Island Creek Oysters

This is the absolute best place to eat oysters in the oyster capital of the world.

We are in Duxbury, Massachusetts, overlooking Duxbury Bay at the world-famous Island Creek Oyster, and I have never seen an operation quite like this place. It's a huge property with multiple buildings overlooking the water. It's part restaurant, part raw bar, part beach bar, and believe it or not, hard-working farm. Yes, they really do grow oysters right out here in Duxbury Bay.

On a nice day, this is the place to be. They call it the Raw Bar at Island Creek, a big outdoor area with lots of picnic tables, beautiful views of the bay, fun music going, and lots of cold draft beers being served. So you have plenty of options to eat outdoors. You can also go inside. Downstairs you have a big open kitchen where you can watch them shucking all day long. There's a little retail store with lots of great swag. Upstairs, there's a full dining room and bar. So inside or outside, whatever you're going to do, you're going to enjoy.

The story of Island Creek starts back in 1990. A Duxbury native named Skip Bennett had this crazy idea—he wanted to start growing shellfish right in Duxbury Harbor. After years of trial and error, he struck gold. Or I guess he really struck pearls because he found out that Duxbury Bay may be one of the finest places in the world to grow and harvest oysters.

You see, the water here is very cold, the tides are very strong, and there's a lot of mineral content in the water. Put it all together and you end up growing and harvesting some of the finest oysters on planet Earth.

They sell multiple styles of oysters here. The signature oyster is known as the Island Creek Oyster, or as they call it, the ICO. This thing is like a picture-perfect postcard of what an oyster is supposed to look like and supposed to taste like. It's not too big, not too small. The cup is just big enough that it maintains some of that naturally salty water. They always come served with their housemade mignonette and cocktail sauce. I'm more of a cocktail sauce kind of guy—just a hint, because you want to get the real fresh flavor of the oyster itself.

It comes straight from the ice and straight down the gullet. Cold. Clean. You can taste the salinity. You can taste the minerality. That is the definition of a real New England oyster.

You know, one oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water in a day. And there are somewhere around 30 million oysters out here in Duxbury Bay. So that actually helps the environment and keeps the water very, very clean.

Another popular style of oyster is the Aunt Dottie's. These oysters are good for beginners. They're smaller, so they're more manageable. They're also more naturally sweet. The only problem with these oysters is I could eat them by the dozen. The Aunt Dottie's don't even need any cocktail sauce—just a little bit of lemon. I've never entered one of those crazy eating contests before, but I would consider doing that with these oysters. I could probably do a couple hundred, I'm guessing. I'm well on my way.

The rest of the menu is full of all kinds of fun and delicious finger foods, everything from hot dogs to sushi to clam chowder.

One of my favorite starters here is the Crab Rangoon Dip. It's basically everything you love about a crab rangoon, just deconstructed. It's served with potato chips that are generously dusted with nori, basically seaweed seasoning. I've never had a crab rangoon quite like it, but I love it.

Every single table should definitely get an order of their shrimp cocktail. These aren't the big giant shrimp. They're smaller, more manageable, and definitely sweeter than your typical shrimp cocktail. It's well cooked, well seasoned, and easy to eat. Honestly, what else do you need?

I was surprised to find out they actually don't have a lobster roll on the menu here, but they do have something that might be even better: a crab roll. You get a perfectly buttered and toasted brioche roll stuffed with fresh shucked lump crab meat, yuzu kosho, which is an Asian citrus seasoning, plus fennel, onion, and poppy seeds. This is like summer in a bite. And what a glorious bite it is.

Here's a food trend they're jumping on: the Poké Bowl. This one is the marinated salmon poke bowl. They stuffed a lot of salmon into this thing. Look at that bright, rich orange color. It's served with rice, avocado, cucumber, pickled carrots, and scallions. But the salmon is the star, and that's the way it should be.

It really does blow my mind that in less than 40 years, we have gone from one guy trying to grow an oyster to a massive complex that attracts seafood lovers from across the country and around the world all year round.

But especially on a nice day, if you're in the mood for a fresh-shucked oyster and an ice-cold beer, there is no better place to get it than at Island Creek.

Now that's a shucking good time.