Delco Restaurant Declares This National Oyster Week

Enjoy all types of oysters all week long as the Clam Tavern in Delco celebrates National Oyster Week. (Getty Images)

We get lots and lots of tips and pitches here at Philly Mag. Sorting through them is essentially a full-time job. A small amount turn out to be useful. The vast majority of the others fall into two categories. The first consists of lists that rank Philadelphia for everything from walkability to rudeness to STD rates to consumption of American cheese. The second starts off with, “Hey, it’s National [insert whatever here] Day!” Those are usually related to food or drink. (Today is apparently National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.)

“I hate all the National Whatever Day stuff,” says Philly Mag restaurant critic and food writer Jason Sheehan. And I couldn’t agree more. So when I received an email last week telling me that August 5th is National Oyster Day, I happily hit delete.

Tony Blanche, the affable owner of the iconic Clam Tavern in Clifton Heights and its sister restaurant the Broadway Bar and Grille across the street, didn’t realize August 5th was National Oyster Day, which is a pretty good indicator of how meaningful these National Whatever Days are, since his life is based largely around seafood. But then a regular at the Clam Tavern asked Blanche what he was doing for National Oyster Day.

“My first thought was, oh, there’s a National Oyster Day?” Blanche tells Philly Mag. “And my second thought was, wait, why does the oyster only get a day? It deserves a week of its own.”

And so, Blanche, who has owned the Clam Tavern for going on 25 years, has declared this National Oyster Week.

Blanche is a man who is downright serious about his oysters. For one example of just how serious he is, there’s this: He fairly regularly makes the trek to Newfield, New Jersey to pick up as many Sweet Amalia oysters as he can get his hands on. Sweet Amalia oysters, which are farmed in Cape May County, are considered by many aficionados and top chefs to be the best oysters on the market. You can only get them at a handful of Philly restaurants, such as Vetri, and since Sweet Amalia doesn’t deliver beyond Center City, Blanche makes the drive to Jersey. The Clam and the Broadway are the only restaurants in Delco where you can find Sweet Amalia oysters – and perhaps the only restaurants in all of the suburbs. That’s devotion.

So what will National Oyster Week look like at the Clam Tavern and the Broadway? The restaurants already do proper raw bar service, and you can buy per piece. There’s also the fried oyster platter as well as Delco’s best version of oysters Rockefeller.

For National Oyster Week, there will also be some additions.

First up, I’m frequently asked where to find buck-a-shuck oysters, and both restaurants will have them for the entirety of National Oyster Week, which runs Monday through Friday at the Clam Tavern and Tuesday through Friday at the Broadway, which is closed on Mondays. Not just at happy hour. Whenever they are open. The restaurants will also feature a list of rotating East Coast oysters daily.

Fried oysters and chicken salad at the Clam Tavern, available during National Oyster Week

In terms of additions that are never or rarely offered on the menu: oyster stew; oyster shooters; and the Philly-born classic, fried oysters with chicken salad, a dish you can only get at a few places in the region, such as the Oyster House on Sansom Street.

Blanche also realizes that not everyone loves oysters (I’m the only person in my family who will go near them), and points out that there are dozens of other foods – both seafood and non-seafood – on the menu. But this week, the oyster is the star.