People who love craft beer have a good palate. They know what they like and they know how they like it—and it turns out that they absolutely love oysters.This is the concept for our oyster pop-up in Portland, Oregon, called the Oyster Social.It all started at the basement of my old office building. There is a craft brewery down there called Upright Brewing that was about to release its 2013 batch of oyster stout. On the day of its release, I showed up with ten dozen oysters to sell by the piece. My business partner Mona Johnson and I sold out in 45 minutes. That was when Mona and I had a little lightbulb moment.
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In Portland, a lot of craft brewery tasting rooms don't have much in the way of food. What if we just showed up and sold oysters by the piece at tasting rooms as everyone enjoyed their flight of beers?
Oysters and craft beer works. It is an amazing pairing. Imagine a creamy kusshi or a kumamoto with a cold saison or something like that. Some of the oysters are so creamy that it will balance out even the bitterest of IPAs, especially when enjoyed with our housemade ginger shallot mignonette sauce, heirloom green tomato ketchup, and freshly grated real wasabi sourced from the local mountains. Oysters and craft beer work just as well as oysters and Champagne, but in a more approachable way. Also, there is no commitment, since you can just buy one oyster if you'd like, instead of a whole half-dozen.However, before I arrived at the Oyster Social, I had to leave my old dream job as the operation director manager of the Portland Farmers Market at PSU. On a really good Saturday, at the height of the season for produce here in Portland, the market reached up to 175 vendors. Upwards of 20,000 people would show up. It was ridiculous and I loved it. However, during this massive period of growth—as engaging and interesting as it was to work with Portland's thriving food community—at a certain point, I felt like I was at the top of that particular game and noticed that I was just working for the job and not for myself anymore.
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As much as I loved it, I felt what people call the "golden handcuffs" that can happen when you work at your dream job. I was having an internal argument with thoughts like: This is a really good job! I can't leave this job! Anybody in Portland would love this job! I have benefits! I have to be responsible because I have a kid now! Throughout this time, I started my own catering company as a way to get my hands back in the kitchen. I got into farmers markets because of my love of food and because I was really tired of making no money and working too hard as a chef in New York City. I realized that working in a kitchen is what I was really missing. I would throw parties for friends on weekends and I would cook for the rest of my staff. I just really needed to cook again.
This all happened as I developed an office romance with Mona, who worked as the communication manager for the Saturday Portland Farmers Market, too. She was really into oysters and it was her love of the bivalves that sparked our concept. Oysters are a complete, pristine, wonderful food, and they add an element of celebration to any event. More importantly, they don't involve a lot of prep.When I started, I sourced my oysters from a Washington-based company that used to have a stand at the farmers market. Then I found a small, local, full-time oyster farm in Oregon just south of Tillamook called Nevør Shellfish Farms and I've been using their stuff ever since.I have no regrets about leaving my dream job for oysters and craft beer, even if I was financially stabilized. I've always needed to run my own business. We just cooked a four-course meal at a farmhouse, as we are now doing more large-scale events outside of our oyster pop-up. It's all just been really fun.As told to Javier Cabral