The Marco Island Happy Hour to Know: The Oyster Society
The Oyster Society sounds expensive before you’ve even opened the menu.
And, to be fair, the regular menu can be. This is an Art Deco-inspired seafood restaurant with a serious raw bar, elaborate sushi, and a daily selection of eight to 14 East Coast oyster varieties alone. The oyster program regularly includes both East and West Coast varieties, with the selection changing according to availability. If you’re not sure which variety to pick, the menu offers specific descriptions ranging from a “sweet, briny” to “springy meats, minerality finish.”
But arrive between 4:30 and 6 p.m. and things get considerably more interesting.
The daily Social Hour takes place at the bar and lounge. Current published specials include Blue Point oysters for $9 per half-dozen or $18 per dozen, $10 shrimp cocktail and $9 California rolls. Drinks include $4 domestic and imported drafts, $8 glasses of wine and $10 signature cocktails.
Eighteen dollars for a dozen oysters at a restaurant like this is the detail that got my attention.
If you’re hungrier, the Social Hour menu has also recently included fried oysters, sautéed mussels, fish tacos and the restaurant’s well-loved Lobster Monte Cristo—Maine lobster and triple-cream Brie tucked into brioche, battered until crisp and served with fig preserves and saba glaze.
If you miss happy hour and are on a later schedule, there is another useful deal to remember: sushi is currently 50% off from 9–10 p.m. at the bar Sunday through Thursday. The sushi menu goes well beyond California rolls—the Firecracker combines spicy tuna and crab with jalapeño and Sriracha, while the rather ambitious Ocean King piles lobster, blue crab, shrimp, avocado, asparagus and caviar into one roll.
Friday through Sunday evenings also bring live jazz music to set the ambiance. So while Marco is a drive, the happy hour makes a reasonably persuasive argument for putting a few extra miles on the car.
The Oyster Society
599 S. Collier Blvd. #218, Marco Island • Daily from 4:30 p.m. • Social Hour 4:30–6 p.m.
theoystersociety.com
Originally published in
The Naples Florida Review.
Read the full edition here.