Eventide Oyster Co.

This restaurant in the Old Port district specializes in Maine oysters, including Winter Point Selects, a variety raised by the renowned harvester John Hennessey, in West Bath. “The Winter Points are about an inch and a half in size and have a very clean, bright and briny taste,” says Eventide co-owner Arlin Smith. “A smaller oyster is special because it has amazing salinity.” Hennessey also provides the restaurant with big, meaty seven- to 10-year-old oysters, which chefs Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley roast in a thick, Korean-style barbecue sauce. The caramelized oysters are served in their shells, topped with coleslaw, crispy fried potato strings and a drizzle of chile oil.

New England Region Winners Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley. Why they're amazing: Their restaurant combones the best of old-school Maine oyster bars with updates like cleverly flavored sauces (kimchi ice) and fried oysters served in steam buns, Korean style. Culinary School: Both are self-taught. Background: Taylor - Daniel's Broiler, Rover's (Seattle), Clio (Boston), Hugo's (Portland, ME). Wiley - Elk Creek Lodge (Meeker, CO), Black Cat (Boulder, CO), Hugo's (Portland, ME)...

Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland hasn’t even been open for a year — it started business the last week of June 2012 — but the Old Port seafood restaurant has already accumulated a wealth of accolades. It has been busy since Day 1. The Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe praised its unique take on the traditional raw bar. And just this week, chefs Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley won the People’s Best New Chef New England award from Food & Wine Magazine, a distinction voted on by readers.

Food & Wine magazine runs the annual contest, which allows the public to vote for one of 100 outstanding chefs from 10 different regions. Chefs Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley of Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland are in the running for the title "The People's Best New Chef". The nominees are allowed to campaign for votes, and the Eventide group is taking the challenge seriously - kind of. They produced a humorous, professionally done  video for their website, with a link that goes to the contest's voting page. 

Every year, Food & WIne editor in chief Dana Cowin tastes her way through the most exciting restaurants in the country. Here, her favorite stops of 2012. 

Since opening this summer, this bright, inviting spot has quickly established itself as the pearl of Portland's Old Port. Grab a seat at the bar hewn from cement and Maine granite, nosh on house-made pickles and a cup of chowder, and browse the selection of oysters arrayed on crushed ice: 18 enticing varieties, nine from Maine and nine "from away." Don't neglect the top-notch cocktails, like the surprising and simple celery gimlet.

Kitchens here were once flush with emblematic dishes — chowder, baked beans, fried whole belly clams — elemental foods prepared for generations in the same way. Not anymore. These days a trip along the coast in search of real cooking is too often met with overcooked lobsters, fries from the freezer, and chowder as thick as mashed potatoes. But times are changing. At Eventide, a new oyster bar in the Old Port here, the good Maine food is once again made from scratch.

Eventide Oyster Co. is impressive for its variety of oysters and clever oyster accoutrements, as well as the carefully prepared non-oyster menu items. The Eventide oyster bar concept is as cool as the team of owners, and I recommend this restaurant for any oyster lover seeking a step left of ordinary. The price point skews a little high, but so does the quality.

The new owners of Hugo's knew what they were doing when they opened this sibling oyster bar next door. There they offer a daily list of more than a dozen raw oysters from Maine and beyond, as well as a smartly edited menu of seafood standbys like New England clam chowder with salt pork; lobster rolls dressed with hollandaise, house mayo, or brown butter vinaigrette; and crudi.

Highlights: Raw oysters with accoutrements like Tabasco ice or tomato water; special of cucumber-cured Arctic char with melon, mint, and kasha

It's a personal rule to not review a place that hasn't been open long. In fact, it's a pet peeve of mine. Any restaurant, regardless of who is in the kitchen or running the front of the house, always goes through some growing pains. So, I'll tend to back off reviewing them until they've had time to the expected bumps worked out.

Dark, serious Hugo's is all about exquisitely prepared food, plated with precision. Its brand new sibling just next door, however, is bright and bold, with a great granite trough of oysters as its centerpiece and a rustic, casual menu. Owners Andrew Taylor, Arlin Smith and Michael Wiley say they had the concept for Eventide Oyster Company in mind when they bought Hugo's in May from Rob Evans.

EVENTIDE OYSTER CO. at 86 Middle Street is expected to open in a few weeks. It's run by the new owners of Hugo's (next door at 88 Middle), general manager Arlin Smith and chefs Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley. (Come see me waiting tables at both places!) The oyster bar will feature options from Maine, New England, and the West Coast as well as chowders, lobster rolls, and desserts.

A new restaurant, Eventide Oyster Co., at 86 Middle St. in Portland, is expected to open mid-June. The 25-seat restaurant occupies the former Rabelais bookstore, and will offer diners cooked and raw seafood, chowders, lobster rolls and local beer. Eventide is owned by the new owners of Hugo's restaurant: general manager Arlin Smith and chefs Andrew Taylor and Michael Wiley.

This trio is already looking beyond the confines of Hugo's with another restaurant in the works. It will be a venture called Eventide, which is revving up in the newly vacated Rabelais books store space next door. Essentially it's an oyster bar, and as Arlin Smith pointed out, "Most people don’t realize that Maine has some really great local oysters."

The new owners have also laid groundwork on a new venture, the Eventide Oyster Company, which is being built next door. It will be, as Taylor describes, a “New England-style sushi bar,” with local raw seafood prepared on the line in front of bar patrons.

The biggest change will be the addition of an oyster bar next door, at 86 Middle St., the former location of Rabelais, the culinary bookstore that moved to Biddeford recently.