西雅圖的新牡蠣吧讓美味更觸手可及

在過去的二十年裡，西雅圖海鮮屋建立了現代牡蠣酒吧的原型：通風的空間和象拔蚌一樣長的貝類菜單

In the past two decades, Seattle seafood houses established the prototype for the modern oyster bar: airy spaces with geoduck-length shellfish menus reminiscent of wine lists. At places like Elliot’s Oyster House and the Walrus and the Carpenter, guests can tour Puget Sound–area waterways through bivalve consumption and get a crash course in differing levels of brininess and flavor from knowledgeable servers.

在過去的二十年裡，西雅圖海鮮屋建立了現代牡蠣酒吧的原型：通風的空間，提供像拔蚌一樣長的貝類菜單，讓人想起酒單。在 Elliot's Oyster House 和 Walrus and the Carpenter 等地方，客人可以透過食用雙殼類動物遊覽普吉特海灣地區的水道，並從知識淵博的服務員那裡獲得不同程度的鹹度和風味的速成課程。

The Garrison takes a slightly different approach. This is a moody, mussel-sized 17-seat bar and restaurant occupying the front room of the former Hotel Albatross on Ballard’s Market Street. Le Coin owners Josh Delgado and Jordan Melnikoff quietly opened it late last year, with Delgado developing a concise seafood-forward menu, including a simplified oyster selection primarily featuring Treasure Cove oysters from Emerald Acres Oysters.

駐軍採取了略有不同的方法。這是一家喜怒無常、貽貝大小、設有 17 個座位的酒吧和餐廳，位於巴拉德市場街 (Ballard's Market Street) 前信天翁酒店 (Hotel Albatross) 的前廳。 Le Coin 老闆喬什·德爾加多(Josh Delgado) 和喬丹·梅爾尼科夫(Jordan Melnikoff) 去年年底悄然開業，德爾加多開發了一份簡潔的海鮮菜單，包括簡化的牡蠣選擇，主要以來自Emerald Acres Oysters 的Treasure Cove 牡蠣為特色。

But the smaller oyster selection at the Garrison doesn’t make it any less of an oyster bar; it’s about highlighting a purveyor and a product Delgado holds in high regard.

不過，Garrison 餐廳的牡蠣品種較少，但這並不妨礙它成為牡蠣酒吧。這是為了突顯德爾加多高度重視的供應商和產品。

“Kevin (Riley) is an oyster farmer through and through,” Delgado says. “He spreads the seeds, he harvests himself, he bags them, delivers them himself… [And] he kind of blows your mind with oyster knowledge. What I like about his product is it’s a great representation of an actual naturalized Washington oyster.”

「凱文（萊利）是一位徹頭徹尾的牡蠣養殖者，」德爾加多說。 「他傳播種子，他自己收割，他自己裝袋，自己運送......[而且]他用牡蠣知識讓你大吃一驚。我喜歡他的產品，因為它很好地代表了真正的歸化華盛頓牡蠣。

The Garrison is one of several recently opened oyster bars from experienced restaurateurs that eschew larger selections with “market price” listings and instead bring a sense of accessibility that’s uncommon for Seattle, without sacrificing anything about the experience.

Garrison 是經驗豐富的餐廳老闆最近開設的幾家牡蠣酒吧之一，這些酒吧避開了以「市場價格」列出的更多選擇，而是帶來了西雅圖罕見的交通便利感，同時又不犧牲任何體驗。

When Brendan McGill (head of the Hitchcock restaurant group) opened Oyster Cellar in May, he introduced a more casual approach he said was inspired by Manhattan’s historic oyster bars. The restaurant’s long bar is fronted by chef Alex Jackson’s raw station, allowing diners a view of the chef making short work of shucking. It’s a setup that’s true to form for its old-school inspiration, as it creates an atmosphere of access between chef and diner that’s a hallmark of the classic oyster house — though Jackson's banter is more affable than the sass that’s traditional back East. Like the Garrison, Oyster Cellar features a compact oyster selection and a definite reverence for the providers, which in this case is Baywater Shellfish Company and Jamestown Seafood.

當布倫丹·麥吉爾（希區考克餐廳集團的負責人）在五月開設 Oyster Cellar 時，他引入了一種更休閒的方式，他說這是受到曼哈頓歷史悠久的牡蠣酒吧的啟發。餐廳的長吧台前面是主廚 Alex Jackson 的生加工站，食客可以看到廚師快速脫殼的情景。這種設置真正體現了其老派的靈感，因為它營造了一種廚師和食客之間的交流氛圍，這是經典牡蠣屋的標誌——儘管傑克遜的玩笑比東方傳統的粗俗更和藹可親。與 Garrison 一樣，Oyster Cellar 的特色是精選的牡蠣品種和對供應商的絕對尊重，在本例中，供應商是 Baywater Shellfish Company 和 Jamestown Seafood。

“Our relationship with our farmers allows us to receive oysters the same day they come out of the water”’ says McGill over email. “Baywater Shellfish is based on Bainbridge Island, so I first met (founder) Joth Davis in the early days of Hitchcock. We’ve been buying oysters directly from them for 14 years… I love these oysters.”

“我們與農民的關係使我們能夠在牡蠣從水中出來的當天收到牡蠣”，麥吉爾在電子郵件中說道。 「Baywater Shellfish 以班布里奇島為背景，所以我第一次見到（創辦人）喬思戴維斯是在希區考克早期。 14 年來我們一直直接從他們那裡購買牡蠣……我喜歡這些牡蠣。

At around the same time Oyster Cellar was opening, Tom Douglas Restaurants was bringing its Pike Place Market-adjacent Etta’s Big Mountain BBQ back to its seafood roots. Instead of returning the name to Etta’s Seafood, though, the company chose the oyster-evoking name Half Shell. And similarly to McGill, Douglas and chef/managing partner Eric Tanaka found inspiration in the oyster tradition of the eastern United States.

大約在 Oyster Cellar 開業的同時，Tom Douglas 餐廳將其毗鄰派克市場的 Etta's Big Mountain BBQ 餐廳帶回其海鮮根源。不過，該公司並沒有將這個名字恢復為 Etta's Seafood，而是選擇了一個讓人想起牡蠣的名字 Half Shell。與麥吉爾類似，道格拉斯和廚師/管理合夥人埃里克·田中在美國東部的牡蠣傳統中找到了靈感。

“Seattle is known more for seafood houses versus oyster bars,” Tanaka points out. “And I think when you go to New Orleans, there’s an oyster culture. I think back East, there’s an oyster culture. And I think bringing that more oyster-forward presence to the ambience of a Seattle fish house is really what we were shooting for.”

「西雅圖以海鮮屋而不是牡蠣酒吧而聞名，」田中指出。 「我認為當你去新奧爾良時，你會感受到牡蠣文化。我想在東方，有一種牡蠣文化。我認為，在西雅圖魚屋的氛圍中註入更多牡蠣風味，這才是我們真正的目標。

The idea is to see oysters as not so much a rarified, special occasion dish, and more of a essential, casual part of the city’s dining scene. But in order for that to be the case, the oysters have to be affordable, and the good news there is all three restaurants are running happy hours where a dozen oysters can be had for $24.

我們的想法是，牡蠣不再是一種稀有的、特殊場合的菜餚，而是城市餐飲場景中必不可少的、休閒的一部分。但要做到這一點，牡蠣必須價格實惠，好消息是，所有三家餐廳都在營業歡樂時光，24 美元就能吃到一打牡蠣。

“I think people tend to think of oysters as being so precious,” McGill says. “I understand that at $5 to $7 a pop, it’s tough to really get down on them. We’re trying to break that conception with our $24 dozens … like, oysters don’t have to be bougie.”

「我認為人們往往認為牡蠣非常珍貴，」麥吉爾說。 「我知道，每次 5 到 7 美元的價格，很難真正放下它們。我們正試圖用 24 美元打的產品來打破這種觀念……就像，牡蠣不一定是探條。

Are we on the cusp of an oyster zeitgeist shift, then? Are more accessible oysters a trend? Or a mini-trend? Does it even matter if it’s a trend or not? As far as McGill is concerned, “I’m 1,000 percent here for it if it means that Seattle can reclaim its identity as a top-tier seafood town — the kind of place where folks casually drop into their neighborhood bar (or elegant downtowner) for a cold dozen and a cider, glass of wine, kombucha, martini, whatever.”

那麼，我們正處於牡蠣時代精神轉變的風口浪尖嗎？更容易取得的牡蠣是一種趨勢嗎？還是小趨勢？它是否是一種趨勢有什麼關係嗎？就麥吉爾而言，「如果這意味著西雅圖可以重新奪回其作為頂級海鮮小鎮的身份——人們可以隨意去附近的酒吧（或優雅的市中心）的那種地方，我百分之一百是支持的。

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