heart: The Cocktail Noir (Woodford Reserve bourbon, fresh raspberries, chili powder, simple syrup and lime juice, $9) and The Moulin Rouge (Silver sake, fresh raspberries and simple syrup, $11). Now these are what 116 is about! The smoky Noir's an acquired taste, and exactly the sort of oyster-cocktail no-no Newman warns us against. But it was worth having-if only for bragging rights. Its stark opposite, The Moulin Rouge, tasted as the most delicious perfumes smell, like a whiff of over-ripe fruit but not too sweet. It was just right to wash down a second round of Eastern oysters, the Malpeques from Canada. * * * There are nearly as many varietals of oysters as there are types of wine-and learning each can be similarly daunting. Here again, it's helpful to have Fisher's wisdom. An improper woman to her core, she loves them all. But the provincially patriotic Nutmegger can feel proud just the same: Fisher's favorite American oysters are those from the Long Island Sound. In greater New Haven, it's two Sound-side restaurants, Sage American Grill and Oyster Bar and Liv's Oyster Bar in Old Saybrook that rival 116 in its treatment of the raw oyster. Sage sits beside a marina at Oyster Point, where on a winter night you can see lights spread across the water and, in the summer, sit outside and keep watch over the harbor. It's an old-timey place, if not old, with low light, background jazz and dangerously generous cocktails (a single "Dirty Bird," Sage's dirty Grey Goose vodka martini, almost put me under, $7.95), while my husband's triple rum Ultimate Mai Tai (Captain Morgan's Spiced, Myers and Bacardi 151 and "tropical juices," $6.95) was equally potent. Sage's oysterman Charles Lawhorn shows off his palm, with its long, dark oyster-shucking scar-"Risky business," he says. "You really have to know what you're doing"-and explains Sage's approach to oysters. They almost always have Blue Points, but they also order seasonal specials, like tonight's large, briny Primrose oysters. So what do Sage's customers drink with their raw ones? "Whatever drink they like," he says. "That's it." But, despite Sage's full bar, most of the restaurant's patrons were sticking with the contemporary classic oyster pairing: white wine. Sage encourages them. One recent Sage event combined three courses of oysters with dinner and "the perfect wines." Another, during New Haven's Arts & Ideas Festival, drew on the knowledge of Cory Schreiber-James Beard Award winner and owner of Wildwood Restaurant & Bar in Portland, Ore.-for wine-and-oyster pairings. Schreiber recommended "Oregon or Washington State pinot gris or pinot blanc, which are crisp, light and fruity and lack the oak and 'aged' flavor." At Liv's Oyster Bar in Old Saybrook, chef-owner John Brescio goes out of his way to find obscure oyster varietals-from New Brunswick's Beausoleils to Maine's Wiley Points and Connecticut's Whale Rocks-and to discourage customers from pairing them with his specialty martini list, which includes such sickly sweet wonders like the Chocolate (Stoli Vanil, and both Godiva Dark and White Chocolate Liqueurs) and the Blueberry Rumble (Rum, Triple Sec, Crème de Cassis, Pineapple Juice and lemonade). Only the Meyer Lemon Drop martini, with Grey Goose Citron vodka and fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice and a splash of sour, did Brescio recommend with Liv's ever-changing, six-varietal Oyster Sampler ($13.50). "It's kind of a purist thing," says Bescio. "I like to stick with the real classics: a really nice champagne or a crisp white." Indeed, raw oysters and cocktails aren't for everyone. "I don't do hard liquor and oysters," says Lynne Rosetto Kasper of American Public Media's cult foodie classic, The Splendid Table, via email. "The alcohol overwhelms them, and for me oysters are a rare treat." So what does the radio heroine drink with her raw oysters? Another classic pairing: oysters and champagne. "My favorite oyster pairing when I am flush is a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose champagne. For more modest times, a bottle of Albarino from Spain, especially from the Filleboa vineyard. If I can't resist doing a little messing around, it will be a dry Prosecco with a crushed red grape in it. All these make those oysters just stand up, spiff themselves out and shine at their best." At downtown New Haven's Pacifico, neither oysters nor cocktails are the focus, but both are treated well there and are worth seeking out. The menu features "East Coast" and "West Coast" oysters, and what you get depends on availability. One day there might be large, buttery Kumamotos from Washington state for $13 a dozen, with champagne mignonette sauce and cocktail sauce, while on another day "West Coast" oysters may mean something else altogether. A Latin fusion restaurant, they give tropical cocktails their due. Pacifico's mojito ($9) is tart with well-mangled mint and just enough sweetness to keep the lime juice at bay, while the "Batida de maracuya," a Brazilian cocktail made of passion fruit juice, aguardiente (sugar cane "firewater") and mint is good enough to drink all night. Sweet, strong, but fresh-it went with the Kumamotos, like they were made for each other: the island meeting the sea. Thank you Ms. Fisher. |
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