The Walrus Oyster & Ale House

Table Of Content

• Apalachicola Lowlands Preserve: A Family’s Labor of Love
• Full “In the Grass, On the Reef” documentary...
• The Walrus Oyster & Ale House
• If you love cookbooks, come see us at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
• Tomales Bay Oyster Company (Marshall, California)
• Steephead Salamander Search, and the Apalachicola’s Ice Age...

Oysters need a hard surface on which to grow, and when oyster larvae swim in the water column as plankton, they seek out other oysters to attach to their shells. Laying shell on the muddy bottom of the bay was supposed to give those larvae, known as spat, a place to land. In 2013, Florida sued the state of Georgia, claiming that Georgia’s irresponsible use of water led to the fishery crash. The Army Corps of Engineers, not Georgia, manages the water based on rules set forth by the U.S.

Apalachicola Lowlands Preserve: A Family’s Labor of Love

Whisk in the mustard, add the cider, then increase the heat to medium-high. Add the mussels and cook, covered, until they begin to open, about 5 minutes. Remove the lid and begin transferring the mussels that have cooked to a large bowl, stirring and prodding until all the mussels have opened and have been transferred to the bowl. (Discard any mussels that do not open.) Increase the heat to high and simmer the cider for 3 minutes, or until it has reduced by about a third.

Full “In the Grass, On the Reef” documentary...

Most of them show up somewhere in these pages—in a story, in a clear-eyed photo, in a recipe. “The cut of lamb changes every year, but some things stay the same,” she writes. “We always cook it on a grate over a fire built in a used wine barrel the way Russell’s grandfather did.” And for her annual Normandy dinner and mussels steamed in cider.

The Walrus Oyster & Ale House

The Walrus Oyster & Ale House Now Open in National Harbor - Washington City Paper

The Walrus Oyster & Ale House Now Open in National Harbor.

Posted: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 07:00:00 GMT [source]

There will be two seatings for the four-course meal and the cost is $50 per person, not including wine, tax and tip. The design provides an industrial homage to the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry of the late 1800’s. With a seating capacity of up to 275 guests, our restaurant creates massive curb appeal to the visitors of the MGM Grand Casino and National Harbor. Dr. Brooke said this created friction with a few of the seafood industry representatives on the ABSI Community Advisory Board. While it may have caused a few seafood workers to leave the council, many remained involved and will be involved with the community group that will work to advance the plan, the Partnership for a Resilient Apalachicola Bay. Part of Goal A is to establish how to measure the health of an oyster reef.

The second restaurant is Un Po Tipsy Pizzeria, a largely by-the-slice wood-fired operation that will cater to the takeout crowd. The third is an as-yet-unnamed “higher-end, European-inspired restaurant” with 40 seats plus a cocktail bar that presumably will be in line with Erickson’s other restaurants. “The Plan” recommends rapid ‘spot-checks’ where oystermen bring up sections of reef to get a quick sense of the health at any point in the bay. “A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus” opens with a photo of a small boat moored on a tranquil sea between islands off the coast.

If you love cookbooks, come see us at the L.A. Times Festival of Books

We opened our doors in September of 2014 and hit the ground running… literally. This 7,000 square foot, Chesapeake Bay inspired, full-service seafood restaurant, was bustling the moment we launched in National Harbor, MD. We’ve earned a legitimate reputation as an authentic oyster house, from our expansive program, boasting up to 15 bivalve varietals in all and selling over 500,000 oysters a year. The Walrus Oyster & Ale House has become a “go to” destination for Maryland/Virginia locals and out of town visitors alike.

It’s homey, complete with picnic tables and a “serve yourself ” rule that explains why patrons cut their own bread, fetch their own water, and choose their own wine from a shelf next to the bar. Increased salinity and predation are listed as contributing factors, but so is a high level of oyster harvesting. During oral arguments, one justice referred to a report that the floor of the bay looked like a “gravel parking lot.” You can see this in a January 2013 Ecology Blog video. When oysters die, their shells persist, as does the oyster reef structure. “The Plan” is an attempt to guide the management of the oyster fishery using what ABSI has determined to be the best scientific practices, and with community buy-in.

Our all-scratch and locally sourced food menu draws inspiration from the surrounding Chesapeake Bay area. The bar features a unique scratch cocktail program using small batch artisanal spirits, freshly squeezed juices and homemade seasonal syrups. Like its namesake, The Walrus beverage program is big and bold serving “over the top” frozen drinks and seasonal Margaritas that have become crowd favorites. While 2012 was the year the Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery collapsed, it was also the year with its highest-recorded oyster harvest.

Crown Conchs Overrun Saint Augustine Reefs

The Apalachicola is managed together with the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers in Georgia. The two Georgia rivers flow through a system of dams and reservoirs overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). The final dam is the Jim Woodruff Dam, located where the Flint and Chattahoochee meet to form the Apalachicola.

Through the Woodruff Dam, the Corps directly controls the amount of water that flows into the river. When the time comes, it falls to Florida Fish and Wildlife to manage the fishery. This includes decisions about when to close all or part of the bay to harvesting, limits on harvesting, and how to enforce their rules. Lowlander will have 100 seats inside, a bunch of outdoor seating, and TVs — it’s going to cultivate a sports bar atmosphere, partly as an homage to FX McRory’s, a former occupant of the building. Other recommendations would limit when and how many oysters a person could harvest. This includes doing away with harvesting over the summer, when oysters spawn.

They could also correlate salinity with freshwater discharge from the Woodruff Dam. “The Plan” also recommends looking at nutrients, temperature, pH, and other water quality metrics. One factor decades in the making was freshwater input from the Apalachicola River. When the fishery crashed in 2012, the river had been in drought operations for several months, and for the third time since 2007.

If conditions change during the season, FWC could again adjust bag limits or close the bay, or parts of the bay that are struggling. After the bay closed, ABSI tested multiple materials to see which best stabilized the bay floor, trying oyster shell, fossilized oyster shell, and limestone rock. Limestone is often made of calcium carbonate, the same material as oyster shells. This is because limestone forms from oysters and other marine organisms over geologic time. The menu includes oysters with Champagne mignonette, chicken liver pate and a celery, kohlrabi and walnut salad, followed by roasted chicken with capers and parsnip puree, and more.

Since none of the environmental factors that contributed to the collapse have changed, ABSI hopes their recommendations can help the fishery adapt to drought and water management upstream of the Apalachicola River. At the time, Florida did not close the bay based on environmental factors. “The management of the oyster fishery in Florida wasn’t particularly sophisticated,” says Dr. Brooke. If Florida Fish and Wildlife tracks salinity over time, they might predict when oyster drills would stress oysters, and decide to close the bars.

After their success with limestone, ABSI tried concrete and found it worked about as well. Now that we’ve reviewed the challenges facing the bay, let’s dig into ABSI’s recommendations to meet those challenges. Oysters reach maturity faster than in other estuaries and had always regrown quickly after intense harvesting. “What it is is a list of options and recommendations to government entities, that have a consensus of stakeholder agreement,” says Dr. Sandra Brooke. Dr. Brooke is a senior researcher at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory.