Blue Plate Oysterette

“I adore anything mollusk,” my little sis Kelly utters as we walk in, “you’re eating the ocean in a good way.” And if you’re looking mollusks on the Westside (or really in all of Los Angeles) there’s only one place to go: Blue Plate Oysterette. Oysterette, the name says it all.

Since it opened a year and half ago, the Oysterette has blossomed from a place that served a few oyster choices into one that has over sixty-five different oysters rotating throughout the year.

“Oysters are what we do really well,” Salvador d'Auvergne General Manager explains with a contagious twinkle emitting from his brown eyes. “We have four guys on the team of Shuckers, and they are all mechanics. No ripping or losing juice. It’s just cutting and flipping.”

And the mechanics do their work well, during a busy night BPO does somewhere between 800-900 oysters.

Which is pretty impressive by itself. But even more impressive when you learn that restaurant is 1400 square feet, and that it seats only 60. Both due to space restraints, and more importantly integrity, there’s no prepping allowed. “Oysters are only good for 10 minutes, after that they’re bad,” notes Sal. “Everything is shucked to order.”

They day Kelly and I were at Blue Plate Oysterette we had the gambit of oyster choices. Komato (tight and creamy), Easterns (Briney with a smooth flavor), Lunas (sweet and delicate), and Beau Soleil (which means beautiful sun, and the creamiest oyster I have ever had, amazing!).

“Certain people call and say ‘Do you have the Beau Soleil? Do you have Hama Hama?” says Sal with open-hearted pride. “And if we do then they say: ‘I’m coming in, right now.‘”

Yes oysters in the raw are king at BPO, but if you’re not down with caveman seafood then there’s the option of grilled...

Positively simple in concept (diced raw shallots mixed with compound butter, bread crumbs and tarragon) but amazing amazing fantastic. Yum with 3 M’s (as Kelly says).

Last Tuesday I was at the DineLA party, and yes the oysters were lovely, but they were moon to Blue Plate Oysterette’s sun, nothing but a pale comparison. I passed on trying another; the bar had just been set too high.