I'm a foodie too and though I can afford $60 for a dinner (it's not that much compared to Manhattan) my cheap ass friends won't spend that kind of money on food.

I'm a punk rock freak, but I still like good wine and great cuisine, everyone should. I wish other people would buy a clue.

Buy your poor friends some oysters, Mr. Fancy-Food Moneybags.

but you're eating oysters.

gross!

#2: That's Ms.Fancy Food Money-bags. And I said, I'm not moneybags, I just have a job that is not retail, so I can sort of afford to blow $30 maybe, but not $60, you see what I mean?

Does your taste include both Snails and Oysters?

Good call, Ms. Ari. It is SeptembeR, after all. And those months with R's in them are when the likes of you come looking for the likes of me.

Sorry, I have strep throat. Would you like some strep with your oyster?

damn, i would totally go, BUT i have a friend in town and, as the guest, he gets to chose. so we are slummin it at Mecca with mr. Schmader's famous flap jacks.

Oceanaire used to have a pretty good happy hour featuring something like half price oysters. Flying Fish used to do an uber-cheap oyster happy hour where the oysters were like $0.25 each. Anyone know if either of them do it anymore? Or if there's somewhere else that has a rockin' oyster happy hour?

i can go. i live on the hill and work downtown and i'm early 20's. my friends are poor too. and i love oysters. i think we're supposed to be friends.

brasa has a really good happy hour/bar menu too. i had delicious fried oysters & mussels there the other night for like under $15. mmmm delicious.

I can go, but it's Circle Jerks, SNFU, Nomeansno and Black Flag over here.

I would totally go out to dinner with you. I'm not rich, but once in awhile I can afford something cool. However, I hate seafood. Bleck. Plus I'd have to drive to Seattle. Hey! Have you ever been the the Montage cajun restaurant down here in Portland??? They have oyster shooters, the best damn dessert in town and lots of southern cooking like fresh mac and cheese and other exciting stuff that will pack the pounds on fast! Let me know if you want to come down for it and we'll go!!!

It is at these times that I am glad that I

a) went to college
b) met most of my friends in college

Ari, you could always try sex with another girl.

Why is eating alone at a restaurant soo awkward? It's almost as bad as talking to mormons.

We need to start a giant collective of dinner buddies to call upon at any moment. Unfortunately I could see it just turning into a dating service after awhile.

I'd offer my company, but I can't eat shellfish, let me know when you go for thai or sushi though. I know lots of gross stories and have wonderfully inappropriate timing. Also, I can draw with crayons and laugh in infinity ways.

I eat alone at restaurants sometimes, it's awkward but rewarding if I stick through until the end. I always feel accomplished and sophisticated. However, it's way more FUN to be there with someone I like. Good luck Arifriend

Yes, but, see, fresh oysters are not that expensive if you buy them yourself. Uwajimaya has a great selection and Mutual Fish has one of the best selections in the city. You can sometimes spend under ten bucks on half a dozen oysters.

Or you can do what I threaten to do every -tober and -tember: buy several dozen and host OYSTER PARTY. Then you and all of your mollusk-guzzlin' pals will be happy.

#18 is right. Do them up yourself.
It's not that hard.

Ari darling, do you really eat oysters? ugh. IMHO eating any animal is gross but oysters? Intestines, brains, body fluids, etc. ugh! how do you do it?

It's even cheaper to prepare the oysters yourself and share them with your broke ass friends. I know the feeling, from both ends. I usually throw dinner parties and invite the folks who don't eat as well over. Not everyone can throw a dinner party, but if you can, hook em' up.

Meat is murder. A moral person would let the oysters live.

Drive to Wesport with your friends. You can stuff yourselves silly at Bardy's oysters for nothin. Really though if you are eating at a place that is too spendy for your friends, how "punk rock" are you? God I hate that term. Just fucking eat and enjoy it.

I moved here to eat motherfucking oysters, raw. Have become a food poisoning pro, good practice for the inevitable chemo. God, it's so good. Uwajimaya (challenge: finding the right oyster knife, which I have), the Westin (order the lichi cocktail with), and the happy hour at I *think* it's called the Waterfront. Never, always avoid the oyster platter at the Brooklyn which gave me and my closest friends serious food poisoning that hit just in time for my 30th birthday party, and then were less than gracious about it (they were assholes).
When you buy your oysters from Uwajimaya, get them as small as possible. Buy a glass platter from a secondhand store ($4). Spread lettuce leaves on the glass platter. Put a layer of ice cubes on the lettuce leaves. Carefully open a shitload of fresh oysters, leaving as much juice as possible in the shell, Arrange them on the ice layer. Let them chill. Garnish with slices of lemon, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and maybe some fresh dill for the visual--do not distract! The dill is not necessary. Eat slowly, in company. This is why we live here, sort of.

Damn.  I'm old, only sort of punk rock, and still have trouble with the steady job thing.

If I change, there's a better reward than oysters, right...?

Ha! Good one kinaidos. I love that scene.

Am I the only one that thinks oysters are disgusting? No offense to you Ari, it's a personal thing. I've eaten oysters with friends, really good oysters, according to them, and I still though they were disgusting. It's like sucking snot out of a rock to me.

Also, I don't think oysters are punk rock, they are more yacht-rock, if I had to give them a music genre.

Ari, did you get 'em?

"snot our of a rock"

YES, indeed, that is just about right. Nice snot tasting of his dick and the sea and moss - and a very good three hour come three times sex marathon.

Now do you all get it? And they are full of zinc and other minerals and known worldwide as an aphrodisiac. Maybe when he sees you eating them is becomes PERSONAL and slimy good in his mind.

Oysters are almost a fetish food in France, all Euro havens of good food. They would die for our quality local oysters, Parisian salty snot lovers.

Lake -- thats' great, that you're proud for having gone to college. Sounds like thats about all you've got going for yourself, so congrats.

Maybe you can go to grad school and learn some class.

@31

Let me guess. You DIDN'T.

*cue your smoldering hate for people who don't have to stand up on their feet for 8 hours a day selling things to people who partied their asses off for a piece of paper that provides them 'paper'*

Also, I don't mind eating alone at restaurants. Hell that's my favorite time and place to read the Stranger!

Eh who am I kidding. I never partied. I'm only being a jerk because I'm not this "punk rock" thing she mentions.

GodDAMNit! I didn't get a chance to read this until now, but suddenly - I WANT SOME GODDAMNED ERSTERS FOR BREAKFAST!

Is there anyplace on the Hill that does a decent Hangtown Fry?

NOPE, Lake, I didn't. In my line of work, you don't really need to (not service industry, thank you - not that there's anything wrong with that, you fucking snob!). You speak from your smoldering contempt for folks like me who do quite well, with no student loans to pay off. HA!

PS there's plenty of skill and artistry to be found in service type jobs too, you should respect that.

this is a perpetual problem in my life: the fact that i have a 9-5, steady paying (if not well paying) job while my friends work either at night waitressing or not at all. i get that we live in the laid back emerald city and all, but my only friends with careers are in their 30s. when i want to go to sitka for dinner, they want to go to ali baba. thank god there's cafe presse for the discrepancy.

Wow! quite a lot of snobbery around here. All this over some dinner. If I had friends and money I'd take them out or invite them over. Since I have neither, I don't have to worry about paying for anyone! And, if all anyone learns in college is snobbery, then they didn't learn much. And YES I am a college graduate, but it doesn't mean I am superior to other people.

Salty's has oyster shooters on happy hour for cheap. Flying fish has 25cent (or 50 cent) oysters on thursdays during happy hour...you can get em cheap

@31 and 37

I said that I was glad I went to college so that I can afford food like this.

I said that I was glad that I met my friends in college because they can afford food like this too.

WHERE'S THE SNOBBERY. Affording eats like this is the point of her fucking post.