Tonight's Specials: Fresh Oysters, Crab, and Locals

Best way to people watch in a small town or neighborhood? Eat dinner and hang around for a few drinks at a local bar. Make friends with the bartender, chat up the folks next to you. On the road without a DD, I haven't really taken advantage of the drinking much, but I can tell you that the money was otherwise well spent... on fresh local oysters on the half shell and in-season steamed Dungeness crab - perhaps the best reason to visit this region in the winter.

Arena Cove local (and only) bar: The Pier Chowderhouse and Tap Room

Fresh local oysters at The Pier Chowderhouse and Tap Room
Arena Cove (Point Arena)
Also, some New England-style clam chowder.

This joint was just down the hill in front of Wharf Master's Inn, and it was one of two places to grab food and the only place to grab a beer in the outlying townie neighborhood around the wharf of Point Arena. The service came from a young woman behind the bar; she was friendly, but hardly fast, didn't even mention that they had crab, but was happy to put in my order for 1/2 steamed crab when I saw someone down the bar cracking away at it. "It just came in off the wharf," she explained apologetically. So, I guess I was lucky. The oysters were also tasty, but I think I'm learning that I prefer East Coast oysters to the locals around here (mmm... bluepoints). The crab was, of course, incredibly tasty and worth all the effort of cracking and picking. The chowder? Only okay, in my opinion.

I sat at the bar, just a few chairs down the bar from all the locals who were consuming most of the bartender's time with stories, advice (her car was in the shop with major timing belt issues - a true saga, I assure you), and general entertainment. Old guys, younger guys - most probably had been out fishing that day. And then closest to me was a guy whom I did not meet, but turned out to be the docent at the Point Arena Lighthouse when I visited the next day. I recognized him right away, proved it by saying, "You had the Taco Tuesday special," and immediately realized that I sounded creepy. Justin (this guy), was very laid back and incredibly chill about the whole thing. I kinda wish I'd started a conversation with him at dinner.

Sonoma: Meritage Martini Oyster Bar & Grille

Whole steamed Dungeness crab fresh from the ocean to the restaurant's crab tank;
it was one of 2 left, and I felt kinda bad for the guy left behind without a buddy.

Just because a place is in Sonoma and it has a fancy, upscale bar kind of name does not mean that it's not a local bar. I came here for the seafood. Oysters, certainly, and crab if they had it on the menu (which they did). Because who doesn't want to eat fresh oysters and crab two nights in a row?

This place has some eclectic decor that is part Mexican, part martini bar, part local glass artistry, part Asian, part...? Who knows. There are apparently only two main bartenders, and they know all the locals, and tonight it was this incredibly friendly, always smiling Nepalese man named Nemo. I sat down, ordered the oyster sampler (3 each of 3 varieties), and perused the cocktail list. When I ordered the "Asian Persuasion" (a nice yuzu-based vodka drink involving lemongrass and ginger), the guys next to me stared and tried not to laugh. "What? I kinda gotta, right?" I teased them. We all chuckled and agreed. Turns out these guys run a radio show from a studio across the street, and they were popping over for a quick slurp of shellfish before heading back to play another set. One of them stayed for dinner, and we had a really nice chat about... oh, life, I suppose. I don't really remember.

On my other side, a middle-aged couple was having dinner and celebrating the wife's birthday in a very low-key fashion. They were speaking with the owner when another younger couple came in and were promptly greeted with, "Hey, I'm not talking to you!" From the owner. And local drama ensued. Right in the bar, right behind me. Apparently, the owner and this young woman had played a prank on a mutual friend, who found out that it was him, and he was mad because he assumed that this woman had tattled on him. She spent a serious few minutes debating with her companion as to whether they were going to just walk out and go somewhere else that night. Yeah, this is a local bar. They ended up staying and sitting next to me. She had the Wednesday night burger special with onion rings (which, sadly, I was too full to order - she said they were great. They looked great). Apparently the owner is doing a little market research for his not-yet-opened gourmet burger joint. Smart way to do it.

But back to the birthday couple. The man was seated right next to me and was very eager to chat from time to time about Wisconsin, about food and wine, and once they found out I was planning to hit up another local favorite (according to Yelp), they both became very excited and enthusiastically endorsed my choice. "Tell Kimberley that Laura and Chris say hello!" Really? Excellent. And you'll hear about this one too... in another post.

The best way to end the evening: The best flourless chocolate torte I've ever had. Except that they should not have put nuts in it... ruins the texture of those bites.
That's a tawny port reduction sauce under there, house-made vanilla gelato on top. 

And if this weren't enough, Nemo brought me an unsolicited (and complimentary) glass of the same 10-year old tawny that was in the sauce because "it will taste very good with the chocolate." Indeed. He actually recommended the torte as well, for which I am incredibly grateful. Finally, he gave me the oyster happy hour special (1/2 price!), even though I'd come in about 40 minutes after happy hour. And I gave him a great tip. Well played, Nemo. Well played. Another win-win.