401 Oyster Company brings fresh seafood to dinner plates daily

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CHARLESTOWN, R.I. (WLNE) — The Ocean State is well known for the array of seafood it offers locals and tourists alike.

The state is home to many businesses who have made it their mission to get the best seafood from the ocean to dinner plates daily, sometimes in just a matter of hours.

The small team at 401 Oyster Company, which opened last year, is just one such business.

The company raises oysters on a nine-acre farm in Charlestown on the north side of East Beach.

“Over the course of the oysters life on the farm, you might handle each one 10 times in different stages,” c0-owner Brian Pinsky said. “So, I think a lot of people don’t see the process and don’t realize how labor-intensive it is to get them to a two-year-old oyster that’s on your plate at the raw bar.”

Five days a week, year-round, Pinsky and his small team pick, sort, and place the oysters according to size, every year putting some one million of the shellfish back into the water.

“Everything we’re putting out is top quality,” he said. “What we’re selling is harvested and goes to a restaurant the same day and is sold to people that night.”

Oysters help filter water and what they eat determines how quickly they grow, their shell strength, and their flavor.

“Their taste kind of fluctuates based on where they’re grown and how they’re grown,” Pinsky said. “They’re pumping the water that’s in the pond or wherever you’re growing them and whatever minerals and food is present, that’s being incorporated into the flavor when you eat them.”