American Idle

Today we headed across the Richmond – San Rafael Bridge over to Marin to have some oysters up in Marshall along the Tomales Bay.
We left around 11. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny. Blue skies. No clouds. About 70 degrees. Our first stop was for coffee in San Anselmo. I’ve spent a lot of time in Marin, but mostly on my bike, so it was nice to have a look on foot. I’ve ridden up and down this corridor that includes Sausalito, Ross, San Anselmo and Fairfax so many times, but I’ve never had a chance to just wander around San Anselmo. After coffee, we had a nice stroll around town.
There’s no real direct route up to the Marshall Riviera, so back in the back in car, we headed west on Sir Francis Drake through Fairfax, Lagunitas, and the redwoods of Samuel P. Taylor Park, before hitting Olema at Highway One. From there, we headed north and after a brief stop in Point Reyes Station, another cyclist mecca, we continued up through Marshall and finally landed at the Hog Island Oyster Company.

Again, I’ve passed by here many times on my bike headed for the Marshall Wall or points further north on the MS Waves to Wine ride, but I had never stopped. We picked a good day. The place was booked out and all the picnic tables were reserved, but we were able to find parking right across the street and managed to find a family from Atlanta willing to share their table with us.

The farm is right on the water in an idyllic setting overlooking Tomales Bay. Groups are out there in the little picnic area that has about a dozen tables barbequing oysters, steaks and fish. Some people had very elaborate picnics. When we return, we’ll have to come a little more prepared.
Anyway, we grabbed a dozen sweetwater oysters and after a short shucking lesson, we were ready to go, more or less.
When you buy the oysters, they come on a tray with ice with an oyster knife attached to the tray. They also give you a reinforced glove so you don’t accidentally slice your hand off. The glove is wet and somewhat slimy, but gets the job done.
Neither of us had ever shucked oysters and Raquel had never eaten oysters, so it was an adventure at first, but we managed to get them all open without too much trouble (Raquel did most of the work, actually).
We begged a lemon from a neighboring table (the farm had run out) and we enjoyed our oysters in the sunshine while making small talk with our table hosts from Atlanta. It’s always nice to talk to folks from the 404. I was sad to find out that the restaurant I slaved away at had been shut down. The building it was in, which housed several other good restaurants (Nikimotos, The Steamhouse), was leveled to build condos, but the development project was a victim of the recession and now there’s just and empty hole where the restaurant complex once stood. C’est la vie.
A dozen oysters were nowhere near close enough to satisfy us, but we didn’t want to deal with the nuisance of shucking them ourselves, so we paid and headed back south a mile or so to the Marshall Store which has a string of tables along the shoreline packed with people taking in a sweeping view of the bay with slurping on the local shellfish.

We ordered half dozen raw, half a dozen bbq and half a dozen Rockefeller with a little bowl of what turned out to be watery clam chowder (don’t get the chowder). We sat on the deck an
These oysters were more expensive than the ones at Hog Island, as you’d expect since there is table service, but they were also bigger and so much better. The raw oysters came with a sauce of vinegar and cilantro that was super delicious. The cooked oysters were both fantastic, meaty, salty morsels of flavor. I can’t recommend this place enough.

The Yellowjackets are scheduled to come by here on the 26th of June on the Lucas Valley ride. After the obligatory stop at the Bovine Bakery in Point Reyes Station, it might be tough for me to convince anyone to stop with me for some oysters, but I’ll give it a shot.