Love oysters at a dive bar? For $2 apiece, Dakota Curran will bring the Shore’s freshest
However else Dakota Curran imagined his career in food turning out, this is what it all led to: oysterman to the dive bars
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SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. — However else Dakota Curran imagined his career in food turning out, this is what it all led to: oysterman to the dive bars. He couldn’t be happier.
Curran, 31, a Florida native who grew up in Brigantine and lives in Ventnor, is the head of Dak Daddy’s Oyster Shack, and ready to bring his fresh oysters to a local Shore bar near you, or your backyard.
Curran’s got an oyster harvesting farm in Ludlam Bay off Sea Isle City and has been doing pop-up oyster bars at both Ducktown Tavern in Atlantic City, on Sundays, and Robert’s Place in Margate, on Fridays. Gracing both joints with the freshest oysters from your favorite Jersey beach towns. Forget about those Blue Points! He’s harvesting 5,000 oysters a day out of Ludlam Bay as part of his Ludlam Bay Oyster Company.
“Two bucks a piece, and they’re day old out of the water,” Curran told me.
How did you get into the pop-up oyster bar business?
The shack is something I’ve been dreaming of doing. I was getting stuck in the kitchen, not seeing anyone enjoying my food. This brought my passion back.
How has it been received?
The support of locals alone is crazy. They want to take care of me. Everyone wants to help.
People think you can’t get local oysters right near beach towns in New Jersey.
When I was a chef at the Deauville Inn, I did only local oysters. Within 30 miles. I had six different kinds. Summer Salts, some from Ocean City, two kinds from the Brigantine Oyster Farm. Those guys are amazing.
Everyone wants the Blue Points from Long Island. I don’t like telling this, but when you get [nonlocal] oysters at a restaurant, they’re minimum seven days out of the water. They’re still good. They have a 15 to 18 day shelf life. But they dry off, they lose brine, every day that passes.
The funny thing is, the Blue Points haven’t come from Long Island, that farm died nine years ago. It’s crazy to me that people would rather get those Blue Points than the fresh Jersey oysters.
How did you end up at Ducktown, literally right across the street from Dock’s, but the two places are nothing alike.
I’m tight with Johnny X [Exadaktilos of Ducktown]. I went over to Ducktown and said, ‘how about me setting up a little table selling oysters?’ He built me out a whole shack, with a concession. I do raw oysters. In the summer I do some broiled and grilled out there, local clams from Brigantine.
How is Sea Isle as a home for oyster beds?
The water over here is amazing. You can see how clear the water is. You can see a perfect ring of dark blue from the outside of our farm. It’s crazy how clean they keep the water. We throw the shells back. The oysters filter 50 gallons of water a day.
One of the best things you can do is throw a million seeds in the water and have 750,000 oysters. There were layers of oil and gas in the mud. These oyster beds, they’re doing nothing but rejuvenating the water.
How did you end up at Robert’s, another divey bar?
I started doing oyster shooters, and people were loving them. Without these restaurant owners willing to help me out, this wouldn’t happen. I’m definitely willing to do more. I’m on the farm Monday through Thursday. I’ll do private parties, weddings. I go as low as a backyard party. I just did a party with oysters, a beautiful tuna tartare.
How many oysters are you harvesting in Sea Isle?
Five thousand each day. I’m working with both my little brothers on the farm.
For awhile, it seemed the waterman was a dying art; now it seems a lot of young people are doing it. You, the Brigantine Oyster Co.
What’s funny, is I said ‘why is this just a hobby for everybody?’ Nobody was doing this full-time. But people around my age are starting to realize this is good money. Once you get your cages in, your overhead is over. You pay a penny for a seed and sell it for 90 cents an oyster to the restaurant. They’re selling it for $3.50 to $4 apiece.
Not at Ducktown!
We’re selling them for $2 apiece. I want people to taste my food. If they’re buying a dozen, I take care of them. I know for a fact that I have the best food, my tuna tartare, salmon crudo, my ceviche. I want people to taste.
How about Sweet Amalia’s? They’ve managed to lure people to Gloucester County for amazingly delicious sandwiches and oysters.
Her business model is unbelievable. I was imitating her catering. What she does is unbelievable. She has a fivefold business, a beautiful upper echelon dining room, and an oyster farm.
Sweet Amalia’s gets pretty fancy with their raw oyster preparations. The Ducktown crowd may not need all that.
At Ducktown, we stay simple. No soy pearls, kimchi, or uni butter oysters. We keep it simple with a homemade cocktail sauce, fresh horseradish.
What about a classic mignonette?
That’s like putting A.1. on a steak. Cocktail sauce is not as overpowering as vinegar.
And at Robert’s?
We do a salmon crudo, oyster shooters with [N.J.-based] Alibi gin. A lime crema.
And what’s your personal preferred topping?
I just open and eat it. I eat a dozen every day on the farm.