Cowbell Seafood & Oyster. 1309 5th St., NE.
The central bar inside Union Market, once home to Rappahannock Oyster Bar, will become a different oyster bar beginning Thursday, October 23. Couple Sara Quinteros and chef Reid Shilling—who recently closed Shilling Canning Company in Union Market—have operated Fancy Ranch Fried Chicken as a pop-up at the counter for the past three months. But Shilling, a Baltimore native, says the plan all along has been to open Cowbell Seafood & Oyster.
Oysters will obviously be one of the main attractions, with staple Orchard Point oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, plus a rotating selection spanning Massachusetts, the Pacific Northwest, and northeastern Canada ($3 to $4.25 each). Other raw bar highlights will include scallop crudo, peel-and-eat shrimp, and Baltimore Canyon lobster. The lobsters, about a pound and a quarter each, will be gently poached with white wine, lemon, and herbs then removed from their shells and served chilled by the half or whole.
“Baltimore Canyon is basically the canyon that is due east out from the city of Baltimore out into the Atlantic. The same species of lobster runs from pretty much here all the way up to Maine,” Shilling explains.
Shilling will also offer a no-filler Maryland crab cake, which can be ordered on its own or in a sandwich with slaw and remoulade. “I grew up eating crabmeat for as long as I can remember, and so one of the first things that I learned how to do is make a crab cake,” he says. “It’s going to have all the flavors that kind of remind me of home.”
Shilling hasn’t given up fried chicken either. Here, though, he’s focusing just on tenders. The meat is dry-brined, beer-battered, and hit with flour for a “light and airy” effect, Shilling says. You can get the tenders with a side and sauce, on a sandwich, or in a salad with bacon, carrot, avocado, and tomato.
On the side: hush puppies with crab-fat aioli or New England-style clam chowder, which will be available by the bowl or smothered over fries. There’s also caviar—get a bump for $13.99 or a half ounce for $45.00 with potato chips, creme fraiche, and chives.
The restaurant will have a full bar, and crushes will be a highlight. There will also be a loyalty club called the Chesapeake Bay Blue Oyster Cult, where you pay $25 to get invites to events (think crab feasts and oyster-shucking demos) plus a koozie that allows you to get $3 cans of PBR all day every day.
The name Cowbell is a nod to the SNL skit about Blue Oyster Cult recording “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” where Christopher Walken’s character calls for “more cowbell.”
“It’s a recognizable name for a generation,” says Quinteros. “So it is a name that brings light. It’s different.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
