It's time again for oysters

If the Louisiana oyster industry is looking for faces to promote its rebirth, Mark and Don Mistrot should warrant consideration.

The brothers pressed their barrel chests against the oyster bar at Bourbon House on Nov. 3 and made quick work of what shucker Michael Jackson estimated was a combined 18 dozen raw bivalves.

"We was born on the bayou. We love oysters," Mark commented afterward, wearing the unstrained expression of someone who'd just finished an afternoon tea. "We've been all over looking for them."

"We went to Fort Walton, Fla., looking for them," Don added. "These are the best oysters we've had in a long time."

Hurricane Katrina put oysters out of circulation for nearly two months -- an eternity for a product that, with the possible exception of crawfish, is more closely associated with south Louisiana than any other. For fans of local oysters, particularly raw on the half shell, the Mistrots' binge is an understandable response to their re-emergence and that of the oyster bars where they're served.

South Louisiana is a particularly provincial oyster region. Where restaurants on the East and West coasts treat oysters like wine, with menus of expensive, exotic-sounding bivalves from throughout the country and, in some cases, globe, Louisiana oyster bars are loyal to the indigenous species, the plump, juicy specimens scientists generally call Crassostrea virginica.

"If we don't have Louisiana oysters for a year, we will not serve Texas oysters," said Tommy Cvitanovich, an owner of Drago's, which should resume serving grilled and raw on-the-half-shell oysters next week. "We're going to wait for Louisiana oysters."

"They don't have the quality and plumpness of Louisiana oysters," said Acme Oyster House proprietor Michael Rodrigue of the Texas and Florida oysters his restaurants serve on rare occasions.

Rodrigue was among a group who traveled to Empire, the annihilated town that two months ago was the center of one of the most productive fishing communities in Louisiana, the nation's largest oyster producer.

"As you can see, it's a ripple effect," he said, gesturing to a nearby canal filled with upturned boats, submerged cars and the Petrovich Hardware store, which had landed in the water after being torn from its original foundation across the street.

"You don't have the docks, the ice people. The fishermen can't go out because they don't have boats -- or they can't fill up their boats with gas."

Against these odds, the first oyster harvest areas in the state reopened Oct. 24. Soon thereafter Bourbon House, Desire Oyster Bar, Cooter Brown's and the Acme Oyster Houses in Metairie and Covington resumed serving them on the half shell.

Raw Louisiana oysters will become even more prevalent in the coming days. Casamento's is scheduled to reopen this week. Not far away on Prytania Street, a brand new Felix's Oyster Bar plans to serve its first dozen Tuesday.

Drago's, Red Fish Grill and Harbor Seafood and Oyster Bar, all of which have been open for some time, are scheduled to resume oyster service this week as well. Cvitanovich said Drago's would have begun sooner but for a shortage of oyster shuckers (see related story). Oyster service has been on ice all over town for the same reason.

"Right now we're a little short on kitchen staff and shuckers," said Josh LeBlanc, a Harbor bartender. The restaurant will resume serving oysters this weekend, but until staffing levels return to normal, raw on-the-half-shell oysters will be a Thursday to Saturday specialty.

La Côte Brasserie chef Chuck Subra hopes to have his raw bar open next week, even if it, too, is a weekend-only feature. Lack of staffing is holding back the chef, along with high ambition: Subra doesn't intend to offer raw Louisiana oysters unless he can also offer plateaux de fruits de mer, the iced seafood platters that are a signature at the French-influenced restaurant. This requires getting a steady line on, among other things, lobsters and non-local oysters as well.

"We want to be able to do everything if we do it at all," he said.

The original Acme and Felix's in the Quarter remain closed due to storm damage. At press time, Bozo's, Shell-Shucked, Remoulade and the Half-Shell also remained shuttered. But the cloud hanging over the soon-to-reopen Casamento's is certainly the darkest: 80-year-old Joseph Gerdes, the eldest of the family members who own the restaurant, died the night Katrina hit New Orleans, said his nephew, C.J. Gerdes. (See Katrina: Lives Lost in today's Living section.)

C.J. promised nothing will change at the restaurant. "It's going to be exactly the same," he said.

According to the state Department of Health and Hospitals, 192 individual water samples were analyzed before oyster harvest areas were reopened in Plaquemines Parish. Some people still have reservations, perhaps understandably so. Even before the storm, restaurants serving raw oysters were required to post written warnings about the health risks associated with their consumption.

Quelling fears is one reason Sal Sunseri, co-owner of P & J Oyster Co., could be found behind the oyster bar at Bourbon House last week.

"We figure if anyone has concerns, no one knows more about oysters than Sal Sunseri," said Dickie Brennan, Bourbon House's owner.

The oysters Sunseri shucked alongside Jackson were cold, creamy and delicious, not unlike the Louisiana oysters I slurped down a few evenings later at Cooter Brown's.

"The integrity of our business is too strong to fool with" serving unsafe products, Sunseri said.

None of the state's oyster harvest areas is currently closed for health reasons, said John Roussel, assistant secretary of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Sunseri explained that currents of clean water, helped along by strong winds, have helped purify much of Louisiana's oyster supply.

On Nov. 3, not many people were asking. Certainly not the Mistrot brothers, who were hardly fazed by their oyster binge.

As they got up to leave, they said they were going to find someplace to have dinner.