Seriously, how good does this look? Came across @noahfecksphoto intriguingly boastful tweet: My Pâté de Campagne is just out of the oven and is being pressed as we speak… Lunch tomorrow will be L E G E N D A R Y! #masteringtheart. He tweeted this photo and a few others you can check out on his site: Noah Fecks.

We love pate and know it would be an excellent addition to our menu. It’s a great pairing with Brown Ales. So now we are totally obsessed inspired to try and make it ourselves. Julia Child said “if you can make meatloaf, you can make a french pate” We shall see Julia, we shall see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T52hr_31RAk&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL38690679FA854140

In the midst of planning our winter seafood menu and will be introducing it in the next couple of weeks, once the cold weather actually arrives. But not to worry – the fettucini with clams will remain as will of course our daily selection of oysters.

See you upstate!

Yup, it’s totally true. In the spirit of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, tonight we offer you Sunday Night Shenanigans…all of our oysters are $1.50. All night tonight. Until we run out.

Many thanks to food photographer Kris Chu for the photos. You can check out his site or follow him @krischu. He’s good people.

Shucker Mykee leads a dual life – hipster shucker by day, guitarist for the Discosticks by night (late night, when his shift ends).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlvUbzP_nI8&feature=related

See you upstate!

Slowly coming out of our tryptophan-induced food coma. An excellent dinner prepared by our friend Kristin that included some incredible pinot noirs, the two favorites of the evening: Soter Vineyards 2006 & Sea Smoke Ten 2008.

Sneaked a few minutes of the National Dog Show before the Detroit/Green Bay game started. We (wife) decided martinis were in order for those of us not so interested in football. Had these great edible cocktail stirrers that definitely made it feel like an old school cocktail hour. An all-day event of stiff drinks, savory food and motley conversation somehow led us to a discussion around scorpions – as in the German heavy metal kind, opposed to the predatory arthropod.

We are open this evening with an updated draught list, a freshly baked whiskey cake and yes, Scorpions now on our Pandora playlist. You’re welcome.

See you upstate!

As a kid, the folks brought us to Plymouth, Massachusetts every Boston trip we made visiting family. OK maybe it wasn’t every single trip but when you’re five and eight  years old, it kinda felt like it. Plymouth Rock was always our favorite part, for some reason we were completely fascinated that the rock was in jail.

Excited to start celebrating our favorite holiday, which means we will be closed on Thanksgiving Day – but wanted to share something we read about just this morning…Many soup kitchens and food pantries throughout NYC have been struggling to meet demands as their budgets diminish. Amy Zimmer’s article offers a lot great ways we can all help:

• Check out the New York City Coalition Against Hunger’s Volunteer Matching Center, which helps search volunteer opportunities by neighborhood, nearby subways lines, available times, and personal skills sets, etc.
• Visit New York Care’s website, which runs volunteer programs for 1,200 nonprofits, city agencies and public schools.
• Start a virtual food drive for the Food Bank For New York, donate food or volunteer doing anything from serving hot meals at the Community Kitchen in Harlem, packing food at a Bronx warehouse or staffing at fundraising events.

While we are incredibly thankful for everything we have, it is important we find ways to help those less fortunate. Please remember to be graciously generous this holiday season.

See you upstate!

At home preparing the Thanksgiving shopping list, took a quick look in the fridge to see what we actually had – clearly we have our work cut out for us…

We will be closed this Thursday, celebrating our favorite holiday over at our friends’ Kristin & Dan. We have been put in charge of appetizers, which of course will include oysters.

But for those of you not quite ready for the adventures of at-home-shucking, there’s always oyster stuffing. Hama Hama Oyster Farm recently posted this yummy recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 large clove garlic, diced
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped
• 1 pint oysters, chopped
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper
• 3 to 4 cups stale French bread, broken into small pieces

In a large saucepan, saute onions, celery, parsley, garlic, and scallions in the butter until tender. Add chopped oysters. Cook until the oysters are firm, stirring frequently. Add seasonings: basil, pepper, thyme, and salt. Taste for flavor. Cover the pot and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and gradually stir in bread crumbs. If you like stuffing really moist, you might hold off on some of the bread. Spoon into a buttered casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for half an hour.

 See you upstate!

BuckShowalter enjoyed the morning sun, sitting outside the shop while the wife’s whiskey cakes baked. Such a serious look on his face – wonder what he was thinking about…craft beer, oysters and scaring the crap out of our mailman probably. And in that order. He’s such a lovable beast.

We are closed for a private party tonight: Saturday, November 19th- our Aunt Faith is turning 70 years young, an excellent occasion to celebrate. Happy weekend.

See you upstate!

Total Field of Dreams moment when hometown hero Fred Matt walked in to our place last night. FX Matt Brewery Company is one of the country’s most respected brewers of specialty beers. And the best part of the evening? Finding out that Fred also declares Cavallo’s buffalo wings to be the best, just as we (wife) do!

 This will go on the wall, next to our Schultz, Dooley & Countess Utica Club steins.

“It’s tough to argue over an Utica Club, ’cause they put too much love into it!”

Ah the good ole days, when alcohol and cigarettes could ambiguously entertain all ages – damn Millennials have no idea what they are missing! We say it’s time to kick-it old school again and with a new rotation of draughts locked and loaded, we’re more than happy to perform a live version of Schultz & Dooley commercials. Kinda like a puppet show but kinda not.

See you upstate!

Yes, we are fastidious about the oysters we serve and yes, we are meticulous about proper glassware for each type of beer. So it should come as no surprise that we scrutinize over every detail about our place, even down to the flatware we use.

Said dirty, old flatware

And vintage won, not that we are keeping count. Um, actually, yes we (wife) are.

So now that flatware-gate has been properly sorted…on a more manly note, we’ve got an updated draught list.

See you upstate!

Friday night special: 5:30pm-7pm we are pairing six Mermaid Select oysters with a Saranac Big Moose Ale for $12.

These East Coast oysters are the freshest in NYC,  locally harvested in Montauk waters and delivered same day by the farmer himself, Mike Grande. We are the only ones in the whole wide world to have these oysters. Nobody. Else. Period.

Big Moose Ale is part of Saranac’s winter pack. Watch upstate beer royalty Nick and Fred Matt’s 12 Beers of Winter Virtual Beer Tasting. They say the word hops 14,739 times, um no not really but it feels like they do.

Listen, if we owned FX Matt Brewery, we too would make beer drinking videos but until then…

See you upstate!

It’s no secret that the restaurant industry is a tough gig as far as careers go – late nights, weekends, holidays and being married to your business partner. Our downtime together is often in the middle of the night.

We always thought deviled eggs would make a great addition to our menu, except for all of that peeling. But then one late night of channel surfing we discovered Eggies. We (wife) were hooked. And immediately ordered an Eggies set. And it turned out to be a total bust. A complete mess and certainly not as easy to use as it appeared on TV. Had an entire pot of boiling egg goo.

So while we still do not have deviled eggs on the menu, we do have the following beers on draught this week:

• Blue Point Oatmeal Stout
• Captain Lawrence Brown Bird Ale
• Empire India Pale Ale
• Lake Placid Ubu Strong Ale
• Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pilsner
• Ramstein Double Platinum Blonde
• Saranac Pale Ale
• Southampton Grand Cru

And check out our current selection of East & West Coast oysters too.

See you upstate!