CuisineOyster season across the Lowcountry, 2026 to 2027South Carolina’s oyster season runs to May 15. Where to eat oysters, where to buy a bushel, how to roast them, and the roasts through the winter.South Carolina's oyster season opened half an hour before sunrise on Thursday, October 1, and it runs until May 15. The first big roast of the fall is on Saturday, October 10, on the Village Green at Freshfields Village by Kiawah, and it is free to register for. In November, Tybee Island holds an oyster roast and Lowcountry boil on November 13, the night before the main day of its seafood festival, and at the end of February the Lowcountry Oyster Festival comes to Boone Hall in Mount Pleasant. Between those dates, oysters are on menus all along the coast. Bowens Island near Folly Beach steams them by the tray, Hudson's on Hilton Head serves them by the bucket, and the raw bars on East Bay and King Street in Charleston list their oysters by name and by where they were grown. Markets in Bluffton, on Folly Road and in Savannah sell them in the shell for a roast at home. Oysters here grow in clumps, because a young oyster settles on the shell of an older one and cements itself there, generation after generation, according to the state's shellfish biologists. A shovelful of these clusters is steamed until the shells gape, tipped onto a long table, and opened by hand with a knife and a glove, with a bucket for the shells. That is a Lowcountry roast. This guide goes area by area, then covers how to roast a bushel at home, how to pick your own, and the roasts and festivals through the winter. Charleston: Bowens Island The dock house at Bowens Island. May and Jimmy Bowen opened a fish camp on this marsh between James Island and Folly Beach in 1946, and their grandson Robert Barber runs it now. The James Beard Foundation named it one of America's Classics in 2006. From September to the middle of May it steams wild local oysters, by the half tray, the full tray or all you can eat. Diners take a numbered card, collect their tray from the oyster room, and shuck at tables with a hole in the middle for the empty shells. Raw oysters from local farms are sold by the half dozen all year. 1870 Bowens Island Road, Charleston · Tuesday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday to 9:30pm · closed Sunday and Monday · steamed oysters from 4pm Charleston: The Raw Bars Oysters on the half shell, Amen Street. Amen Street Fish & Raw Bar, a few steps from the City Market, has been open since 2009. Its board names six oysters at a time, among them South Carolina's Lowcountry Cups, Perky Sea Cups and Single Ladies. A half dozen of the house's premium oysters is $23 and a dozen $45, and at the bar, Virginia oysters from the Chesapeake Bay are $1.75 each from 11am to 10pm every day. Baked oysters are $18 and fried oysters $16. The Ordinary, from the team behind FIG, opened in 2012 in a King Street bank built in 1927, with the old vault door still in place. Its chef and owner, Mike Lata, won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2009. Oysters are $4 each, including Perky Sea Cups from South Carolina, and the same oyster dressed with ají dulce mignonette and trout roe is $6. Smoked Bird Island oysters with Old Bay saltines are $25, and the crispy oyster sliders are half price from 4 to 5pm. The smallest seafood tower, $85, holds a dozen oysters, four clams, a quarter pound of peel-and-eat shrimp and smoked amberjack pâté. Leon's Oyster Shop serves fried chicken and oysters in an old garage on upper King Street. Brooks Reitz and Tim Mink opened it in 2014 in a former auto body shop that belonged to Leon Ravenel, and kept the concrete floor and the garage door. There are plenty of tables for walk-ins, and free parking at 19 Race Street. Amen Street, 205 East Bay Street · daily · The Ordinary, 544 King Street · from 4pm, closed Tuesday · Leon's, 698 King Street · daily 11am to 10pm Kiawah: Lowcountry Smoke & Shuck Freshfields Village, at the gateway to Kiawah and Seabrook, opens the roast season on its Village Green on Saturday, October 10, from 3 to 6pm. Registration is free online, and food and drink are sold on the green, by cash or card. Freshfields holds its fall art walk the evening before, on October 9, from 4 to 7pm. 165 Village Green Lane, Kiawah Island · Saturday, October 10, 3 to 6pm · free to register Hilton Head and Bluffton The dock at Hudson's. Photograph: Hudson's Seafood House on the Docks. Hudson's Seafood House on the Docks began in 1912 as an oyster factory at the edge of Port Royal Sound, where oysters were shucked on the dock and sent north by barge. In the months with an R in them it steams local cluster oysters in the shell, $14 for a half bucket of 12 and $28 for a full bucket of 24. The raw bar shucks oysters to order, and the kitchen bakes oysters Rockefeller and wraps oysters in bacon for Oysters Hudson, $14 each. Seating is first come, first served. Bluffton Oyster Company, on the May River, is described by the state's tourism office as the last hand-shucking oyster house in South Carolina. Its oysters are picked by hand from local creeks and opened by hand on site, and the May River supplies close to a fifth of the state's oyster harvest, by state figures. The retail window sells oysters in the shell by the bushel and half bushel, and shucked oysters by the quart. It is also where tickets are sold for the Bluffton Rotary oyster roast each winter. Hudson's, 1 Hudson Road, Hilton Head Island · dinner 4 to 9:30pm · Bluffton Oyster Company, 63 Wharf Street, Bluffton Beaufort: Saltus River Grill Saltus looks over Waterfront Park to the Beaufort River. A half dozen local Single Lady oysters, wood-fired with smoked paprika butter, shallots and garlic, is $18, and the raw bar sells select oysters by the piece. Bookings are taken for the dining room, and the patio under the oaks is used when the weather allows. 802 Bay Street, Beaufort · dinner from 5pm, seven nights Folly Road and Savannah: Markets Crosby's, on Folly Road. Crosby's Fish & Shrimp Co. is a family market on the road to Folly Beach that has sold shrimp, fish, clams and oysters since 1973. It opens at 6 every morning, seven days a week. Russo's Seafood in Savannah has sold seafood since 1946, and its counter sells oysters for a roast at home. A U.S. bushel is eight gallons, roughly 45 to 60 pounds of oysters in the shell, and a common rule of thumb is one bushel for every four to six people. Ask for the day's price when ordering. Crosby's, 2223 Folly Road, Charleston · daily 6am to 6pm · Russo's, 201 East 40th Street, Savannah Roasting at Home Build a hot bed of hardwood coals or charcoal and set a flat steel plate, a quarter inch thick or more, on blocks above it. When a flick of water sizzles on the plate, spread the clusters in a single layer and throw a soaked, untreated burlap sack over them straight away to hold the steam. Take them off when the shells just begin to gape, after eight to ten minutes. An oyster that falls open without a knife has cooked a little too long. Everyone at the table needs an oyster knife and a cut-resistant glove. A slightly blunt tip suits big clusters, and a flared guard keeps the hand off the blade. Lowcountry Oyster Co. sells its Marsh Master knife, with a handle of recycled plastic, for $20. Put a bucket on the table for the empty shells. Picking Your Own In South Carolina, a Saltwater Recreational Fishing License is needed. It costs $15 a year for a resident, or $10 for 14 days, from the Department of Natural Resources online and at many tackle shops. Each person may take two bushels of oysters and half a bushel of clams a day, on no more than two days in any seven, and a boat or vehicle may carry no more than three people's limits. Picking is allowed on public and state shellfish grounds where the water is classed as open, shown on the department's Recreational Shellfish Map. Beds can close for a time after heavy rain, and the Department of Environmental Services posts those closures on its shellfish map and at 1-800-285-1618. Georgia opens its season once coastal waters cool, and its Coastal Resources Division announces the date at coastalgadnr.org. Once it is open, a Georgia fishing license and a free Saltwater Information Program permit are needed. The limit is two bushels of oysters a person a day and six a boat, and each oyster must measure three inches from hinge to mouth. Roasts and Festivals WhenWhatWhere Sat Oct 10, 3 to 6pmLowcountry Smoke & Shuck, free to registerFreshfields Village, Kiawah Fri Nov 13Oyster roast and Lowcountry boil for HUGS, a local children's charity, during the Tybee Seafood Fest (Nov 8 to 15)Hotel Tybee, Tybee Island Sat Nov 14, 11am to 9pmTybee Seafood Fest main dayTybee Island Pier and Pavilion Usually JanuaryBeaufort Oyster Festival, with the Oyster Boogie 5KBeaufort WinterBluffton Rotary oyster roast, tickets at Bluffton Oyster CompanyOyster Factory Park, Bluffton Sun Feb 28, 2027The 42nd Lowcountry Oyster FestivalBoone Hall, Mount Pleasant Late winterGeorgia Conservancy oyster roastGrove Point, Savannah Shell Recycling Young oysters settle best on old shell, so South Carolina collects it. The Department of Natural Resources' SCORE program takes spent shell from restaurants and public bins, cures it for at least six months, and puts it back in the creeks to build new reef. Every three bushels returned makes about ten square feet of reef, by the City of Charleston's count. Bins sit at boat landings, restaurants and public buildings along the coast, and the department's online map lists them. A roast of more than 20 bushels can ask the department for a trailer at (843) 953-1367. The Beaufort, Bluffton and Georgia Conservancy dates for 2027 go up on each organizer's site over the winter, and Georgia's opening day on coastalgadnr.org.