Now showing: an oyster shuck-and-suck to kick off five days of movies and grubbing

A beautiful summer night, sandy waterside seating, 6,500 oysters, seven short films and a couple hundred hungry slurpers made for a pretty perfect kickoff to the fourth annual NYC Food Film Festival. The Suck N’ Shuck event, held at Water Taxi Beach at the South Street Seaport, featured all-you-can-eat bivalves—a throwback to the days when the critters abounded off the Manhattan shoreline. Arrayed on beds of ice were Malpeques and Beau Soleils from Nova Scotia as well as our personal favorite, Rhode Island Watch Hills. For a break between oysters courses, servers ferried trays of non-raw goodies like Angels on Horseback (bacon-wrapped oysters) from Jimmy’s No. 43 and yellowtail poke on rice crackers prepared by festival Executive Chef Harry Hawk. Plus, an open bar. Yes!

As the slurping began to slow (we, and others, discovered it may be possible to eat one’s fill of oysters), the crowd settled back to watch teams like Peter Hoffman and Susan Rosenfeld of Savoy and brothers Adam and Brad Farmerie—of AvroKo and Double Crown, respectively—compete in the night’s namesake event, the Suck N’ Shuck. After a neck-and-neck contest in which three people shed blood, Jimmy Carbone and his shucker, “Eddie Oyster,” prevailed with 24 oysters.

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Photos by Gabi Porter.

Downtown’s hungriest turned out for the 16th annual Taste of Tribeca, and they couldn’t have had a nicer day for it. Among the 65 neighborhood restaurants serving small bites (attendees had the tough choice of selecting six) were big names like Nobu and Bouley, along with old favorites like Walker’s and Tribeca Grill.

The event benefits arts programs at P.S. 150 and P.S. 234, and the short set turned out in full force, many with painted faces, dancing to the sounds of City Winery’s live bluegrass band. Diners queued up for dishes like pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw and watermelon from Walker’s and Duane Park Patisserie’s molten chocolate cake. Maybe it was the sunshine and the outdoor setting, but barbecue seemed to be on every plate—from the bratwurst at Schaller & Weber’s hot dog cart to further mini-pulled pork sliders from Tribeca Grand Hotel.

Restuarateur Drew Nieporent, whose Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Centrico all made showings, emceed the American Lamb Meatball Challenge (a dumpling cookoff sponsored by Tang’s Natural Dumplings also went down). The Tribeca pioneer pronounced this year’s event “spectacular,” and had to think hard when asked how many years he’d been in attendance. “This started 16 years ago and Montrachet opened 25 years ago,” he said, as though he couldn’t quite believe it. 

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