Island Creek Oyster Bar

On Saturday night, my husband and I treated ourselves to a rare night on the town, by going to the new Island Creek Oyster Bar on Commonwealth Ave in Boston.

I confess it wasn't in our budget. But we'd had a bad couple of days and desperately needed a pick-me-up. This was money well-spent.

We had a bottle of Honig Sauvignon Blanc with our meal, as it featured oysters (naturally). The waiter wasn't much of a sommelier; I asked which bottle, of the many on the wine list, would go best with all the different kinds of oysters and he said, "Sauvignon blanc." Well, yeah. Duh. I could have figured that out myself.

A couple of cocktails to start. I don't remember what was in this, but it was good.

My husband had the lobster roll.

I had the scallops, with asparagus, tasso, and celery root puree.

Mmmm...scallops.

Dessert was heavenly: a rhubarb and blackberry crisp with basil ice cream.

Of course the highlight was the oysters (which we did not consume after dessert, don't let the order of the pictures fool you). We had two of each kind:

Island Creek, from Duxbury, MA

Rocky Nook, from Kingston, MA

Chatham, from Chatham, MA

Moonstone, from Point Judith, RI

Umami, from Narragansett Bay, RI

East Beach Blonde, from Charleston Pond, RI

Wild Belon, from Harpswell, ME

Misty Point, from Pope's Bay, VA

Hama Hama, from Lillywaup, WA

Blue Pool, from Lillywaup, WA

Shigoku, from Bay Center, WA

Kumamoto, from Puget Sound, WA

Cape Spear, from New Brunswick, Canada

Contrary to previous findings, the East Coast oysters were all much brinier and meatier than the West Coast specimens.

They were all good, though.

Who needs retail therapy, when you can have restaurant therapy?