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Rare Belon Oysters Surface at John Dory Oyster Bar
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 21, 2011
Modified Jan 22, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 21, 2011
Modified Jan 22, 2011
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We're just been informed that The John Dory Oyster Bar has received a coveted shipment of 200 rare Belon oysters, and they're available at dinner tonight for $4.50 each. Only 5,000 Belon oysters are harvested every year! A restaurant rep says, "One of the original European oysters to be treasured, these have been seeded in Maine since the 1950s, and have an intense umami and zinc flavor with heavy tannins." For more, we turn to Gothamist's oyster expert-at-large Hugh Merwin, who tells us more about these famous oysters:
It's worth it if you're into that kind of thing. Some tool always points out that Belon is a river in France where other such oysters live, but it's not the same. Oyster farmers can't buy Belons as seed oysters, so no one can farm them. If you live in Maine, however, you can sometimes find pockets of them because a few renegade oysters "escaped" Boothbay Harbor around 60 years ago and have set up shop elsewhere.
Anyway, they'll probably all be gone by the end of the weekend, so get over there fast if you want to be able to tell your grandchildren about that one time before the Apocalypse when you blithely tossed back outlaw oysters for $4.50 a pop.
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belon oysters
john dory oyster bar
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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