What’s the coolest oyster bar you’ve ever been to?
RJ: I like Elliott’s Oyster House [in Seattle] because the selection is great, they’re mostly local, and because you are on a pier looking out at Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Staggering. They also have a cool happy hour that begins at 3 p.m. with 50-cent oysters and goes up 20 cents every half hour. In New York I like Aquagrill because Jeremy, the owner, is obsessed with freshness. SD: What’s your view on the aphrodisiac properties of oysters: total baloney, true via the placebo effect, or absolutely accurate? Discuss. RJ: It seems to be true. The placebo effect is strong. But you do feel a little drugged after eating oysters. I don’t know why. SD: Is your wife an oyster fan? How about your son? RJ: Wife, yes; son, definitely not. I’ve gotten a few into his friends, but then again a few of those came back up. SD: Do most people who interview you try to slip in a reference to Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” which is all about oysters? Or am I just a bigger
