Photography by Jeremy Garretson
You could hear the rattle and yum of oyster and clam knives all over Greenport this past weekend, Dec. 7 and 8, as bivalve after bivalve was shucked and served at the annual fan-favorite street stroll, Shellabration.
More than just a typical restaurant walk, Shellabration focuses not only on the jewels of the water right outside our respective doors, this frutta di mare fandango benefits the good, dogged work done by Cornell Cooperative Extension, who study and find solutions to keep our aquaculture healthy and thriving today and for years to come. In fact, it’s the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year, benefitting the SPAT community aquaculture project and the Back to the Bays Initiative, which works to restore the habitats of some of our most beloved sea creatures, ravaged by formidable foes such as warming waters and excessive, suffocating nitrate levels.
But the best part is, even though sales of all Shellabration wristbands goes directly to fund CCE, it doesn’t feel like a typical, stuffy fundraiser, certainly not when participants slurped that first complimentary oyster or clam, and definitely not while they feasted all afternoon long both Saturday and Sunday on a multitude of special $8 seafood-centric dishes paired with $5 pours of local wine or beer to match.
There were also a few fun special new pearls to the event this year, like the Friday night VIP kick-off party held at the new, lovely location of Little Creek Oysters (211 Carpenter St.), the re-boot of Shellabingo and new categories on the participant voting ballot.
With 1,500 attendees hitting up the 17 participating restaurants — and a dozen local merchants also getting in on the swell shell action — you’d think there’d be no more fish left in the sea. But lucky for us, CCE is making sure that never, ever happens. We can’t wait for next year!
