Shuck Grand Opening – Shucking Finally!

Hello friends and family!  I know it has been quite some time since I have blogged about anything at all, but it was pretty much because we were anxious about getting everything ready (stressed, depressed, and embarassed for our delays).  Alas, the time has finally come!

Though we are not firing on all cyclinders quite yet, we are now officially open to the public daily from 11 AM PST to 9 PM PST.  To celebrate, we will be pouring down free bubbly for everyone from 6 PM PST – Close today and tomorrow!  As we are still in the process of obtaining our beer and wine license, which should be arriving in the next few weeks, this event will be BYOL.  Please share ha ha.  Big ups go to Anne Watson for some rad photos and Bobby Navarro for all your help.  We hope to see all of you over the next couple of nights to help us kick things off!

Smoochies,
Leonard & Noah

Down and Dirty

In the Trenches

We have been busy getting down and dirty already at Shuck, unfortunately not slurping down more oysters just yet.  In the past couple of weeks, we have seen a lot of progress for our build out.  We have just about finished all of the plumbing and framing:

Piped and Plumbed

Framing the Walls

Construstion is just about done for our ceiling design!  It’s been all laid out and ready for drywall:

Soffit

Alllllmost

This is just a quick little post to whet your collective appetite!  We are doing our best to kick everything up a notch, as we are just as anxious as everyone else to get this baby running as soon as possible.  Noah is arranging for some oyster tastings next week, so whoever is interested, let us know!  It never hurts to get a few other mouths in the Mix (see what I did there?).

Smoochies,
Leonard and Noah

We’ve Been Double Dipped!

SOCO Courtyard

I’m also double dipping on both The Iron Press’ and Shuck’ respective blogs, tee hee! So, it looks like The Iron Press and Shuck were both mentioned within the OC Register ecosystem, but under different sections and journalists. Check out the full articles here:

From Fast Food Maven by Nancy Luna – Costa Mesa center launching waffles & beer shop:
http://fastfood.ocregister.com/2012/03/22/south-coast-collection-oc-mart-mix-restaurant-openings-iron-pressood-shops/152067/

From OC Retail by Hang Nguyen – Haven’t been to SOCO? It’s time to visit:
http://retail.ocregister.com/2012/03/23/havent-been-to-soco-its-time-to-visit/70484/

Hopefully we can keep the steam going and continue to spread the word!

Just a little note: Arc is Noah’s cute little cuddly baby, I’m just a wee little cog in the machine on that one. Shuck is, according to Noah, our bastard child together.

Smoochies,
Leonard and Noah

Naked Shucking

Naked Cowboy Rep

Hello there! So recently, we got the ball rolling on some oyster tastings. The first on our list was from our friends over at The Naked Cowboy. Yes, you read that correctly.  If the name rings a bell, perhaps you have seen The Naked Cowboy performing in Times Square over in the Big Apple.  If you’re curious, a quick search on El Goog and YouTube will satisfy your thist.  So what does a musical performer have to do with oysters you ask? We were wondering the exact same thing, but we found out the dude, Robert Burck, actually has his hands in a few different businesses.  Luckily for us, as we discovered, he’s slinging some deliciously fresh oysters – most of which are out of the water only 2 days before we get them!

First Oyster

Along with the eight (8) plus oysters we will be carrying at all times, we are also planning on carrying mussels and clams:

Clams

This was a great start, as we plan on carrying some of their oysters, but this is just the beginning!  We are lining up some more tastings these next few weeks (anybody want to guinea pig with us?) to ensure that we have a nice revolving selection of fresh little suckers year round.  With that, I will leave you with one last picture of Noah and I messing around with our first batch:

Noah and Me

Smoochies,
Leonard and Noah

Shuck in the Haus!

Shuck by Haus

There you have it, our newly minted logo!  Our good friends Marshall and Ruba, have combined their super powers to form haus, a swanky new design team.  This dynamic duo is the talent behind our branding over at The Iron Press.  They have also done some super clean design work for Jaime (if you recall, he is the guy who is juuuuuuust about finished building out The Iron Press).  We have been dabbling around with some t-shirt ideas already and all seem to like this distressed look:

Possible Tee?

What do you guys think?  Regardless, if you have any taste at all (which you must because you are reading this blog *ahem*) pop over to their site and check out all the goodness going on : www.designbyhaus.com.  I can not say enough good things about the experience we have had working with them.  Anyone who has crossed paths with me knows how completely OCD I get with things, needless to say, Marshall and Ruba both have the collective patience of a saint!

Anyhoo, we are working on a cool emblem for the bar, once we have that guy nailed down, I will toss up an image for you guys to take a gander at.

Smoochies,
Leonard and Noah

Shuck You You Shucking Shuck

Hi.

So, you probably know Noah Blom if you have ever stepped foot in Mesa Lounge.  You may know that he has bounced from coast to coast honing his culinary skills.  You may not know that he is working on an intriguing wood-fired french crank oven concept over in the South Coast Collection (otherwise known as SOCO) in Costa Mesa.

You probably know me if you have ever peeped into California Shabu Shabu in Costa Mesa.  You may know that I was in the information technology world (dungeon) for thirteen (13) years before committing to help launch Orange County as a culinary destination.  You may not know that I am on the cusp of opening our doors to the public for The Iron Press (think local beer and meats paired up with fresh in your face waffles) over in SOCO.

What you may not know, but we would like to let you in on, is that Noah and I are collaboratively plopping down an oyster bar at the OC Mart Mix smack in the middle of, yes you guessed it, SOCO.  Say Hello to our little friend, Shuck!

Just to give you guys a little insight on how long the process of coming up with these projects take, this is how things went down a few months ago:

*Two (2) glasses of Jameson between Noah and I*
Noah : “What is missing in Orange County, culinary wise?”
Me : “Good oysters.  Maybe better tapas, but oysters for sure.  What kind of food do you miss that you can’t get here?”
Noah : “Same.  Oysters.  Want to open an oyster bar?”
Me : “Uhhh, yeah!”

‘Nuff said.

Smoochies,
Leonard & Noah