Gulf Crisis Update

Bummer.

I would like to give a special shout-out to our friends at British Petroleum for crashing our Oyster Tuesday party. For years we have rocked months without "r's" and rolled through over eight hundred thousand oysters from over 13 different "mer-riors," with nary a hitch. The time of year has not mattered, the region has never given us pause. We were here to shuck oysters. We were born for it. We threw festivals to commemorate the bivalve, we threw deals around willy-nilly. Nothing could stop us.

And then along came Jones... Guess who is crashing the party (once again)? We solemnly regret to inform that, in spite of my previous post, we will be forced to increase the price of the Gulf oyster due to the current issue in the Gulf. This will affect our Tuesday special. Please don't start hoarding your canned goods and bottled water just yet -- there is a light at the end of the tunnel. At the moment, we are able to provide Gulf oysters at $1.50 per and at 5.50/9.50 on Oyster Tuesday.

And remember to keep our Gulf fishermen in your hearts and thoughts throughout these trying times. As hard as this experience has been on us, it is nearly insurmountable for many of them. This century has been very unkind to Gulf fishermen, and it is unlikely to get any better.

EFFECTS OF THE OIL SPILL IN THE GULF AND OUR SEAFOOD

Lately, we have been fielding a lot of questions concerning how the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico affects our seafood supply. We are grateful for everyone's concerns and for the opportunity to address this issue.

First and foremost, it should be noted that blu seafood and bar sources its seafood locally whenever possible. While we like to treat our guests with fresh-caught fish from exotic locations such as the Hawaiian Islands when possible, a great majority of our fish comes from the Eastern seaboard. The North Carolina coast has a wonderful bounty of seafood all year long and we enjoy bringing our guests as much as we can from these waters. At the moment, all of the oil has been contained in the Gulf, and no one is anticipating our waters being affected.

However, one of our most popular menu items is oysters, and we sell hundreds of Gulf oysters per day. The Gulf of Mexico supplies nearly 67% of our nation's oysters, and Louisiana provides a large percentage of them. Our primary seafood distributor -- Inland Seafood -- expertly deals
with oyster farms and, as one is shut down due to this calamity, they are sourced from another one. Every oyster farmer out there knows to pull their beds before there is even the slightest chance of danger, so there really is no chance of shucking a 30 weight oyster... never you fear. However, this eventually should affect the market's supply.

In the meantime, we continue to provide Gulf oysters while we can, but have plenty of oysters from cooler climes. Expect to see lots of Chesapeake and Canadian (and even a few gigas from the West Coast when possible) throughout the summer, and hopefully we will be spared from the effects of this tragedy.

But we should keep in our minds those who are not so lucky. There are many families that are dependent on the bounties of the sea who will be devastated by this. We can only hope that there are people out there who are put into position to make sure this never happens again, and who are able to 'fight the real enemy.'