Shucking History at Zig Zag Oyster Bar in Brooklyn

“We’re the type who kick off a night out with oysters,” says Fallon. “We’d love to see an oyster bar on every corner in New York again, the way it once was.”

New York’s Original Street Food

In a city with 520 miles of coastline—more than Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined—it’s hard to believe there aren’t more dedicated raw bars. At the turn of the 20th century, the average New Yorker slurped down more than 660 oysters a year. Rich and poor ate them by the dozens, served from pushcarts and cellars on virtually every corner.

“The industrial boom in New York polluted the waters,” Fallon explains. Waste dumping and overharvesting decimated the massive reefs that once covered the harbor floor, where the native Lenape fished out bivalves the size of dinner plates. The 1927 closure of the city’s last commercial farm in the waters between Staten Island and New Jersey forever changed the perception of the humble oyster.

“Oysters became a luxury,” says Fallon, “imported from the pristine northern waters of Maine and Nova Scotia.”

Oysters’ Return to New York

Zig Zag sources Edgewaters and Wellfleets from the world-famous Island Creek Oysters in Massachusetts’ Duxbury Bay, among other Northeastern waters, but Perkins calls it a New York oyster bar.

City waters are still unsafe to eat from, though the tide is turning. The Billion Oyster Project has already restored 183 million oysters to New York Harbor, where each filters up to 50 gallons a day. If successful, the organization’s goal of one billion oysters by 2030 would filter the harbor’s entire standing volume every three days. For now, New York oyster farming is relegated to the safety of Long Island’s eastern bays.

“More aquafarms are working at high levels and in really thoughtful ways,” Perkins explains. “And they’re realizing they can drive straight to the city, get accounts, and cut out the middleman. There’s such rich access to New York oysters right now.”

On and Off the Tower

Zig Zag’s plump, hulky oysters don’t disappoint. The New York selection comes from Xanadu Sea Farm on Narrow Bay and Crosby Street Oysters, farmed by Great Gun, which became the first licensed farm to return to Moriches Bay in 2013. They shake and tumble their oysters by hand to create deep, round cups, unlike wild varieties, which grow “long and flat like a potato chip,” their website quips.

For those who enjoy the occasional seafood tower splurge, Zig Zag delivers on a meaty, filling selection with its classic tower featuring 12 oysters, six clams, six mussels, shrimp cocktail, and potato chips. But at $90 (or $160 for the deluxe tower), we’re still years off from oysters reclaiming their place as an accessible staple of New Yorkers’ daily diets.

Oysters aren’t the only draw of Zig Zag, though. A white fish salad of locally sourced hake and smoked tinned fish from Minnow, the partners’ canned seafood company, comes on toast with Sungold tomatoes; those familiar with Mediterranean dishes will recognize the unfussy plating as a signal of intense flavor. The star of the show is a rich, creamy Maryland crab dip, which required an extra order of Ritz crackers to finish every last bite.

Fallon is happy for diners to start their evening at Zig Zag before moving on to dinner elsewhere, as he is wont to do, but the setting itself is a reason to stick around. Washington Avenue, the dividing line between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, cuts a diagonal path through the neighborhood. It creates a triangular wedge, of which Zig Zag occupies a cozy corner.

Designer Russel Perkins used brass details and amber lighting to accentuate the restaurant’s horseshoe bar to create a sleek ocean liner aesthetic. A retractable wall exposes the bar to the elements, so the interior details aren’t hidden away for those dining alfresco, and those inside can feel the breeze.

Quiet Sourcing

The effort of building relationships with local oyster farmers doesn’t announce itself on the menu. If you want to know where your oysters come from, you’ll have to ask.

Fallon jokes about the very first episode of Portlandia, in which Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein interrogate their waiter with outlandish questions about the provenance of the chicken they’re about to order. Zig Zag won’t foist backstory on anyone. “If diners ask about sourcing, we go deep,” he says. “They’re great stories to tell, because our customers get excited to order the things we’re excited to talk about.”

My server is excited about a Muscadet, a wine with high acidity, sharp minerality, and a briny taste that matches the oysters. I follow Fallon’s advice and trust the enthusiasm.

Oysters don’t necessarily need an explanation; you can tell the quality the moment one hits your tongue. “We hope the cream rises to the surface,” says Perkins. “When you get that good oyster from a good farm, all you care about is, damn, this tastes good.”

Zig Zag Oyster Bar is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5-11 pm, and will soon be open daily.