National mag dives into Bay City
Coastal Living names Pacific Seafood, in Bay City, one of the ‘best seafood dives’
By Niki Price
Oregon Coast Today
[Posted May 7, 2008]
Last December, Alabama-based food and travel writer Steve Millburg was cruising the coast of Oregon, in search of a dive. He was looking for Coastal Living magazine’s definition of a “great seafood dive,” a casual, local, honest restaurant with exceptionally good food.
From his advance research, Millburg thought that Pacific Oyster sounded like a great candidate. He had the feeling that this restaurant, located inside the processing plant that supplies the giant Pacific Seafood distribution chain with fresh, shucked oysters, would offer the freshest seafood. Readers and friends had steered Millburg to Bay City, raving about Pacific Oyster’s clam chowder, fried fish and, of course, fresh Pacific oysters.
Then he came around the bend of Hwy. 101, and saw Pacific Oyster for the first time. It sits on a dock and jetty within Tillamook Bay, with clear-day views of the Bayocean spit to the west, and Garibaldi to the north. The writer saw the mounds of white oyster shells, the roving boats docking in the back and the parking lot that was full even during the coast’s slow tourist season.
“A seafood restaurant at a seafood processing plant, that’s a pretty good start. Then I saw it sitting out there on the jetty I thought, ‘This is looking better and better,’” Millburg said. “And when I got in, I found this nice, family style café, warm and welcoming, with great food. It was such a nice place.”
So nice, in fact, that Millburg included Pacific Oyster in Coastal Living’s annual list of “Our Favorite Seafood Dives,” a collection of 25 restaurants in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. This Bay City favorite was the only Oregon restaurant to make this year’s list, which was published in the May 2008 issue (circulation 660,000). The accompanying text, written by Millburg, extols the entertainment (watching the oyster shuckers at work) as well as the food.
“I ordered the oyster stew, which was fabulous, with plump and juicy oysters. I also had the halibut fish and chips, which were really done well,” he said. “I had a very nice experience there, and I thought I needed to share that with the readers.”
“The halibut fish and chips is really one of our best,” agreed Cathy Bracelin, office manager at Pacific Oyster. “The fish is very fresh, because we have a choice selection, being part of Pacific Seafood. And it’s deep -fried, with a special batter and panko bread crumbs. The oyster stew is good because we keep it simple, so a lot of the good oyster flavor can come through.”
Now that halibut season has started, even more of this tender, tasty white fish will be coming into Pacific Oyster. But they also make “fish and chips” plates from cod, rockfish and prawns, as well as clam strips, chicken strips and grilled oysters. The rich, aromatic clam chowder and the spicy, tomato-based cioppino are served by the cup, bowl or in a sourdough bread loaf. They serve crab melts, crab cakes, salmon burgers and grilled albacore tuna sandwiches, as well as a few non-seafood items, like hamburgers and hot dogs. Clean, cold oyster shooters are served year-round. On weekends during the summer season (Memorial Day through Labor Day) they offer an outdoor fresh fish market, too.
The staff at Pacific Oyster is pleased with the Coastal Living publicity, although they might not have chosen the word “dive.”
“We know that we’re not a high class restaurant, we’re just a comfortable place on the pier,” Bracelin said. “We’re a coastal seafood restaurant, with specialties like oysters and the freshest seafood, from crab and prawns to halibut and salmon. We know we’re not a dive, we’re just not fancy.”
Larry Bleiberg, a senior editor at Coastal Living, said that in his eyes, “dive” is a true compliment. He asks contributors, writers and photographers, who are accustomed to dining with celebrity chefs and touring the finest coastal homes in North America, to avoid white tablecloths and lavish wine lists.
Instead, they’re asked to find the best in “the road food tradition of good, honest, local food,” Bleiberg said. “The idea is to identify places that really put the emphasis on food rather than atmosphere. You know them when you see them, and you probably love them.
“We’ve heard from people who plan their trips around this list, epic road trips from dive to dive. And Pacific Oyster sounds like a blast. I’ll definitely go the next time I’m out there.”
Pacific Oyster, a division of Pacific Seafood, is found at 5150 Oyster Drive, on Hwy. 101 five miles north of Tillamook. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. For information, or to find out if the shuckers will be on duty, call 503-377-2323. Or, log on to www.pacseafood.com.
Taking a dive?
Larry Bleiberg, a senior editor at Coastal Living, is always looking for great dives. If you have a suggestion, write to Bleiberg at Coastal Living, 2100 Lakeshore Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209. Or e-mail larry_bleiberg@timeinc.com.
TideTables is an advertiser-sponsored feature of the Oregon Coast Today. To include your restaurant in an upcoming edition, contact Charles Helbig.
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| Pacific Seafood is a working operation, where you can see oysters harvested and processed - and enjoy great seafood meals of all types. |
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A visit to Pacific Seafood in Bay City need not be only
For Shellfish Reasons
By NIKI PRICE
Oregon Coast Today
[File story.]
Here are a few times to remember when you visit the Pacific Oyster farm, processing plant and retail store. Two years. Five days. Five seconds.
The first, naturally, is the amount of time the young Pacific and Kumomoto oysters spend growing in the waters of Tillamook Bay, just offshore from the plant in Bay City, six miles north of Tillamook. The second number, five days, refers to the post-harvest lifespan of an oyster still in the shell, as it is shipped to stores and restaurants all over the country.
But it’s that third number that is the most impressive, at least for most observers. Five seconds is all it takes for a fast shucker to separate meat from shell. Grab the shell, find the spot, insert the knife and knock, knock, knock it against the cutting board. Crack it open, flick out the oyster and scrape the shell into the exiting conveyor belt — fast as lightning, over and over.
Like most observers, Pacific Oyster manager Randy Gerber stands amazed at their practiced skill with the specialized blade.
“The fastest can produce a four buckets an hour, with about 200 oysters in every bucket,” he said. “In that time, I could probably do about two, then pull the blade out of my thumb.”
There’s lots to learn at Pacific Oyster, which since 1994 has been owned by Portland-based Pacific Seafood. The education begins at the plant’s entrance off Hwy. 101, lined with mounds of white and gray oyster shells. In the summertime, Gerber said, gardeners always ask if they can buy the shells, which carry a fertilizing wallop of nutrient-rich lime.
Most of the time, Gerber must refuse. Those shells are a vital component of the oyster farming process in Bay City, as visitors and school groups learn when they watch the 10-minute video playing in the production area.
The process begins with mature oysters, selected for their size and quality, which are submerged in warm water at a nearby laboratory. When the conditions are right, the oysters release millions of larvae, which are strained out and nourished until they are big enough to see — just barely. Then, the future shooters are transported to Bay City, where they’re poured into one of the dock’s large above-ground tanks, which has been filled with 500 bags of empty shells.
The larvae attach to the shells, and begin to grow. After two weeks resting and filter feeding in the tanks, they’re taken to a designated area in the shallow flats of the bay. Out of the bags and ready to grow on their own, the oysters are scattered across the water and float gently to the bottom.
Eighteen months to two years later, they’re harvested by hand and placed in net buckets for transport back to the dock. Handlers clean and sort them before sending them up the conveyor belt and onto the cold, stainless steel shucking tables, where a lightning fast fate awaits them. Next stop is the packaging room, where the oysters are sorted and packed into 8, 10, 16 and 32-ounce clear plastic jars, stamped with the harvest date. Boxed and put on ice, these jars are shipped to retail customers across the country, including Safeway, Fred Meyer and Costco stores.
The Bay City plant, the only oyster farm in the Pacific Seafood chain, ships millions of shucked oysters every winter, Gerber said. But they have a smaller market in live oysters, still in the shell, which people enjoy as shooters or on the barbecue.
“Usually between the small and the mediums are the best. A lot of people buy them in the half bushel, which is five dozen, and put them on the barbecue in the summertime. When they pop open, they put their cheese and hot sauce, pesto sauce, or whatever they want on it,” he said.
Most people are intrigued by the short, self-guided tour, he said, as well as the video, which is available for sale in the gift shop. Pacific Oyster also features a café, selling everything from chowder and bread to surf-and-turf dinners, fish and chips and oysters on the half shell. The refrigerated case offers oysters and other local catch as well as fresh and frozen products from Pacific Seafood’s network of 700 boats and 15 processors from Fresno, Calif., to Wrangell, Alaska.
On Memorial Day weekend, Gerber will open its open-air fresh fish market, with a fillet specialist on hand to help you process your find. During tuna season, the fillet table inside will be busy processing as much as 4,000 pounds a week.
“That’s a lot of fish. And the filleters are fun to watch,” Gerber said. “There’s a lot of great things to see here, and we have the freshest fish around. Visitors love to come in here, have a great meal and get really good service. Take the tour and look around – you have a question, just ask.”
The café and gift shop at Pacific Oyster is at 5150 Oyster Drive, on Hwy. 101 six miles north of Tillamook, and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For information, or to find out if the shuckers will be on duty, call 503-377-2323. Or, log on to www.pacseafood.com.
TideTables is an advertiser-sponsored feature. To learn more, or to have your restaurant featured in a future edition, call the Oregon Coast Today at 541-921-2306. |
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