Great Conversation Piece

About 5 years ago, a friend called me and said that he had a bunch of oysters left over from an oyster roast, and asked if I wanted them. They hadn't been cooked yet, so it was just what I needed to instigate my own oyster roast.

I was new to the whole oyster thing, but I had been to enough oyster roasts, and watched how it was done. I figured that I could do this too. All I needed were a couple of key pieces of furniture. I needed an oyster table and a sheet of steel to cook them on. The steel was just a phone call away, and I had it the next day. The oyster table is where I focused my simple mind. 

I had some scraps of wood in the garage, so I started by making some legs that were a good height for standing up and getting good leverage. Then I cut a piece of plywood to put on the leg set and cut a hole in the middle for the shells to go through into the trash can. This didn't seem like rocket science to me, and it only took me about an hour to slap it together.

Here's the funny part... After using that table for 5 years and taking it to many an oyster roast, it has become quite a celebrity in my circle of friends. It has conversation appeal. It is not a work of aesthetic art by any means, but it does seem to have functional and conversational appeal. That little scrap of a table has become part of the community, and now it is starting to break down. It is time to start over and see if I can improve on the original design. I will update this post with some pictures when I get going on it.


If you find yourself needing a table to get messy on with your oysters, you should comment on this post so I know that you are out there. If I know that someone needs the table plans or instructional video posted, I might really get motivated to get it done. Otherwise, you will just have to get creative and throw a sheet of plywood on some barrels or maybe even put some legs on the sheet. I hope to post more oyster table ideas soon.