西雅图的新牡蛎吧让美味更触手可及

在过去的二十年里，西雅图海鲜屋建立了现代牡蛎酒吧的原型：通风的空间和象拔蚌一样长的贝类菜单

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.

在过去的二十年里，西雅图海鲜屋建立了现代牡蛎酒吧的原型：通风的空间，提供像拔蚌一样长的贝类菜单，让人想起酒单。在 Elliot's Oyster House 和 Walrus and the Carpenter 等地方，客人可以通过食用双壳类动物游览普吉特海湾地区的水道，并从知识渊博的服务员那里获得不同程度的咸度和风味的速成课程。

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.

驻军采取了略有不同的方法。这是一家喜怒无常、贻贝大小、设有 17 个座位的酒吧和餐厅，位于巴拉德市场街 (Ballard's Market Street) 前信天翁酒店 (Hotel Albatross) 的前厅。 Le Coin 老板乔什·德尔加多 (Josh Delgado) 和乔丹·梅尔尼科夫 (Jordan Melnikoff) 去年年底悄然开业，德尔加多开发了一份简洁的海鲜菜单，包括简化的牡蛎选择，主要以来自 Emerald Acres Oysters 的 Treasure Cove 牡蛎为特色。

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.

不过，Garrison 餐厅的牡蛎品种较少，但这并不妨碍它成为一家牡蛎酒吧。这是为了突出德尔加多高度重视的供应商和产品。

“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.”

“凯文（莱利）是一位彻头彻尾的牡蛎养殖者，”德尔加多说。 “他传播种子，他自己收割，他自己装袋，自己运送......[而且]他用牡蛎知识让你大吃一惊。我喜欢他的产品，因为它很好地代表了真正的归化华盛顿牡蛎。”

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 是经验丰富的餐馆老板最近开设的几家牡蛎酒吧之一，这些酒吧避开了以“市场价格”列出的更多选择，而是带来了西雅图罕见的交通便利感，同时又不牺牲任何体验。

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.

当布伦丹·麦吉尔（希区柯克餐厅集团的负责人）五月份开设 Oyster Cellar 时，他引入了一种更休闲的方式，他说这是受到曼哈顿历史悠久的牡蛎酒吧的启发。餐厅的长吧台前面是主厨 Alex Jackson 的生加工站，食客可以看到厨师快速脱壳的情景。这种设置真正体现了其老派的灵感，因为它营造了一种厨师和食客之间的交流氛围，这是经典牡蛎屋的标志——尽管杰克逊的玩笑比东方传统的粗俗更和蔼可亲。与 Garrison 一样，Oyster Cellar 的特色是精选的牡蛎品种和对供应商的绝对尊重，在本例中，供应商是 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.”

“我们与农民的关系使我们能够在牡蛎从水中出来的当天收到牡蛎”，麦吉尔在电子邮件中说道。 “Baywater Shellfish 以班布里奇岛为背景，所以我第一次见到（创始人）乔思·戴维斯是在希区柯克早期。 14 年来我们一直直接从他们那里购买牡蛎……我喜欢这些牡蛎。”

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.

大约在 Oyster Cellar 开业的同时，Tom Douglas 餐厅将其毗邻派克市场的 Etta's Big Mountain BBQ 餐厅带回其海鲜根源。不过，该公司并没有将这个名字恢复为 Etta's Seafood，而是选择了让人想起牡蛎的名字 Half Shell。与麦吉尔类似，道格拉斯和厨师/管理合伙人埃里克·田中在美国东部的牡蛎传统中找到了灵感。

“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.”

“西雅图以海鲜屋而不是牡蛎酒吧而闻名，”田中指出。 “我认为当你去新奥尔良时，你会感受到牡蛎文化。我想在东方，有一种牡蛎文化。我认为，在西雅图鱼屋的氛围中注入更多牡蛎风味，这才是我们真正的目标。”

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.

我们的想法是，牡蛎不再是一种稀有的、特殊场合的菜肴，而是城市餐饮场景中必不可少的、休闲的一部分。但要做到这一点，牡蛎必须价格实惠，好消息是，所有三家餐厅都在营业欢乐时光，24 美元就能吃到一打牡蛎。

“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.”

“我认为人们往往认为牡蛎非常珍贵，”麦吉尔说。 “我知道，每次 5 到 7 美元的价格，很难真正放下它们。我们正试图用 24 美元打的产品来打破这种观念……就像，牡蛎不一定是探条。”

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.”

那么，我们正处于牡蛎时代精神转变的风口浪尖吗？更容易获得的牡蛎是一种趋势吗？还是小趋势？它是否是一种趋势有什么关系吗？就麦吉尔而言，“如果这意味着西雅图可以重新夺回其作为顶级海鲜小镇的身份——人们可以随意去附近的酒吧（或优雅的市中心）的那种地方，我百分之一百是支持的。”来一打冷饮和一杯苹果酒、一杯葡萄酒、康普茶、马提尼，等等。”

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