After 15 years of shucking oysters at pop-ups and private events across the Hudson Valley and beyond, Oyster Party is putting down roots. This November, co-owners Kyle Needham and Samuel Keller will open their first brick-and-mortar on Route 28, tucked behind Santa Fe Woodstock on the Hotel Dylan property, in the former Abandoned Hard Cider space.
“It’s a really small space,” Needham says. “It’s going to be very intimate. We want to use it as an incubator in terms of really bringing education to oysters—something that’s not happening anywhere, to be honest.” Inside, there’s room for about a dozen guests—just enough for a communal table, a few two-tops, and Oyster Party’s familiar neon sign casting a low glow. When the weather warms, the lawn outside will open for casual seating and cold drinks.
Needham, who grew up in New England, says the space mirrors the unfussy seafood shacks you’d see on Cape Cod or in Maine. Their smaller outpost at Backbar in Hudson—an eight-by-eight-foot shed—proved just how compact a kitchen could be while still serving pristine seafood.
At the new location, that simplicity takes on a more immersive feel. Guests can drop in for oysters, lobster rolls, and clam chowder, or opt for a more guided experience. “There will be an opportunity for a group of people to come and have a private tasting educational experience,” Needham says. “It’s not based around, ‘Hey, come take an oyster-shucking class.’ It’s more like, ‘Hey, come get very intimate with oysters.’”
That education might include exploring what Needham calls the “nuances” of bivalve flavor. “Oysters are very, very similar to wine,” he explains. “We call it merroir in the water—so do a lot of people—they’re very nuanced. Even oysters that grow very close to one another, if it’s a mile down the road, there are subtle differences. They pick up whatever algae, phytoplankton is in the water and the nutrients that they’re eating in the body of water itself. There’s so many factors: What’s the tide, the growing process, all these things matter when you taste the oyster.”
The menu will extend beyond oysters to lobster rolls, a rich and cozy clam chowder, lobster bisque, and caviar. Their popular po’boy is also likely to return. Beer, wine, and cider from local producers like West Kill Brewing, Rose Hill, and Hudson Valley Brewery will round out the offerings, though the space will open BYOB until their liquor license is finalized.
While the Woodstock location will become their home base, Oyster Party will continue its regular pop-ups at breweries, farms, and markets across the Hudson Valley, along with its raw bar catering for weddings and events. Their move from pop-ups to a fixed space reflects a wider trend among Hudson Valley food entrepreneurs turning mobile pop-up ventures into brick and mortar, a shift echoed by projects like Yummy Kitchen in Hudson, Oui Oui Cuisine in Beacon, and Las Camelias in Kingston.
For Needham and Keller, the new space feels like a natural next step after years on the road. “It just makes sense in our evolution right now,” Needham says. “What we hope for—our dream—is to be one of the great stops before you’re heading out to the Catskills. Obviously, for the people that live around the area, it can be this hub where it’s like, ‘Oh, have you ever been there? It’s amazing.’”
