Bars & Nightlife
Food Dude Finds the Best Raw Bars and Restaurants with Oysters in Myrtle Beach
It's April, your last chance to slurp down some fresh, raw oysters in months that have an “R” in them. You've heard the old myth that oysters are only to be eaten in R months (September-April) and not in non-R months (May-August). The theory is based on warmer waters and weather during the summer months.
While that might have been true back in the days before the invention of refrigeration (or maybe even ice), the Food Dude is hear to tell you that it's all a bunch of mollusk poop.
The truth is that freshly harvested seafood kept at proper temperatures is good to eat, even if it happens to be a slimy, barely-steamed oyster. Or in my case, “especially if.”
Oysters might not sound like the perfect dude food, but this good ol' boy lives too close to the bounty of the ocean not to appreciate a truffles of the sea.
Dig them from the mud flats at low tide, clean them off at the car wash, toss them on the grill and cover them with a wet burlap sack. A few minutes later, crack them open with a shucking knife, add a drop of hot sauce and swallow.
Now that's a true taste of ocean, but if it sounds like too much work (shucking them can be a chore in itself), here's a list of the Food Dude's top five places on the Grand Strand to get delicious oysters – YEAR-ROUND:
Mr. Fish: Co-owner Ted Hammerman gets his oysters locally, and South Carolina's version are different than the popular Appalachacola Bay variety.
They come in large clusters, each made up of smaller oysters than you might be accustomed to eating. But one taste and you will be converted.
The combination of freshness and the unique, salty flavor of the Palmetto State's pearls of the sea have made believer out of even renowned food critic Andrew Bourdain during a recent visit to the Lowcountry. Not exactly a Food Dude, but nice recommendation anyway.
Rockerfeller's: This North Myrtle Beach hot spot has some of the best seafood in town, but they are famous for their oysters.
Grab a seat at the surfboard bar tables and load it up with dozens of melt-in-your mouth mollusks on the half shell. Check out happy hour when you can get them for 50 cents apiece.
Food Dude Tip No. 2,637: Ask for a cup of the restaurant's diablo sauce for dipping. It's a bit spicy so go ahead and order a cold beer at the same time.
Bimini's: Tucked away in a strip mall in the Arcadian Shores section of Myrtle Beach, Bimini's may look like an unlikely place to find fresh oysters from the outside.
But it's what inside that counts, and Bimini's doesn't disappoint. Check out the all-you-can-eat oyster roasts on Sunday afternoons.
Spud's: Sit outside on the porch overlooking the same inlet where your oysters were plucked just hours earlier at this Murrells Inlet eatery.
Spud's serves them old school (on a bed of ice with lemon, cocktail sauce and drawn butter), or Casino and Rockerfeller for the adventurous. Either way, they're yummy.
Dirty Don's: This oyster bar in the heart of downtown Myrtle Beach is famous for serving up heaven on a half shell in a true seafood shack.
Try the blackened oysters if you don't mind a little kick, and come during the weekend oyster roasts for $6 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
