Aw shucks, sizzling oysters are having a moment

The roasted oysters and bone marrow at Encinitas’ new dining hot spot, Herb & Sea.

Whether charbroiled, roasted or classic Rockefeller style, our favorite bivalves are a menu highlight at Herb & Sea, Rare Society, Animae, Bluewater Grill and beyond

Jan. 10, 2020

8:50 AM

Hold the mignonette: grilled, charbroiled, roasted and Rockefeller-style are the hottest ways to eat oysters today.

Five new restaurants — Herb & Sea, Rare Society, Louisiana Purchase, International Smoke and Animae — serve these sizzling bivalves in a variety of preparations.

So in honor of National Oysters Rockefeller Day on Friday (random, we know), we suggest ordering some cooked crustaceans at, say, Herb & Sea in Encinitas, where they’re topped with Pernod, kale, lemon, grana padano, breadcrumbs, butter and garlic, and a side of bone marrow.

International Smoke, in Carmel Valley, wood roasts theirs with miso butter and breadcrumbs, while University Heights’ Rare Society fires them up with béchamel, spinach and arugula, fennel, and breadcrumbs.

Slurping allowed.

National Oysters Rockefeller Day

Friday. Various restaurants, including Herb & Sea, 131 West D St., Encinitas. $24.93. (760) 704-8300. herbandsea.com

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Michele Parente

Michele Parente is the Dining, Wine + Lifestyle reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her areas of expertise include the Valle de Guadalupe wine region, fashion, television, women’s issues and coverage of aging, such as the impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia and family caregiving. Michele is the former Sunday and features editor, where she oversaw profiles, special projects, such as the Legacy of WWII and in-depth reports on a variety of topics. She joined the U-T in 2003, supervising coverage areas that have included features, fashion, TV, Food, Consumer Health and Arts & Entertainment. Previously, Michele was the assistant features editor at The Oregonian, in Portland, as well as the Portland City Hall reporter. She spent 10 years at New York Newsday as a reporter on the crime, education, state legislature and New York City Hall beats. She was part of a team that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting. A native New Yorker, Michele received her B.A. in political science and Italian Literature at UC Berkeley. In 1980, she studied at L’Università di Urbino, in Italy. One of her life’s goals is to make her way through each of the world’s great wine regions.