Sons of New England
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN • CEO • Island Creek Oysters
WORK • Friday Routine
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN • CEO • Island Creek Oysters
Places you work: Mass., Portland ME, & NYC facility in Bushwick
Place you live: Duxbury, MA
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Under the Island Creek umbrella, we run a few different businesses: oyster farms (naturally), a nationwide fresh seafood distribution business, a tinned fish cannery, a caviar packing facility, an online direct-to-consumer hustle, and a restaurant group. It’s spread across three different states, so every day is vastly different. I’m deep in the weeds with almost all of it, so, like a kid with his toys, Fridays are my day to clean up the mess I’ve made in the first four days of the week. I cook breakfast for my four kids every morning. (I think they consume more smoked salmon than any children in North America — time will tell if this is a good thing.)
I do the two-minute trip to our Duxbury HQ and start my Friday morning meeting with Island Creek’s founder, Skip Bennett. From there, I try to get up and about and get my eyes on some of our product, checking in with the farm crew in the shop. Yes, I do get to eat a lot of oysters and caviar for work, but it is almost always early in the morning standing over a stainless steel table in a walk-in refrigerator, so it’s not as glamorous as it sounds. And, we actually have to taste through a lot of bad samples to find the good producers.
At the end of the day, I can almost always find Skip, some of our farm team, and a cadre of local regulars at the bar to start the weekend with a drink or three.
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
Over the weekend, I usually have a meal at The Winsor House, which is at our oyster farm. It’s an upscale fish house in a 19th-century ship captain’s mansion — and a bit of a passion project.
As far as NYC goes, I spent years living a double life, going back and forth to the city, getting our Bushwick facility off the ground and selling to chefs. I rented a room in the basement of the Malinowskis (who run Fishers Island Oysters and Billion Oyster Project) in Clinton Hill, heady times. I still harbor a deep love for eating in New York, especially at the iconic restaurants that have bought from us for years: Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe; Balthazar and Minetta Tavern; Dirty French; Cafe Lux and The Odeon; Via Carota; Cote and now Cocodaq; Estella; and (when I’m lucky) Per Se or Le Bernardin. In Fort Greene, Strange Delight is a new one I need to get in to see. Shoutout to Pamela at Le Gigot too! She’s maybe the most fascinating personality in an NYC kitchen.
Any weekend getaways?
Most winter weekends, we’re in Warren, VT. There’s no shortage of New Yorkers there, but for the four or five of you who haven’t been, I can’t say enough about what a cornucopia of incredible food and beverage that area of Vermont is. From Hen of the Wood to Mad Taco (in the Waitsfield strip mall next to Mehuron’s grocery store), it’s almost too good to be true.
The same can be said of midcoast Maine where we used to live and still spend a lot of time in the summer. Aragosta has put Deer Isle on the food tourism map (rightly so), but there are so many other great ways to eat on and around Penobscot Bay. We also have a little restaurant called The Shop in Portland, which is admittedly my favorite in our group, so stop there on your way up.
What was your last great vacation?
I travel a fair amount overseas for my job, and I want my kids to know New England’s charms as intimately as I do, so we keep things somewhat local. We do our vacations in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec these days, skiing, sailing, fishing, and backpacking. A true vacation for me is being deep in the woods or way out at sea, more than it is staying at a fancy resort or hotel.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I have a wooden sailboat that I’m in love with... but which is also a special kind of money pit, which I love less.
What store or service do you love to recommend?
Here’s a paradox for you: my two favorite stores are Best Made and Harbor Freight.