WHAT'S IN A NAME ?
The last five
years has brought a large proliferation of Oysters to the
market. Where as the menu of a few years ago was lucky to include
the ubiquitous “Blue Point” the menus of today offer a range
of oyster varieties. With the popularity of Oyster Bars, it
is not unusual to see as many as 20 different oysters offered to
the discriminating consumer. Oyster varieties such as the Quilcene,
Hama Hama, Hog Island, Malpeque and Kumamoto have all but become
house hold names and now even more recognizable to the under 30
crowd than the Beatles.
But where do
all these oysters come from? When did oysters start competing
with Wines as to the length of the menu dedicated to them?
Back in the mid seventies when fresh shucked
oysters were an oddity on most menus, especially those not located
near by the sea, we were pretty much stuck with “Blue
Points”. Even in Seattle where Pacific oysters were being
raised in large quantities, it was rare to see a local oyster on
the menu. If you were lucky enough to live in Maryland,
Florida or Long Island, New York, your taste buds were treated to
local delicacies such as the Chincoteague, Shinnecock or
Apalachicola but those oysters rarely made it out of the county.
Then in 1977, a small oyster farm called Pigeon Point decided to
raise the Pacific oyster for the half shell trade. That began
the stampede. Since then, the number of oyster farms on the west
coast dedicated to raising half shell oysters has kept pace with
the number of wineries in Napa producing
Chardonnay.
Originally
when we first started raising the half shell pacific oysters, we
didn’t know what name to sell them under. The entire staff at
Pigeon Point was brought together and instructed to come up with a
marketing name for our farm raised, half shell, pacific
oysters. When that task proved too daunting for us mere
biologists, a high-powered marketing consultant was brought in.
This in the days when no one even knew what a “consultant”
was. All kinds of names where thrown on the table including
“”West Point”, the Pacific Coast answer to the Blue Point.”
The one suggestion put forth by the biologist; why not call the oyster
the “Pigeon Point”? This was ruled totally unacceptable by
the high-powered, very expensive marketing consultant. “Ah,
Pigeon Point Oysters will make the customers think of Pigeon shit…”
said the highly paid, very well dressed consultant. So it
came to pass that the first pacific oyster being raised
specifically for the half shell trade was to be called the “Rocky
Point Oyster” as it was quite rocky out there at Pigeon Point… and a new oyster
was born
One thing the
high powered, expensive, well dressed marketing consultant didn’t
do before cashing his five figure payment for services was making
sure that no one else had the name Rocky Point Oyster
registered. Eventually, once the Rocky Point name hit the
market place, we were issued a cease and desist order from the
“Rock Point Oyster Co.” in Samish Bay, Washington, an oyster farm
in business since the early 1900’s that saw to registering their
name. So the $50,000 Rocky Point Oyster became the now
infamous Pigeon Point oyster and not once has someone mentioned
bird shit.
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