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Oysters find an uptown place downtown
[Times photos: Michael Rondou]
Besides oysters on the half shell, top, the Central Avenue Oyster Bar’s menu includes wrap sandwiches, salmon, grilled shrimp, seared tuna, cheesecake and a pork chop. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 14, 2001
Central Avenue Oyster Bar has a knack with its namesake and adds to the enticements a selection of fish dishes. Even so, the best of the menu comes off the half shell.
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ST. PETERSBURG -- Consider the oyster: A food so beloved that it inspires an entire category of restaurant.
The mollusk itself is precious and fragile, requiring skilled care from the waterfolk and the purveyor and adventurous taste from the consumer.
The Tampa Bay area has always had a few oyster bars, and at last St. Petersburg has one downtown, the Central Avenue Oyster Bar, and it's got the oyster part right.
Is it downtown or uptown? The name evokes New York's very urbane Grand Central Oyster Bar (now restored to its original brasserie glory), but the owners here drew their inspiration from New Orleans.
And downtown St. Petersburg is tossing them down faster than Dr. Babbitt's Elixir of Instant Big-City Sophistication -- We've got an oyster bar downtown! -- in months that haven't seen an R in weeks. The walls are exposed brick, the bar is a mile along, the art large and the waiters in long aprons. Already there are fair-sized lunch crowds, bar drinkers and weekend diners eager to pretend they're living in the big city and willing to pay uptown prices.
No matter, the pleasure is one Florida has long enjoyed -- oysters were as important to sportz-'n'shorts places as wings and breasts. Our boats land a couple of million pounds a year, most up around Apalachicola. And the owners of Central Avenue include folks from Crabby Bill's.
The oysters themselves came from Louisiana's part of the gulf on my visits, and they were biggies, sweet and succulent, mon cher, and treated royally both raw and in the kitchen.
A half dozen on the half shell refreshed with that sweet, salty, cool, wet roller coaster of sensations that tickles raw bar fans to the core. Don't fret about raw oysters in the summertime -- unless you need to fret about raw oysters in the summertime: State officials warn anyone with liver disease, diabetes, cancer or a weakened immune system to avoid uncooked or raw protein.
Mango raspberry cheesecake is one of the featured desserts at the Central Avenue Oyster Bar.
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You don't have to eat 'em raw. Not here, where the kitchen puts freshly shucked oysters to good use, the best use being oyster stew. If you must miss the silken pleasure of a raw oysters slipping through your gullet, disguise the cooked ones in a soup that is little more than hot whole cream, adulterated by only oyster crackers and parsley. Get your wickedly lush texture right here, hot in the stew or cold on the half shell.
Other choices are oysters Rockefeller and an oyster po' boy, both Louisiana classics. First is the rich man's indulgent substitute for raw oysters, where cooked oysters are dolled up in creamed spinach and bacon. These were living large enough to strut down Rampart (although I'd like more Pernod on their breath).
In New Orleans' rougher quarters, the oyster sandwich was "the peacemaker," and mine would at least bring about an armistice. Oysters are ideal for frying: They cook up quickly into little puffs that are wonderful on a sandwich. They were on one visit. On another they had been cooked too long or in old oil.
The oyster bar's best the closer you stay to oysters. Raw middleneck clams on the half shell are the equal of the oysters, gutsier in flavor but still tender. And cream-based grouper chowder, not unlike the oyster stew, was good eating.
Finfish was most disappointing, especially in selection, despite the fact one window is iced down with an inviting display of whole fresh fish. On my visits, the choices were salmon, grouper, tuna and mahi mahi. Adequate but nothing for a specialty fish house with the connections of Crabby Bill's. What about amberjack, pompano, Spanish mackerel or escolar? By the way, oysters don't just come from Florida or Louisiana; top modern raw bars offer six varieties of oysters du jour (like Wellfleet, Malpeque, Kumamoto or Belon).
And the grouper I tried was dry and overcooked both on entree plates and on big hefty salads (which are a perfect summer lunch for Florida).
Side dishes wavered and didn't seem to matter much. Vegetables were the same sad medley; ziti with tomato sauce was watery and sour. Wild rice was nicely done, but most plates I saw were loaded with fries. Bread was better for po' boys than uptown eating, and desserts were uninspired: A mango raspberry cheesecake was more dry cake than lush cheese.
Service has improved in the two months since opening, but it's still playing catch-up in a tough market. The place needs more servers quick on their feet, good with numbers and knowledgeable about food.
Nonetheless, we're glad Central Avenue has an oyster bar; it's welcome for the oysters and the bar (although those are not in short supply). It's not easy starting a restaurant in the shadow of BayWalk.
I constantly want more in fish and trimmings everywhere and wish we could brag on our seafood. Still, Central Avenue has shucked us a fine fresh oyster, and that is no small thing. Not here.
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Central Avenue Oyster Bar
- 249 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg
- (727) 897-9728
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, Saturday; closed Sunday.
- Reservations: Accepted for large parties Credit cards: Most major, except Discover
- Details: Full bar; non-smoking section; cigars at the bar; good wheelchair access
- Prices: Lunch, $6 to $9; dinner entrees, $12 to $28.95
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