Franck Leclerc, owner of Café Claude and Gitane (and a Frenchman through and through), doesn’t have oysters on either of his menus, even though he’s obsessed with them. Instead, he prefers to slurp down a dozen after work at one of his neighborhood haunts.
“I don’t have a kitchen—literally, I took it out. My fridge is full of glassware, and my oven holds shoes. So I eat out a lot, and I often order oysters. I’ll go to Bar Crudo or Slanted Door for a dozen—or, every once a while, Nick’s Cove. I like the small ones, like Sweetwaters and Kumamotos. I’m not a fan of big oysters, because I think they have a weird texture. To tell if an oyster is fresh, squeeze lemon on it. If it retracts from the acid, you know it was just shucked. You don’t want to eat an oyster that’s been sitting around. They should be served ice-cold, they shouldn’t be gritty and I think they’re best with simple Champagne mignonette. And as for their purported aphrodisiac properties? Let’s just say I’ve had better results with Ketel One than with oysters.”
Bar Crudo, 655 Divisadero Street, 415-956-0396
Slanted Door, Ferry Building Marketplace, 415-861-8032
Check out our other gallery of Obsessed Food people here.
