Oysters and Much More at Joe’s in Venice

Chef Joe Miller & Maître Ecailler Christophe Happillon at Joe's restaurant

After nearly twenty successful years, Joe’s restaurant in Venice can certainly be considered a Los Angeles classic. As we’ve have been saying for a long time, chef Joe Miller and his team, chef de cuisine Kristopher Tominaga and sous-chef Phil Pretty, are especially adept in preparing seafood dishes.

But some of the ocean’s pleasures need no cooking. Every Friday night, Maître Écailler Christophe Happillon takes over part of the bar to open oysters for appreciative patrons ($17 for 6, $30 for 12). Happillon brings three different kinds, usually Carlsbad Lunas, British Columbia Fanny Bay and Baja California Endless Summer. He is an expert in explaining the differences between the types served.

The talented kitchen does prepare mignonette and cocktail sauce to season the oysters, but Happillon’s offerings are so fresh and tasty that I recommend that you eat them unadorned.

Chef Joe Miller from Joe’s & Bar Pintxo

Bisquits & pork belly with foie gras and truffle gravy

Home-made charcuterie, from the bar menu

Maître Écailler Christophe Happillon

Citrus vanilla sugar doughnut with coffee ice cream

Crisp black cod with shitake mushrooms, mizuna lettuce, braised oxtail and dashi broth

Peppered New York steak

Shucking an oyster

Oyster on the half shell

The oysters at your table

Pomegranate panacotta in citrus soup

Porcini mushroom ravioli with wild mushrooms, parmesan broth and Italian parsley

Christophe Happillon getting the oyster table ready

Prime pork tenderloin crepinette with wild mushrooms, roasted garlic, potato purée and roasted garlic jus

Slow roasted Tasmanian salmon with hedgehog mushrooms, pearl onions and smoked white bean puree

Pan-seared day boat scallops with honey date purée, quinoa, bacon tuile, frisee & radish salad and Sangiovese gastrique