John Finger, Terry Sawyer and Michael Watchorn founded Hog Island Oyster Co. in 1983 along Tomales Bay, about an hour north of San Francisco. Since then, the trio has increased the size of their oyster farm from 10 to 160 acres and boosted their production to 3 million oysters a year. In 2004, since not everybody likes to drive the nausea-inducing stretch of Highway 1 to reach Tomales Bay, they opened an oyster bar at the Ferry Building. It’s not plucking and shucking right from the oyster beds, but it’s pretty damn close, since the bivalves are harvested daily and driven right to the Ferry Building.

Picnic tables line the outside of the Ferry Building, overlooking the bay, but it was blindingly sunny, so we sat inside at the sleek bar. Not that we suffered. It was fun to watch the all-pro oyster shuckers in action.

For an even more refined dining experience, the bar offers chilled Champagne and white wine to accompany the oysters.

My dad isn’t much of an oyster fan, so he opted for a bowl of clam chowder ($12), cooked to order. The chowder was a refined version, with a yellow cream base, a heap of Manila clams still in the shell, bacon, thyme and veggies like potatoes and carrots that soaked up the delicious cream. It was easily worth $12 for the bowl.

Hog Island offered three other varieties of oysters, but Jane and I stuck with the two varieties from Tomales Bay. We received 3 each of the Hog Island Sweetwaters and Atlantics ($13 total). They arrived on a platter of ice with strands of seaweed and a metal dish of mignonette in the middle, made with rice vinegar and shallots. I was impressed with the Atlantics, but the Sweetwaters were especially great, noticeably, well, sweeter.

We also split two baked oyster dishes (4 bivalves and $9 apiece). Oysters Citron were baked with lemon, garlic, parsley and butter. The flavor was so outstanding, I slurped the sauce straight from the shells. I also liked Oysters Casino, baked with bacon, butter and paprika. They were good, just not quite as good as the Oysters Citron.

Monday - Friday: 11:30 AM - 8 PM
Saturday - Sunday: 11 AM - 6 PM

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This entry is filed under California, Northern California, San Francisco, Seafood.