Frisky Oyster Adds Lunch to Menu

Three years after purchasing The Frisky Oyster from the restaurant's founder, the owners of The Frisky Oyster have expanded beyond just the restaurant's dinner menu, now offering lunch on weekends to capture busy summer crowds out in Greenport Village.

After tossing the idea around since buying the restaurant in 2010, husband and wife co-owners Robby and Shannon Beaver dipped their toes in the water last year, offering a lunch menu last Memorial Day weekend for the Tall Ships event, as well as last year's Maritime Festival.

While the reception was well, the excess number of tourists in the village on those weekends made it hard to gauge what a normal summer weekend might be like. But once Superstorm Sandy hit at the end of last October – bringing along with it over five feet of water in the Frisky Oyster's basement, ruining supplies and equipment – the decision was kind of made up.

"Lunch was inevitable, but Sandy helped push us to do it this year," Shannon said.

Part of the challenge with offering lunch as well as dinner, Robby said, is the extra staff and work that comes along with it, requiring extra hours in a business that already takes a lot. Previous owner Dennis McDermott had offered lunch soon after opening, Beaver said, though after doing it for a month and a half, he said he would never offer it again. 

"But more work is better than no work," Robby said, adding that "each weekend has been better than the last" since doing it this year.

The Frisky Oyster started offering lunch the last weekend in June, and plans on running it through Labor Day. Doors open at noon and the lunch menu runs until 3 p.m., before a two-hour break allows staff to recharge their batteries for 5 p.m. dinner.

Items on the menu include the restaurant's popular oysters friskafella ($18), the frisky burger ($18), Widow's Hole oysters on the shell ($16), crispy calamari ($15), and more.