Six restaurants will compete for ‘best oyster stew’ agging rights when festival-goers sip, sample and cast their votes at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s (CBMM) November 5 OysterFest. This year’s participating restaurants all hail from St. Michaels and include Pascal’s Harbour Lights Restaurant at the St. Michaels Harbour Inn, Sherwood’s Landing at the Inn at Perry Cabin, Foxy’s Marina Bar, Town Dock Restaurant, the Crab Claw, and the Miles River Yacht Club.
Samplings begin at 11am and continue while supplies last through 12:30pm, when the votes will be tallied and later announced from the decks of the Oystering on the Chesapeake building at 1pm. Event-goers can cast their votes by purchasing a limited number of $5 sampling mugs on the museum’s Fogg’s Cove side of campus, where the oyster stew competition takes place. The oyster stew will then be served by volunteers in a blind taste test to participants, who will then vote by ballot for their favorite stew.
Last year’s first place winners were tied between Chef David Hayes of Pascal’s Harbour Lights Restaurant at the St. Michaels Harbour Inn and Chef Greg Brandberg of Sherwood’s Landing at the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels. Second place went to Chef Mark Salter of the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford, and third place went to Chef Bill Vincent from Character’s in St. Michaels. Other 2010 participants included Two if by Sea of Tilghman Island, the Crab Claw and Rupert's Tea Room, both of St. Michaels.
Pascal’s Harbour Lights Restaurant will also be offering last year’s winning stew for purchase to festival-goers, beginning at 12:30pm.
OysterFest also features several oyster cooking demonstrations from local chefs, including Chef Seth Willis of Town Dock restaurant at 11:30am, Chef Aaron McCloud of the Inn at Perry Cabin’s Sherwood’s Landing at 12:30pm, Chef David McCallum of Tilghman Island Inn at 1:30pm, and Chef Barbara Hellish of the Miles River Yacht Club at 2:30pm.
OysterFest takes place from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, November 5, and also includes live music on two stages, oysters and other food, children’s activities, boat rides, oyster demonstrations and harvesting displays, retriever demonstrations, and more.
Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $6 for children between the ages of six and 17. Children five years and under and CBMM members are admitted free. Food and boat rides are an additional cost. For more information, visit www.cbmm.org/oysterfest or call 410-745-2916.
OysterFest also concludes the month-long “Fall into St. Michaels” cele ation hosted by the St. Michaels Business Association. For more information, visit www.stmichaelsmd.org or call 410-745-0411.
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For more information, contact:
Tracey Munson
Vice President of Communications
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
410-745-4960, tmunson@cbmm.org
