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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn community celebrates second annual Oyster Fest

<p>The Oyster Festival featured live performances on Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019 in Opelika, Ala.</p>

The Oyster Festival featured live performances on Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019 in Opelika, Ala.

 

Four men, with gloves and knives in hand, stand behind a table topped with large tubs of ice. They grab an oyster and gently, but firmly, push the knife into its hinge, twisting until they get just the right amount of pressure to pop the top off. 

One after another they repeated this process until all 1,400 oysters were opened and served at the second annual OysterFest Tuesday night, Evans Meats and Seafood sales manager J.T Mackissack said. 

“We did 1,400 oysters tonight, which is a lot,” Mackissack said. “In an hour and a half, that was quick.”

The line for raw oysters stretched through Red Clay Brewing in Opelika, twisting around tables and groups of people. It never seemed to shorten until the oysters were all served. 

The raw oysters were one of the main reasons patrons attended the event. 

“I’m more of a raw oyster girl, but I love oysters,” said Abby Ondy, senior in marketing.

The cooked options were also a delight to many guests. From Oyster Fried Rice to oyster sauce and even an oyster-based pizza, there were cooked oyster dishes to sample all prepared by The Depot’s culinary team headed by Executive Chef Scott Simpson. 

One of his favorite dishes of the night was the Oyster Fried Rice, which included charred scallions, oyster mushrooms, broccolini and carrots all sautéed with poblano rice, oysters and an oyster glaze made from the juice inside raw oysters. 

“You see a lot of shrimp fried rice, pork fried rice, egg friend rice, this one is all seafood and it goes together so well,” Simpson said. 

A crowd favorite was the Oysters Rockefeller Pizza. It’s made up of The Depot’s regular  

Oysters Rockefeller topping, fresh shucked oysters and parmesan cheese all baked on top of a light pizza crust, Simpson said. 

Throughout the night, servers would bring a pizza out to the serving table where guests would quickly snag a piece. 

Each of the six cooked options proved to be successful. Several event attendees stopped by the kitchen, located between the indoor and outdoor event areas, to let The Depot team know how much they enjoyed the food.

“I like the different variations they have outside, liked the cooked foods,” Fuller said. “From the pizza to the Oyster Fried Rice, it’s just such different variety you never know what you’re going to get at each station.”

The Depot regularly serves parts of each of the six cooked oyster dishes offered at OysterFest, but the full dishes are event exclusive. 

Simpson said he’s thinking about bringing some of these dishes into the restaurant, which features seasonal menus and rotating, often seafood-based entrees each night. 

“These are all kind of showcasing different things we do at the restaurant [already] but with oysters,” Simpson said. 

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Red Clay provided the drinks for the night, which included 17 beers on tap, two hard ciders and two wines. A staple drink of the event was their Murder Creek cherry cider, which won gold at the state brewing competition earlier this month. 

The featured beer of the night was their 53, named for the 53 miles of coast in Alabama, said John Corbin, co-founder and owner of Red Clay. 

“Fifty-three is just one of the beers we decided to feature to help with ACF (Alabama costal Foundation) and all,” Corbin said.

Red Clay and The Depot partnered with the ACF for the event. Since it was an oyster-based event, it just made sense to partner with them, Corbin said. 

While they will receive some proceeds from the event, ACF’s main role in the event is oyster shell recycling. They collected the shells of the oysters that were served raw and are putting them back in Alabama waters, ACF Executive Director Mark Berte said. 

“The outside of an oyster shell is the favorite place for a new oyster to latch onto,” Berte said. “We have over 20 acres of shells collected so far for this program.”

The event sold out in the days leading up to it. Last year’s inaugural event hosted about 100 guests. This year’s event had over 200 guests, Berte said. 

“We have more raw oysters, more cooked oysters and the beer is phenomenal,” Berte said.


Elizabeth Hurley | Community Editor

Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman

@lizhurley37

community@theplainsman.com


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