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Food

One of the Bay Area’s Best Oyster Shacks Is Reopening in Oakland

Luke Tsai
The Salty Pearl debuts in Oakland this weekend.
A tray of raw oysters on the half shell and a basket of fried shrimp on a picnic table.
Eating oysters outdoors at Rocky Island Oyster Co. was a quintessential Richmond waterfront experience. The restaurant has reopened as The Salty Pearl, in Oakland's Jack London neighborhood. (Luke Tsai/KQED)

During its brief heyday on the Richmond waterfront, Rocky Island Oyster Co. offered one of the most gorgeous outdoor dining experiences in the entire Bay. You’d sit outside at a picnic table slurping up a big tray of bracingly briny Massachusetts oysters, with a picture-perfect panoramic view of the Bay in front of you and a string of twinkle lights casting their little spell overhead.

It was, as they say, a whole vibe.

And, unfortunately, it turned out to be short-lived, when Rocky Island and all of the other restaurants that shared the Craneway Pavilion’s food hall were pushed out last summer in favor of a 45,000-foot private pickleball club with an attached restaurant claiming to offer a more “elevated dining experience.” (Now, the future of said pickleball club is up in the air, after the city of Richmond rejected its Orange County-based developer’s plans for being insufficiently beneficial to the general public.)

“It was pretty dark for a little while,” Rocky Island owner Danny Pirello says about suddenly being forced to close up shop.

The good news is that it didn’t take Pirello too long to find a new home for his business. This weekend, his new restaurant, The Salty Pearl, will open in Oakland, just a block away from the Jack London waterfront in a space that Pirello and his team will sublease from a longtime vegan catering company.

Seafood crudo topped with capers and red onions, served in a shallow white bowl.
The Italian-style fish crudo at Rocky Island — now The Salty Dog — is a knockout. (Luke Tsai/KQED)

The menu will be largely the same as Rocky Island’s. The oysters — mostly varieties that Pirello ships in overnight from New England, where he grew up — and the stunning, Swan Oyster Depot–inspired fish crudo are the headliners. There won’t be fish and chips until the restaurant installs a deep fryer, and in the meantime Pirello has added a burger, clams casino and a couple of additional salads.

For now, most of the seating is indoors, but by the summertime, when the weather gets nicer, he hopes to set up seven or eight tables outside.

As Pirello puts it, “We want The Salty Pearl to be a cute date spot version of what we were doing at Rocky Island.”

A big tray of oysters, crudo, and shrimp cocktail.
Like Rocky Island before it, The Salty Dog will specialize in abundant trays of fresh seafood. (Luke Tsai/KQED)

In many ways, however, Pirello’s heart is still in Richmond, where his dream of bringing a New England–style oyster shack to the East Bay first came to fruition. It was amazing, he says, to have the local community so wholeheartedly embrace that vision, even if the restaurant was only able to stay open for a year and a half. As a result, Pirello says he’s committed to doing whatever it takes to open a new iteration of Rocky Island in Richmond someday down the road.

Meanwhile, Rich City oyster lovers haven’t been left entirely in the lurch: Not long after the restaurant closed, Pirello started operating Rocky Island as a weekend food truck pop-up at Windchaser Wine Co., just a little further down the Richmond waterfront, with live music and dollar oyster specials. Those pop-ups will start up again on Sundays in March.

“It’s become this cool Richmond hang,” Pirello says.

The Salty Pearl’s grand opening will be held on Friday, Jan. 12, 4–9 p.m., and Saturday, Jan. 13, 5–9 p.m. Moving forward the restaurant will be open at 550 2nd St. in Oakland Thursdays and Fridays, 4–9 p.m., and Saturdays from 5–9 p.m.

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