Shucks, It's the DTLA Oyster Festival

Bivalves are the glistening stars at Grand Central Market, all weekend long.

What to Know

  • Oct. 13 and 14, 2018
  • Grand Central Market
  • Shucking hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

If you don't quite believe that records are made to be broken, well, they're certainly obsessed over, pondered, deeply considered, and gossiped about, by both an event's organizers and those attendees who'd like to be among the record-breaking throngs.

So put this in your shell and slurp it: In 2017, visitors to the DTLA Oyster Festival at Grand Central Market devoured "... more than 14,000 oysters over two days of the festival," an impressive number, especially when you consider that each of those oysters had to go through the time-honored shucking process.

Is this a process you'd like to watch and even learn about? Or are do you stand tall in the "I'd just like to eat some excellent oysters" camp? 

Either way, the DTLA Oyster Festival is coming back around, with bivalves by the bucketload, for its fourth festive celebration.

The dates are Saturday, Oct. 13 and Sunday, Oct. 14, Grand Central Market is the salty spot, and shucking'll be going down, bivalve by bivalve, from 11 a.m. through to 6 in the evening each day.

Six storied farms are showing up to play a delicious part, including Chelsea Farms of Washington State and Glacial Point Oysters of Alaska, and the chance to meet the pros who perfect the old art of oyster farming is one that can't be missed, if you're a true seafoodian.

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You'll want to show with money, too, to eat those oysters, or to call upon the vendors of Grand Central Market and see what out-of-the-ocean edibles they'll be serving up in honor of the weekend (or, indeed, what oyster-based bites they always have on their menus).

Temptations will include beer-battered fried oysters at Prawn and Southern-fried oysters at Horse Thief BBQ.

The Mudbug Brass Band'll be offering up the effervescent sounds, while an activity area for the young'uns will center on, you got it, shell art.

Are you an oyster aficionado, through and through?

Unless you've done a good bit of coastal traveling, chances are you haven't had the opportunity to chat up too many oyster farmers.

Change that, on Oct. 13 and 14 at Grand Central Market, and slurp up a few glistening goodies from the half-shell, too, while you're swimming along the shuck-tastic scene.

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