Crave Fishbar
945 2nd Avenue at 50th 646-895-9585
Crave Fishbar is a two level restaurant with a bar on each floor, with some outdoor seating at street level and on a terrace above.
This is not a general restaurant review. It's a heads up for oyster freaks with not inexhaustible resources. If you look at Crave's Raw Bar menu http://cravefishbar.com/menu/ you'll see a good selection of East and West Coast bivalves at normal prices: $2.50 - $3.85. So, you might treat yourself to the odd half dozen. But here's the thing, Crave's Happy Hour (5.00 - 7.00) has any oyster on the list at a single, salty dollar.
So, we ordered:
6 Black Duck (Hog Island Bay, Virginia)
6 Blue Point (Long Island Sound)
6 Island Creek (Duxbury, Massachussetts)
6 Nisqually (Henderson Inlet, Washington)
I'm not going to describe them in detail. Oyster snobs have hard shells. Those that hate them are seldom converted. I'll simply say that the West Coast Nisqually are tiny and delicious; the Black Duck are luscious and plump. People pooh-pooh Blue Point, but if the pleasure you get from eating oysters is the sensation of devouring mother ocean, they do the trick.
We narrowed our sights on the second 24 to 12 Nisqually and 12 Island Creek.
Dessert? 6 Black Duck
54 oysters, $54. Our bottle of wine added $35. Pretty much a blow out feast.
By the way, they also have a Prosecco special - at $30.