New Orleans jazz and Rhode Island mollusks meet in Chicago this weekend at Shaw’s Crab House’s 17th annual “Royster with the Oyster” festival. The week-long event begins Friday night at Goose Island Brewery, where live music, beer and a variety of oyster-based menu items will be served to more than 500 oyster lovers from around the United States.
Local and national musicians including Lonnie Brooks, Johnny A. and Coco Montoya are scheduled to appear Friday, but Shaw’s general manager Mark Palicki says the night’s main attraction will be an oyster-slurping contest. The contest will feature oyster slurpers from Chicago as well as regional winners from several other states. Oyster slurping contests will be held throughout the week, and the winner of each event will compete in a championship Oct. 28.
“People come from all over to do this,” Palicki says. “It’s a little bit like a hot dog eating contest in New York, but here we do oysters. The participants each get 12 oysters to eat, and whoever slurps them all the fastest wins. It’s a lot of fun to watch.”
Palicki says Friday night’s Goose Island party is expected to draw the festival’s biggest crowd, but other events will take place throughout the week. On Monday, several of Chicago’s top chefs will prepare a seven-course oyster dinner and on Wednesday, Shaw’s will host a tasting party featuring “oyster-friendly wines.”
Palicki says “Royster with the Oyster” is the only event of its caliber in Chicago.
“Q101 radio station does a Guinness oyster festival, but it’s not really an all-oyster festival,” Palicki says. “Ours is the only one that is centered around the oyster.”
Palicki says festival organizers have ordered about 40,000 oysters from both the east and west coasts for the event. Shaw’s Crab House has created some special recipes just for the week.
“We have oysters Rockefeller, oysters in a half shell, and a barbeque oyster sandwich,” Palicki says. “The really big draw is that everything is half price.”
The “Royster with the Oyster” Goose Island party will take place Friday, Oct. 21 at Goose Island Brewery, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave., starting at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $10, 21 and up. The festival will continue through Oct. 28 at Shaw’s Crab House, 21 E. Hubbard. More information is available at (312) 527-2722.
– Mackenzie Horras
