Oysters, beer, bourbon, fresh foraged foods and scholarship money will all be on the table Jan. 30 at the Alabama Oyster Social.
Acre restaurant staff is partnering with the Auburn University Shellfish Laboratory to host this event, and the proceeds will benefit the laboratory.
"We're donating the money in the form of a scholarship for the professors at the shellfish laboratory and the students going into the studies of stable shellfish harvesting," said David Bancroft, chef at Acre.
The event will have six different chefs, Caleb Fischer, Jason Stanhope, Adam Evans, Rob McDaniel, Wesley True and Bancroft cooking oysters in different ways.
They will prepare fried oysters, chargrilled oysters with garlic and parmesan, oyster stew with chickweed and smoked ham, poached oysters with ham hock broth, a raw oyster bar, different condiments, catfish from Auburn University fisheries and shrimp.
"After, obviously, Katrina and the amount of oyster farmers that were struggling, (we were) seeing the progress that they've made over the last few years and watching them with their sustainable oyster research," Bancroft said. "(I was) speaking with a few other chefs, and everybody just really agreed that it was something we wanted to highlight, such an awesome resource to have off the coast of Alabama."
Bill Walton, associate professor in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, said that they will use the money for student research so they can focus on the questions that oyster farmers have.
They have been looking at what is working in other places for oyster farmers and developing their own methods for better oyster farming.
"Because our waters are so productive, the oysters grow fast, but so does everything else and so baskets that you're raising the oysters in will get covered up with seaweed and barnacles," Walton said. "You're spending so much time keeping them clean ... that you just weren't going to make any money."
Walton said they recommend growing oysters by taking them out of the water to dry for a period of time because the oysters will survive but the things growing on them will not.
Each of the oyster farmers providing oysters for the social raises their oysters in different waters and has oysters with a different taste.
"Oysters, they take on the flavor of where they're grown," Walton said. "Even though they're all Alabama oysters, they're grown in three different locations. They're going to get a variety of taste."
Cullan Duke, oyster farmer off the west coast of Dauphin Island, said there is a historical difference in oysters from different regions of the country.
"The best part is just kind of seeing what everyone has going on in Alabama and realizing we can produce world class oysters right here in Alabama," Duke said. "What we're doing that's different is having individually named oysters from specific different kinds of microenvironments that have different tastes."
They will also have drinks from Back Forty Beer, Cathead Distillery, Sazerac Bourbon, International Wine and Pinnacle Imports.
The event will start at 6 p.m. and are $57.92.
"My grandfather is a fish farmer in Alabama with Auburn University, and I have a brother who is a graduate of the fisheries program," Bancroft said. "Working with Auburn University fisheries has always been something important for our family."
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