National Oyster Day, and on this coast they come to the table by the shovel
It is 5 August. Here is where to eat oysters on this coast today, how Bowens Island has been steaming them since the 1940s, and when the roast season starts again.
The oysters come to the table by the shovel. Someone lifts a wet burlap sack off a sheet of steel over the fire, works a broad shovel underneath, and tips a steaming heap of them onto paper in front of you. You get a glove, a short knife and a bucket for the shells. That is the meal. Bowens Island has been doing it that way since the 1940s.
Today is National Oyster Day, and this is a coast that takes the occasion literally.
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The Bowens Island method is about half an inch of steel over a wood fire with a soaked burlap sack thrown over the oysters, which steams them open in their own liquor. The James Beard Foundation named the place an American Classic in 2006. The cinder-block building burned down later that same year and the family rebuilt, putting the dining room up a storey so the whole room now looks out over the marsh.
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If you want oysters today rather than a story about them, the shellfish counters on this coast run from a shack on a tidal creek to a proper raw bar with ice and lemon. These are the ones we keep on the list.
The big communal roasts are a cold-weather thing here. South Carolina’s wild season opens on 1 October and runs to the middle of May, which is why the roast calendar fills up as soon as the evenings turn. In December the Toadfish Shellabration takes over Bowens Island and raises money to put shell back on the bottom of Charleston’s creeks, which is how you get more oysters in the first place.
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Between now and October the half shell and the raw bar carry it. Worth ringing ahead in August, because hours on this coast move with the season.